I watched a movie today called Funny Games and I am going to review it for you. I saw the end of Funny Games about two days ago on the thriller channel and I made a mental note to watch it the next time I saw that it was on. When I woke up this morning I went and watched some tv and noticed that it was coming up next on the thriller channel so I watched it. The reason I wanted to watch Funny Games after seeing the ending was because at the end of Funny Games there are these two guys in a boat and they have Naomi Watts with them - and she is tied up and she has tape over her mouth. I found it to be very interesting the way one of the guys pushes her off the edge of the boat into the water to die. Like she is nothing. So I was thinking - what is this? So I googled the movie and noticed that it had gotten very bad reviews and this made me even more interested in watching the movie because people that review movies for a living are all so pathetic and if they do not like something then there is a decent chance that it will be good. So, anything that has Naomi Watts in it interests me a lot. When I was about eleven years old one of my friends told me that I should watch this Australian miniseries called Brides of Christ. I was aware of the miniseries Brides of Christ because it because it was being shown on tv and I would see the commercials promoting it but I had never been interesting in watching a show about nuns. But my friend told me that the young girls at this Catholic convent in the show were using candles to masturbate themselves at night. So after being told that I wanted to see Brides of Christ a lot. So I borrowed the series off someone that had the video set of it and I watched it one weekend - and one of the young girls in the Catholic convent in the series was played by Naomi Watts. I remember thinking that Naomi Watts must be the most beautiful girl in the world after seeing her in Brides of Christ. And I have been a huge fan ever since. I remember seeing her in the movie Tank Girl and then she seemed to be in nothing until The Ring, and after that she seemed to be pretty famous - but I have been the biggest fan of Naomi Watts ever since seeing her in Brides of Christ - View attachment 46553 View attachment 46554 So whenever I see Naomi Watts I just want to ...... you dont want to know. I am a huge fan of Naomi Watts. Ok, so the movie Funny Games was on the thriller channel but it is not exactly a thriller whatever that is. Funny Games is what movie review people like to refer to as 'torture movies'. Your average torture movie is mostly what I would describe as being a 'terror movie'. See there is a difference between a horror movie and a terror movie. Here, Kingsley Amis does a good job of explaining it - - Detours Into The Macabre/Foreword/Kingsley Amis So to put it plainly - a terror tale is a scary story that could actually happen - and a horror story is more a scary story about something that is kind of silly and could not happen. We know that there are no such things as werewolves or vampires so even though these things may give us a bit of a scare in a movie we know that what is scaring us is not reality - but with a terror tale this is not the case - what scares you in a terror tale could actually happen and that is what makes the terror tale so terrifying. A lot of terror tales are labelled as being thrillers but if the terror tale is considered to be too dark then it is often labelled as being a so-called 'torture film'. Some 'torture films' that you would know are the Saw series and the Hostel series. I consider films like Hostel, The Human Centipede, Saw, Strangeland, etc to be sick, disturbed and demented. Take the Saw franchise for example. Scenes where a person wakes up wearing a reverse bear trap attached to their jaw that is on a timer is not terror but just plain sick and disturbed. Another Saw scene has a person being pushed into a concrete pit full of dirty needles. There is something very desperate and pathetic about these so-called 'torture films' and the people that have made them. These people so not seem interested at all in creating terror so much as impressing its target audience with shocks. I am not impressed and I think that people like Eli Roth that think up this kind of trash are supremely pathetic. It seems to be all about the big money shots with these 'torture movie' people and they do not seem to understand that the lead up to the money shot is where we find the terror - not in the money shot itself. Do you know what I mean? I consider The Exorcist to be a terror movie because I believe in the Devil. My favourite slasher is Jason Voorhees from the Friday The 13th franchise. Jason is more a horror character than terror because he has the Freddy Krueger ability to come back to life for sequels but the scenario of a homicidal slasher maniac serial killer gives the Friday The 13th franchise a terror aspect. Probably the most extreme terror slasher must be Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. Breaking down in an isolated rural community and being terrorized by a maniac family of murderers is certainly not likely but it is possible which makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre a terror film more than horror. The Rob Zombie film House of 1000 Corpses is almost pop-terror and seems a light and comical homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Behold......Fishboy! So now that you understand the difference between a terror movie and a horror movie - we can get to the review of Funny Games. So apparently Funny Games is a remake of 1997 Austrian film Funny Games - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Games_(2007_film) And apparently this director Micheal Haneke has made this film Funny Games as a 'reflection and criticism of violence used in media" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Games_(2007_film) Now in my opinion this Michael Haneke guy is just %$%$ing with you when he says that Funny Games is a criticism of violence in media. I do not think that Haneke has made this film to be critical of violence in any way - I think he made this film to try to take film violence to new levels. Violence does not need to be physical - it can be psychological - and it is the psychological violence in Funny Games that soars. Unlike the desperate and pathetic Eli Roth - Haneke seems to understand that terror is not about money shots - it is in the anticipation. The film Funny Games gives its audience a feeling of dark anticipation right from the start, and you really get the feeling that Haneke understands the perverse - and that he knows that this film will hurt the brains of the majority of people that see it - and you get the feeling that that is the point. Funny Games is openly hostile to the majority of people that are going to see it and you really get the sense that Haneke deeply understands his audience. Do you know what I mean? So like I said - when I googled Funny Games after seeing the ending the other day I noticed that all the reviews for the film were poor. I didnt read any of them but I saw that the google promoted reviewers - rotten tomatoes, IMD and Roger Ebert had all given it low scores/ratings. And like I said - the fact that these people did not like the film made me more interested in seeing it than I was already after seeing Naomi Watts' death at the end. I generally do not agree with them but I often enjoy reading the reviews that Roger Ebert and his site give - so after watching the film Funny Games today I thought that it would be funny to read the Roger Ebert review. And it was - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/funny-games-2008 Ha. See I cant help but think that this is exactly the kind of response to Funny Games that Haneke was after when he made Funny Games. Like I said - Funny Games is openly hostile to the majority of the people that are going to see this film. