Thriller & Mystery > H Thriller & Mystery > Haneke, Michael

About as fun as being stuck in the Channel Tunel

Advantages: Acting
Disadvantages: Yawnnnnnnn

The dust-cover proudly states that this is the best film of the new millennium! They obviously haven’t seen Brazilian Girls Go Wild In Cancun then. I took both films up on their boasts and I can confirm there was only one winner—and I didn’t need the subtitles. Talk about over rated. I had heard good things about Hidden; it had won the Palm De Or` in Cannes no less. But it’s French and so that means its going to be very talky and actor centered, ...
...the limited and predictable script. For a movie pushed as a mysterious thriller the only mystery here is how it won anything, dribbling out to a very disappointing finish. One broadsheet even voted this film of the decade?? The movie opens with a single static shot of the front of one of those comfy urban secluded houses in a nice middle class Paris superb. From across the street we observe the house panacea and everyday movements in the street ...

thedevilinme 20.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Hidden (DVD)

Where's The Remote

Advantages: None whatsoever, this is dire
Disadvantages: Very slow, tedious storyline, doesn't realise its potential

...you take that bet? Funny Games U.S is a remake of a 1997 film of the same name; the only difference being the original was a success, the 2008 version was not. The film is a scene for scene remake, of course the only difference being that the actors are different. So why bother making a remake? Remakes can sometimes be relatively successful based around the fact that they change small aspects of the plot whilst keeping the basic premise the same. ...
...I’ve never seen the original Funny Games released around 12 years ago and nor do I have any inclination to see it either after watching this dire remake. You can pretty much tell in the first 10 minutes of the film that it’s going to be abysmal, first you have the couple driving to the holiday home playing puerile car games before the music changes into this awful ‘slit your wrists’ death metal. The music did not suit the start of the movie at all ...

Great_reviewer07 25.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Funny Games

Nasty, vicious thriller that fails to engage

Advantages: Good premise, lighting and acting
Disadvantages: Senseless violence, unlikeable final third

...manufactured situations and easy stereotypes. Funny Games thankfully bucks this trend with a thoroughly original twist on an age old plot device, that of the happily married couple whose house is taken over by unknown intruders. Unfortunately the film is let down by a downright sadistic and nasty final third that is completely irredeemable. Directed by Michael Heneke, Funny Games is a remake of the little known 1997 Austrian original, and is in ...
...In place of the actors from the original film we have Naomi Watts and Tim Roth. They play a happily married couple, who, with their son, have travelled to their country home for a vacation. They are both wealthy and clearly enjoying life, and encompass what we would call the traditional All American couple. After settling in to their temporary abode events take a seriously sinister turn when they are interrupted by a couple of young adolescents from ...

bigmike33 02.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Funny Games (DVD)

the original German Funny Games from 1997 by Michael Haneke

Advantages: groundbreaking in it's time a must see in modern european cinema
Disadvantages: the German language isn't the most enjoyable language on earth

In 2007 Michael Haneke released a movie "Funny Games u.s." to make one thing clear from the beginning this is not the same movie! It s way better... One of the biggest obstacles for an English audience could be the german language although subtitles are available. Maybe that's the reason why Michael Haneke decided to make his "us" version? Who knows, anyway, the german language for me aint an obstacle (living in Belgium near the German border) so ...
...main charactersPeter and Paul are two at first sight very decent and civilized young man who come over to ask for some eggs. OUt of this simple ordinary fact Michael Haneke succeeds in making a movie that's one of his kind. The two young friends start to terrorize the bourgeois family and what makes this movie so interesting for me was that contrary to other similar movies in this flick the consequences for the victims are in the spotlights. An intersting ...

sidhartha83 20.06.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Funny Games (DVD)

Action-packed with some witty dialogue but still flawed somehow

Advantages: Quite thrilling when it gathers pace, seemed an authentic depiction of London, some humour
Disadvantages: Something about Downey Jnrs depiction of Holmes didnt work somehow, not for all ages/the squeamish

...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson start out by catching a serial killer who dabbles in the the supernatural, an evil man called Lord Blackwood who is sentenced to death, indeed Watson confirms he's dead after he's hung. Things take a distinctly sinister turn, however, when they discover than Blackwood has apparently risen from the dead and Holmes recalls what he told him before he was hung, which indicated that more ...
...actor (Robert Downey Jnr.) played Sherlock Holmes, while an English actor (Jude Law), played his right hand man, Dr. Watson. Now of course I knew that before I went to see the movie, infact I quite like Robert Downey Jnr. as an actor and I have enjoyed some of his other movies and the fact that he plays the main character was one of the main reasons I wanted to see it in the cinema but there was something about him playing this role that I just didn't ...

IzzyS 27.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sherlock Holmes