+ Best Home Invasion Thriller of the Year
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| Naomi Watts has been in better shape (but also worse, in a few cases) than on this confrontational, unsettling poster for Michael Haneke's Funny Games |
A harmonic married couple are sought out in their idyllic summerhouse by two young men, who torment them and their young son as a part of their 'funny games'.
Funny Games is written and directed by great German filmmaker Michael Haneke (Hidden/Caché (2005)) and is a shot-by-shot remake of his impactful original Funny Games (1997), which was made in Austria.
This US replication of the unforgettable work has only altered very little from the scenario. The original film for some reason has a stronger impact, I find, because the couple are German-speaking, and the language comes out a bit quicker and more naturally. That aside the new Funny Games is a successful remake, and it is a testament to Haneke's almost insane artistic consequence that he recreates his most creep-out unpleasant film this meticulously.
Funny Games gives us violence-desensitized audiences a sobering slap across the face. The new ensemble of actors all perform well; Naomi Watts (Chuck (2016)) again shows her talent for portraying awfully afflicted females (as seen also in great film such as Mulholland Dr. (1999), 21 Grams (2003) and The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012).)
Related posts:
Michael Haneke: 2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Amour (2012) - Tender love, unseizing death in Haneke's pictures
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller
Watch a trailer for the film with Spanish subtitles here
Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 7.9 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.52 times its cost)
[Funny Games premiered 20 October (London Film Festival, UK) and runs 111 minutes. Haneke has said that he wanted to make the original film in the US, but was not practically able to at the time. Instead the set from the 1997 film was meticulously recreated for the new film. Shooting took place in New York in and around September 2006. The film opened #21 to a 544k $ first weekend in 286 theaters in North America, where it added two more cinemas in its 2nd week but only lessened in rank, grossing 1.2 mil. $ (15.2 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was Italy with 2.1 mil. $ (26.6 %); North America was the 2nd biggest, and France was the 3rd biggest with 1 mil. $ (12.7 %). Haneke returned with The White Ribbon/Das Weiße Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009). Watts returned in The International (2009), Tim Roth (The Con Is On (2018)) in Virgin Territory (2007), and Michael Pitt (Criminal Activities (2015)) in 4 video, TV and a bit part credits before he reclaimed the major screen again in Seven Psychopaths (2012). Funny Games is rotten at 51 % with a 5.64/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Funny Games?
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