Funny Games

Funny Games

Directed by Michael Haneke (R)

A pair of psychos harass a middle-class family.

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Intended as a rebuke of Hollywood’s obsession with violence, Funny Games turns out to be “torture, pure and simple,” said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. Austrian director Michael Haneke’s film about a middle-class family whose summer home is invaded by a couple of whack jobs is a shot-for-shot remake of his 1997 film of the same name—except that the language is English instead of German, the setting is Long Island instead of Europe, and a lead character (Naomi Watts) strips down to her bra. But remaking a film that remains largely unknown amounts to “self-abuse by the director” and just “plain abuse for the audience.” The brutality will undoubtedly shock audiences, said Derek Elley in Variety. This version is “deliberately manipulative,” however, and “even more pointless” than the original. Haneke wants to confront viewers with their own desire to see violence, said Peter Rainer in the Los Angeles Times. He uses the audience as a pawn in this game but ends up playing “both sides of the ideological fence.” Haneke never clarifies his argument and therefore turns Funny Games into nothing more than “Saw IV with a Ph.D.”