Amazon.com video review:
It is impossible to have a neutral opinion about the
Austrian thriller Funny Games--a movie so relentless in its
ability to shock that it gained pariah status on
the film festival circuit in 1997. In the warped tradition of A
Clockwork Orange, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer,
and Blue Velvet, this is a film--directed with electrifying
audacity by Munich-born Michael Haneke--that addresses the controversy of
screen violence by making the viewer as guilty as the Leopold
and Loeb-like killers who terrorize a young family of three
during their summer vacation. They arrive as friendly neighbors,
seducing the family with phony congeniality, but soon Funny
Games reveals its devious strategy, turning savage and appalling... and
completely captivating for those who can endure the terror.
There's actually less violence than you'd see in a typical American horror
flick such as Scream, but Haneke's forceful staging effectively
fulfills his agenda of viewer complicity; we vividly experience this doomed
family's fate and feel helpless to save them. So
helpless, in fact, that Haneke dares to offer a hint of respite by
giving a victim the upper hand, only to "replay" the same scene with the
darkest of outcomes. Funny Games is guaranteed to outrage some
viewers with its manipulative schemes, but there's no denying the film's
visceral impact, generated
by Haneke's expert handling of a superior cast. Don't even think
of allowing anyone under age 17 to watch this film; all others should
proceed with caution. --Jeff Shannon
