Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant masterpeice! A must have movie
Review: an excellent movie!
however i do not recommend Clean, Shaven along with it.
Man Bites Dog is a great film to buy in addition to this one.
Rating: 
Summary: !! SERIOUSLY INTENSE !!
Review: FIRST OFF ITS NOT A MOVIE FOR THE WEAK. THE OVERALL INTENSITY AND REALISM OF SOME OF THE SCENES ARE PRETTY OVERWHELMING AT TIMES. SOME OF THE SCENES PLAYED BY !SUSANNE LOTHAR! WERE SO REAL, I FELT MYSELF BREAKING INTO A COLD SWEAT.THE DIRECTOR REALLY WENT TO THE LIMITS ON THIS FILM. IT IS AN EXCELLENT THRILLER WHICH WILL NOT DISAPPOINT ANYONE WHO WATCHES IT. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FILM WILL KEEP YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT,HOPING,AND PRAYING FOR THE FAMILY TO KEEP THEIR SANITY AFTER THIS VACATION. !! BEWARE OF YOUR NICE NEGHBORS BEARING GIFTS !!
Rating:
Summary: The cure for being too enamored of movie violence!
Review: I never realized the extent to which big-budget American action films condition audiences into savoring and craving "justifiable" acts of violence until I saw this fascinating and deeply disturbing Austrian movie from noted German director Michael Haneke. I couldn't sleep after seeing it, but after about a week had passed, I was very glad that I'd seen it. I'm now "immune" from being manipulated into enjoying onscreen violence, because the movie made me keenly aware of when I AM being manipulated ... and of the "commandments" that movies featuring cathartically satisfying acts of vengeance are built upon and dare not violate.The storyline is sort of a hybrid of THE DESPERATE HOURS and CAPE FEAR, with two very Aryan-looking young men invading the summer cottage of an upper-middle-class family of three and sadistically playing "funny games" with them. But there's much more than the surface story at work here ... Haneke has some clever tricks up his sleeve when it comes to exercising his total control over the "rules" that the movie plays by. He keeps the audience off-balance by repeatedly violating movie conventions and confounding conditioned expectations as to how events will unfold. Amazingly, there's only ONE act of on-screen violence in the entire movie ... and it's a classic example of the 100% acceptable, "justifiable" sort that American audiences so crave and Hollywood so obligingly provides on a regular basis. But just as your "rush" kicks in, Haneke pulls the carpet out from underneath you with one of his sleight-of-hand tricks, flip-flopping your pleasure into an equivalent amount of pain. And as for the RESULTS of the OFF-screen violence ... well, you're on your own. Special kudos should go out to actors Arno Frisch and Frank Giering, for being willing to play what must be the creepiest, most contemptible crime duo in movie history. (The hillbillies in DELIVERANCE have NOTHING on them!) It takes fearlessness to make yourself a target for audience detestation at this level, and the film wouldn't work if the roles hadn't been so capably filled. Know going in that the "See it if you dare" challenge on the DVD cover is not to be taken lightly. But know also that if you DO take the challenge, you'll emerge from the experience shaken but wiser - in possession of a whole new perspective on the bogusness of traditional Hollywood crowd-pleasing violence.
Rating:
Summary: If You Like Serial Killers, and Getting Caught in the Rain..
Review: German craziness at its best. Words cannot do justice to this masterfully done film. Highly recommended, truly dark humor. Two thumbs way way up your eye socket.
Rating:
Summary: CREEPIER THAN "BLAIR WITCH!"
Review: This is a very creepy film that is not only good entertainment but a cautionary tale on violence in the media. Made even more creepy when the film makes YOU a participant in the killings, further making its caoutionary tale even MORE cautionary. Eerie, solid entertainment! Definitely NOT for kids, though! Grade: A+
Rating:
Summary: Best movie ever made?
Review: This is one of the top five films I have ever seen and perhaps even the best one. The film builds on alienating principles but the funn thing is that you really start to care about the characters in the film and in the end really are drawn into the film eventhough I dont think this was the purpose for Haneke when doing it. The movie is a really good horror movie and the best thing is that almost all violence acts and gore is not shown on screen.
Rating: 
Summary: Still the worst...
Review: This is still the worst movie ever made. It is pretentious, self-indulgent, and meaningless. It wants to be cooler-than-thou, but it ends up embracing the very concepts it wants to satirize. Ultimately, the most that could be said about it is that it is an interesting failure.
Rating:
Summary: Cold. Emotionless. Meaningless.
Review: This tragedy deserves only a cursory review: A literalist's nightmare of absolute sadism in a raw, vacuous form. As another reviewer stated, this sadistic film appears to have the same intentions as a snuff film. If you can actually sit through the two hours of this relentless sadism and walk away thinking, 'I really enjoyed this film,' you need serious psychological help. Cold. Emotionless. Meaningless.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't show much...
Review: The best horror and suspense films work almost entirely on implication, and Michael Haneke has learned this. However, he's docked a star because his "message" gets a little too heavy and obvious.
First, the good part; this is an excellently engineered suspense film. Creepy as hell and it will DEFINITELY have you on the edge of your seat. I even like the ocassional look at the camera; Paul, one of the killers, asks us a question every now and then.
The problem is, as it gets towards the very end, it sputters. Haneke pushes the "self-aware" gimmick just a little too far in the end, both with an effect and with a conversation the two killers have. We get the point, Mike, keep the story moving.
Too bad, too, because it's an interesting one; films are violent not because they're a reflection of some depraved mind behind the camera, but because the audience demands that they be violent. On another level, he also seems to be placing a bet; that despite his attempts to depersonalize them visually, we will still feel for this family of three being terrorized.
Overall, this is an excellent suspense film and surprisingly cheap, too. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Get ready to be manipulated.
Review: My first dip into the foreign film Genre was a French film entitled, "Betty Blue." Pretty soon I was hooked because of the more realistic story lines, i.e. The Vanishing. What I found most amazing about "Funny Games" and haven't heard mentioned is Haneke's apparent mockery of the typical thriller formula that Hollywood is so fond of, i.e. tension-release. This is what makes Hollywood fare predictable. The scene that was described as "one of the victims getting the upper hand" and then having it taken away was executed to eradicate the predictability that we, Americans, are to used to in the movies.The brilliant execution of the "remote control" scene was scathing. In addition, one of the "bad guys" pokes fun at plot implausibility, implying that we, the audience, want to see them win because that is in fact what would happen in reality. Haneke destroys each American movie cliché' by giving us hope, then crushing it
before it bears fruit. This movie is disturbing, manipulating, gut wrenching, real and depressing. It is not suited for the faint-hearted or lovers of the predictable thriller genre where the good guys always win.
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