Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience

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+ Best Home Invasion Thriller of the Year

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?

The Raid: Redemption/The Raid/Serbuan Maut (2011) or, The Indonesian Ass-Kicker!

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+ Most Violent Movie of the Year

A towering high-rise looms ominously on this poster for Gareth Evans' The Raid: Redemption

An Indonesian S.W.A.T.-like team drive to an infamous high-rise building that houses crooks more or less from bottom to top, including a drug lab. Their target is the ruthless boss of the building, who is in there somewhere.

 
The Raid: Redemption is written, directed and edited by Gareth Evans (Footsteps (2006)). The original Indonesian title translates to 'the deadly raid'.

This is a very violent film; throats are cut, heads are shot open, people are blasted to bits and smashed repeatedly into walls time and time again. The specialist group initially try to enter the building stealthily, but they are found out early on. Later on, as the group gets heavily decimated, the reason for being there in the first place and the identity of one of the thug leaders bring a bit of doubt and drama into the gnarly situation.
The Raid: Redemption is packed with some pretty inventive and cool action sequences, and its electro score by Mike Shinoda (of hard rock band Linkin Park) and Joseph Trapanese (Happily (2021)) only heightens the kick of adrenaline and male hormones that are already so prevalent in the air around this flick. (The original version has a separate score.) The fight scenes are incredibly choreographed and carried out, and they are the film's main selling point.
The problems with it as I see it are these:
1. The lead played by Iko Uwais (Man of Tai Chi (2013)) is a very flat character. We know about him that he works out at home and that his wife is pregnant. And that's about it. Charisma or humor are not qualities that Evans' lends him. Which is a shame. - One reason that Die Hard (1988) is among the best films in the straight action survival genre ever, is that the protagonist John McClane is such a charismatic, humorous character, - and a tough son of a bitch.
2. The Asian action tradition: While realism is obviously sought after and largely achieved for a good part of the film's beginning, it gets ridiculously unbelievable at some point, as, conveniently, the bad guys run out of guns and ammunition exactly at the same time as the good guys. And the fighting goes on and on without our leads suffering any serious injuries after falling from great heights and taking dozens and dozens of really hard kicks and punches, stabs etc. Also, everyone screams like maniacs when they attack, like in a good old Bruce Lee movie, but The Raid: Redemption just doesn't have any of the humor that adorns those treasured films, and this element also works to ruin the element of realism and dull the senses considerably. (At least mine.)
These are my two main problems with The Raid: Redemption. Many have criticized its lack of character development, but I don't see this as a problem in an action film. I think the plot may have gotten some more meat to it, if some women and/or children had been introduced. Some victims or hostages. The bad guys then get opportunities to look even worse, and the suspense can be heightened. It is a very simple ingredient. But it isn't used here: We stay with the men, fighting each other like crazies.
The Raid: Redemption is certainly an extremely explosive martial arts action film, but as a whole, a bit flat.

 

Related post:

 

Gareth Evans: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.1 mil. $
Box office: At least 9.2 mil. $ - could be as high as 16.5 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned at least 8.36 times its cost)

[The Raid: Redemption premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place in Jakarta, Indonesia. The film opened #26 to a 213k $ first weekend in 14 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 881 theaters, grossing 4.1 mil. $ (44.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.6 mil. $ (17.4 %) and France with 1.2 mil. $ (13 %). However the film's home market Indonesia is missing on both its Box Office Mojo and The-numbers site. Reportedly the film sold 1.8 mil. tickets there; if the average ticket prize (Western) of 2012 is slashed in half for the sake of likely coming closer to the norm in Indonesia at the time, that would run up a 7.3 mil. $ gross. This would mean that the film's real gross is 16.5 mil. $, and that Indonesia was its biggest market by far. It also sold home video copies for at least 10.1 mil. $ in North America alone. Roger Ebert gave it a 1/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Evans returned with the inevitable sequel, The Raid 2 (2014), but directed a segment of V/H/S/2 (2013) prior to this. Uwais returned first in Man of Tai Chi (2013). The Raid: Redemption is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Raid: Redemption?