A Hollywoodized Watered Down Funny Games

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2012)

If you're going to be this smug about pulling off what Haneke did in Funny Games, tearing down the "fourth" cinematic wall at an attempt to make your film this self-aware, at least use a different style the title than the film you took from. Appalling! Shameless! Uninspired! Those are three words that come to mind. The eraser board, the glass elevators full of other possible monsters, the Scream humor... all of that's been done before, and the sad part about the film is that they actually believe they may be doing something different. Ask Piradello. Perhaps, the film serves as a Hollywood version of Funny Games and best works that way. I've read that it's a "hateful love letter to the horror genre" but most of that is bullshit when you're engaging the fantasy of a pothead director. How Sigourney Weaver ever agreed to do the film must have something to do with her dedication to taking roles that don't demonize marijuana. Didn't she play a character who smokes marijuana in Unstrung Heroes? Anyway, the film fails to subverse. It's typically self-gratifying, sympathizing with two most likable characters, which happens to be a burn-out. Surprise surprise. The film was praised as "smart" and "funny" but I found it to be stupid, full of holes, not addressing enough of anything interesting to be an existential metaphor, in the way of Badlands. The characters are not trying to escape the genre they were written into. They just become aware of a force which controls their lives, which may be enough to save the film. But, the director loves to identify with Hadley. It's obvious. The control issues are blaring you in the face, and that's what is most annoying about the film. The puppeteer prides himself on his manipulation, which is all the film has to offer. That's not suspense. It's cheap. Cue the scary music, wait for something to pop out. Oh, look at how easy it is to make some money at the box office, but let's just let the audience know we're all smarter than that... include them. I have to give him credit for rewarding what's good, for that should exist in how we identify with characters. The film ends up tied up into everything that it pokes fun of. If I wanted to read inside jokes on a white board, I'd want them thoughtfully fleshed out. Since the filmmaker knows what he lacks, having mainly written crappy TV (the actual Buffy the film was decent), he tries to overcompensate by giving us gore.