MovieChat Forums > Funny Games (2008) Discussion > This movie was a big cheat. (spoilers)

This movie was a big cheat. (spoilers)

posted 13 years ago by SoTyred
16 replies | jump to latest

I don't buy the directors thing about his "message" , it's just a plain cheat. Great acting, interesting story, had some real balls (Obviously the kid and I loved the casual way they win their "bet" and just bump her off the boat. Creepy)...BUT...ruined by:

1) After kid gets killed Peter and Paul just ...leave, when there is no logical reason for them to have left.

2) After they leave, the couple spend a huge amount of wasting time trying to reactivate a wet cell phone, and then......she escapes , and the cliche recapture. As a matter of fact the whole time after they left screamed of "We have no story at this juncture...so..we'll just stretch this out.".

3) The whole rewind thing. She grabs the gun, shoots Peter, blah blah,....and the rewind. Just a waste of time and a shock moment for the sake of it.

This movie had so much going for it, but those things kill it. Yeah yeaah, the guy claims this message to ppl who watch these type films. What he doesn't understand is that everyone is different.

I call BS: 5/10

**Skin that Smokewagon and see what happens!** Tombstone

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] leedygray 12 years ago

I agree about the cheat. The biggest one for me was the horror cliche' of characters rampant stupidity. The guy just sits there helplessly when the psycho's are gone, when he has a chance to set up an ambush for them or get weapons (such as golf clubs) ready to fight them with etc. Many of the scenes were excruciatingly dull - I kept getting up to do other things. It was also incredibly predictable. Once the kid was dead, I knew the 2 supervillains were not going to let the other 2 live. Movies like this pretend to be smart, but are just following the same tired old formula started by movies such as The Blair Witch Project.

Dull as dishwater.

I simply am not there...

[–] franzkabuki 12 years ago

Sort of hate to say this, but some people just don´t seem to have any concept of psychological realities. It´s probably those superhero action movies modifying the ways in which folks think; guess Haneke scores another point.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] harkness78 12 years ago

Quoting RedSpottyheart:

"I agree about the cheat. The biggest one for me was the horror cliche' of characters rampant stupidity. The guy just sits there helplessly when the psycho's are gone, when he has a chance to set up an ambush for them or get weapons (such as golf clubs) ready to fight them with etc. Many of the scenes were excruciatingly dull - I kept getting up to do other things. It was also incredibly predictable. Once the kid was dead, I knew the 2 supervillains were not going to let the other 2 live. Movies like this pretend to be smart, but are just following the same tired old formula started by movies such as The Blair Witch Project.

Dull as dishwater."

Wow you are an idiot to claim that the Blair Witch Project started any kind of formula besides handy-cam fake documentaries (The Last Exorcism, Quarantine, Cloverfield) Which this movie is 100% not.

And to call a forumula "started by movies such as the Blair Witch Project" old is stupifying. That movie is barely a decade old. You consider that "Old"? Man I want to go through your post history and reply on your posts cause it would be so easy to correct your idiotic notions of space/time/quality.

"Nobody knows anybody, not that well..." - Miller's Crossing

[–] SoTyred 12 years ago

EXCELLENT ANALYSIS OF MOVIE! YOU SO SMART AND CLEARLY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING!

Yes I am thank you :) .

**Skin that Smokewagon and see what happens!** Tombstone

[–] tysonkm 12 years ago

I fully agree with you.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] tonyyy 12 years ago

I agree with everything you said, I was exited to watch this move and to be disturbed but i was board. Its just average movie.

[–] novadestin 12 years ago

Obviously this movie went over your head. The movie doesn't have a point except to showcase violence in the media and how people like watching it. Paul interacts numerous times with the audience, showcases that it's all for media purposes (example: they leave to give the victims a chance to escape so it would be more dramatic for us, the audience).

[–] raimund-berger 12 years ago

doesn't have a point except to showcase violence in the media

Beg to differ. The story itself is carrying features we've already seen in other Haneke movies and which can be considered a recurrent agenda. As the total lack of empathy in the boys.

[–] novadestin 12 years ago

Except the fact that Haneke stated that was the whole point of the film in the first place...

[–] raimund-berger 12 years ago

Source?

Because if you can't give any I'm just gonna claim the opposite.

[–] novadestin 12 years ago

Michael Haneke interview on Funny Games (1997) by Serge Toubiana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2U9kcpepoo

Very first thing he says: "It's a film about the portrayal of violence in the media, in movies." Then he later says "I simply wanted to make a film that directly addressed how violence is portrayed in film."

[–] raimund-berger 12 years ago

Sure. Still not seeing how the goals expressed in those quotes are making it a "showcase" though.

The agenda he's mentioning there is already fully established in those two boys. Who we can understand to be a product of modern culture and media. Much like Benny in "Benny's Video" is, a film he's heavily referring to in that interview for a reason. And what we're seeing on screen is probably just the boys acting out scenes they've seen in one or the other movie earlier.

So are these two characters already the "showcase" you were alluding to? Or what is?

[–] enmasse 12 years ago

I don't buy the so-called message and also believe it's a cop-out. If your message is that violence is bad, there's other ways of communicating it other than, say, participating in it.