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/funny-games-2008 Wait, it gets better - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/funny-games-2008 .... Would anyone that works for the site Roger Ebert really be able to give themselves that permission? ( I think not. Would any person that reviews films for a living be able to give themselves that permission? Of course not. Ok. So the two young men that terrorize this dubiously American bourgeois family are what many would describe as 'psychopaths'. A common characteristic of a 'psychopath' in my opinion is that they enjoy %$%$ing with you and for you to know that that they are %$%$ing with you - and for you to be unable to do anything about it. It does not matter to the 'psychopath' if you understand what is going on or why - but it is important to the 'psychopath' that you understand that the 'psychopath' is %$%$ing with you. A 'psychopath' does not care what you think about them - your responses are only important so far as they give the 'psychopath' pleasure. The 'psychopath' isnt trying to give you a lesson or impress anything upon you - the psychopath just enjoys %$%$ing with you. The 'psychopath' does not want or seek your approval in any way like an Eli Roth type does. This is very important. Your responses are all about the 'psychopath' and your side of your responses mean nothing. Do you understand that? There is a very good part after one of the two 'psychopaths' have broken the American bourgeois husbands leg with a golf club - and killed the family dog - with the same club! And the two 'psychopaths' have the family in a sitting room - and they are all sitting down talking the situation through and Naomi Watts and her husband want to know why the two psychopaths are doing this. They give a couple of funny explanations that are obviously not true. But they do end up offering that the value of entertainment is important. But if you really want to know why a 'psychopath' would brutalize others with physical or psychological violence - it is about the truth. Here, Erich Fromm makes a decent attempt at explaining it in his essay 'The Art of Loving' - https://archive.org/stream/TheArtOfLoving/43799393-The-Art-of-Loving-Erich-Fromm_djvu.txt See unlike most of us - the 'psychopath' wants to know what life really is. See most humans are a lie that do not like or want the truth. One way of knowing a persons true self is to break down the lie by brutalizing them with physical or psychological violence. It is by breaking a person down with physical or psychological violence that you can really get to the soul of a person. Another film that I watched recently ( about a week ago ) was the batman movie Dark Night. I had never seen it before but I was kind of curious to see why so many idiots like this movie. There seemed to be a lot of people that really liked the Heath Leger Joker character in Dark Night and I wondered why. I missed the start of Dark Night and I changed the channel before it ended - and in my opinion the Joker character in the movie was pretty stupid - but I really appreciated this line - "Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You cant savor all the little emotions. In you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?" - The Joker (Heath Ledger) The Dark Knight See the Joker seems to get it. You are not going to get to the soul of a person by shooting them. Unless you start at the feet and drag it out maybe. Do you understand? So like I said - Funny Games is very openly hostile to the majority of people that are going to see the film - and director Haneke seems to deeply understand his audience. Know what I mean? So with Funny Games it is the dark perverse anticipation that makes the film so great. It is not the money shot that makes the film - it is the anticipation but Funny Games is not without its money shots. There is a part in the film where Naomi Watts is crying and she actually has snot coming out of her nose - and the lead 'psychopath' wipes the snot away from here nose and then brushes her hair back out of her face with the same hand that he just wiped the snot from her nose with. I mean. You are getting very close to the soul of the Naomi Watts character at that point. And not long later the two 'psychopaths have Naomi Watts say a prayer to God. And ..... It really is a fantastic scene. I honestly cannot believe that Naomi Watts agreed to be in something like this. It is so hot that she did. God. It is one hell of a performance from Naomi Watts I can tell you. [video=youtube;hekLlOWH-zc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hekLlOWH-zc[/video] So, like I keep saying - this film is openly hostile to most people that are going to see it - and the director seems to deeply understand his audience. The best example of the hostility that the film Funny Games has for most people that are going to see it is are the times when the 'fourth wall' is broken. I will throw back to Ebert to explain - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/funny-games-2008 I am just not so sure that most people that are going to see this film Funny Games should be described as "the audience". Do you know what I am saying? I am not so sure that our two 'psychopaths' are supposed to "represent the films side" whatever that is. In my opinion Paul is not addressing the audience when he breaks the fourth wall - he is addressing most people that are going to see this film. And he is not asking for your approval like Prospero in Shakespeares The Tempest - the film breaks the fourth wall only to %$%$ with you - the film does not care if you are on the side of the victim - and it already knows that most of you are. Anyway - I wouldnt want to ruin it for you so I will leave it there. Roger Ebert only gave this film half a star - or 0.5/4. Maybe the half a star was for Naomi Watts' superb performance. Unlike Roger Ebert I really really enjoyed Funny Games and I am going give it two thumbs up. Have you seen Funny Games? What did you think of it? If you didnt like it then maybe you dont understand. Do you know what I mean? If you havent seen Funny Games and it sounds like something you would enjoy then I am happy to inform you that the full movie is on youtube. I would post it here at the end of my review but I do not want to upset our mods or break any of their rules. The full movie is on youtube though if you want to watch it. [video=youtube;EiE4Jz8fmkY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiE4Jz8fmkY[/video] It is terrifying to think that there are actually people out in the world that think like Peter and Paul isnt it?
