Funny Games trailer

I’m still baffled as to why Michael Haneke chose to remake his own FUNNY GAMES as his North American debut. Haneke has been a dominant force in European cinema, creating subversive and disturbing movies for years. Any new Haneke movie is an event for me, and I would have loved to see a new story from the dark mind of this master, but if an English remake is what he’s giving me, then an English remake is what I’ll take.

We’ve got the trailer for FUNNY GAMES right BELOW, and it’s pretty great. But I can’t help but feel that I’ve already seen this film in a different language. It seems wholly similar to the original, and that brings my excitement level down a notch. I can only imagine my excitement if this film was an original. Having said that, I love Naomi Watts (especially after seeing EASTERN PROMISES), and it hurts me to watch her get tortured that way. And the casting of the two young men is perfect, as Michael Pitt and Brady Corbett are spitting images of each other, and share that effeminate quality ripped straight from a Gus Van Sant movie. For those of you who are tired of the torture-porn genre that’s been exploited over the last couple of years, watch Haneke replace gore and guts with smarts and psychology on February 15th.