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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2007
Country of origin:	USA / France / UK / Austria / Germany / Italy
Director:	Michael Haneke
Genre:	Shot by shot remake
Starring:	Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808279/
Tagline:	Shall we begin?
Favourite line:	"You must admit, you brought this on yourself."

Haneke's shot by shot remake of his cult original is, well, identical to the first attempt, save for the change of language.

The plot:
A wealthy family arrive at a lakeside holiday home for some well earned downtime. Soon after getting there, a young man pays a visit, requesting four eggs for a neighbour from wife and mother Ann Farber, played by Naomi Watts. As he goes to leave, he apparently drops the eggs, only to request four more. Reluctantly, Ann replaces them and sends him on his way. As he walks away, he claims that the family dog jumps up him, resulting in the replacements becoming smashed too so, guess what, he demands four more.
Annoyed and more than a little anxious, she gives him the rest of the box.
Cue the young man's friend arriving, demanding to know why she is being so aggressive, insisting that she is behaving unreasonably, irrationally. Husband George (Tim Roth) appears with their son, understandably puzzled by the commotion and, as he asks the men to leave, one of them attacks him with a golf club, crippling him.
So begins a reign of terror on the family, as the young men play their sadistic games..

Film critic Mark Kermode got this one spot on.
His claim: This is a movie in which Haneke is lecturing the audience, admonishing you for wanting to see more violence, wanting to see the family suffer.
Absolutely true.
I have read from many sources that this movie is pretty pointless, the consensus seeming to be the very fact that it is shot by shot begs the question "Why not just watch the original?"
And I completely concur.
Why not just watch the original?
The only possible reason for this movie's existence is to cater for those too damned stupid to contemplate watching a movie with subtitles.
Dribbling, toothless imbeciles, slurping Pepsi Cola from half gallon drinking vessels whilst munching their way through enough popcorn to feed a family of four for a week. Quite why Haneke felt the need to lower himself to their level is simply beyond me. Bit of a waste of time, really.