Reviews

The premise held a lot of promise. It could have been interesting to follow how people react to what they saw in their flash-forwards, and how that would affect what would actually happen in their lives. But what we got instead was a myriad of events that could have NEVER under any reasoning happen in case the events had never been seen in flash-forwards. This is not only a far too obvious paradox, but also an annoying massacre of free will. Accordingly, most of the show is just watching a group of people with deterministic beliefs making their flash-forwards come true - and depicting this nonsense in a way that takes itself far too seriously.

The reasons for some additional letdowns were more traditional. For example, Simon Campos was too contradictory a character: at one point he acted as if the deaths of millions didn't mean a thing, whereas sometimes he appeared almost human. Also a personality like that on an extremely talented physicist in my opinion really just does not fit. The most evil villains could have been more credible too.

I wanted to like the show, but seeing what it was, I really don't wonder that no second season was ever made.

I wanted to like this more. There are actually three basic problems that I see with the film. First of all, although Joker is the best villain in Batman, and one of the best villains in all super hero sagas, there is one big problem that in my view hasn't been satisfactorily met in neither of the two movies involving Joker (the Burton film from 1989 being the other of course). It's the lack of credibility in terms of the loyalty of the small crooks! Joker is striving for anarchy and how he aims for this and manages to partially succeed is fascinating. However Joker's henchmen should be after money, and if their boss keeps killing people randomly and destroying monetary assets, that should make them scared in a way which doesn't support any loyalty towards Joker - quite the opposite.

The second problem with this movie is the lack of credibility in the creation of chaos. Based on some reviews I was expecting a very emotional and authentic feel to it, but in the end some of the consequences of Joker's actions felt both forced and superficial.

The third problem is very typical not only for super hero movies but for many other modern action movies too. There is just too much fast-paced action to maintain the tension!

I know this is a super hero movie, so the viewer is expected to give in to some unrealistic aspects and also expect some action. However I'd prefer this unrealism to be restricted to mainly one or two points: the superhero and maybe the supervillains. And even with these two the aspects related to character development should feel credible. One additional downside was that the pathos in a couple of scenes towards the end of the movie felt artificial.

All in all the movie is still clearly above the average superhero movie in this decade of superheroes being a major trend in the movie industry. If you enjoy the genre in general, seeing this movie is an obvious must.

Do I need a sadistic movie to tell me that there's something questionable in movie violence? Should you get whipped to learn that it's bad for you?

In general, I see different kinds of movies as having three different values: entertainment, experience and education. Most movies (especially Hollywood-originated ones) have very little value in the educational aspect, but in general all movies have individual emphases on these three. On top of them comes the value of rewatchability which is tied to all of the three and different more accurate aspects of the movie such as plot. As for Funny games the uncomfort and even torment of watching the movie makes the movie's value very low in the entertainment department - at least for me and probably so for a majority of potential viewers. As for the educational value I don't see how a thoroughly fictional ride of sadism with no clear motives could educate anyone in a positive way. Experiencing such violence on screen makes you think about it more, and it probably also lowers the threshold of a viewer to commit real acts of violence. If one would want to moralize (which on the other hand probably isn't a proper reason for evaluating an adult movie) the educational value could be thus considered even negative.

So what's left from the values is mostly the experience side of the movie, the thrill ride in this case. The extremely long single shot scenes certainly make it effective in many scenes as does the almost yet not exactly realistic touch in portraying the feelings and actions of the protagonists. They make the movie memorable yet at the same time even less entertaining. Still, it can be regarded as a merit for the movie as not all of the movies aim at being entertaining. But the absurd scenes that communicate with the viewer make it awkwardly obvious that you are just watching a generic piece of horror. This takes a big part of the effectiveness away. Another shortage is the apparent lack of motivation for the antagonists.

Some may claim that the absurdities and the lack of point are just a brilliant way of depicting how perverted the entertainment industry is in its all glamorized violence. But does a person really need a slap in the face to see that it's not fun? I don't think so. I would only recommend this to people that are fascinated by sadism in all its forms.

You know how it really takes value off a joke when the teller laughs at the joke him/herself? Well, imagine looking at this for one and a half hours? Try to include the fact that the joke is really bad and that half of the content is people commenting their reactions to other people telling this lousy joke? Well, that's what this movie is all about, and that results in the most boring and least thought-provoking piece of crap I've ever seen on a DVD.

If you like to see Hollywood people talking true obscenities, you might get something out of this, but otherwise I suggest skipping this. In any case a couple of minutes from the beginning (or in fact from any part) of the film already show what it's all about.

I've rated 280 films on IMDb so far, and this is the only one I've ever given a 1/10.

The movie is actually similar to many Finnish movies from the last decade, since they too have had their fair share of people with loose morals cheating on each other. The difference is that this is even more absurd and unbelievable in some of its twists, and towards the end it gets rather uncomfortable for the viewer as well. Also, for some reason this just wasn't that entertaining.

Infidelity is not a new theme. This movie tries to make it to an intriguing and maybe thought provoking thrill-ride but in my opinion it's too weird to be truly successful at that. The plot twists seem forced, and that's why a more realistic touch would probably have made the movie more impressive.

I think this movie suffers from a nostalgia complex (just like the new star wars films). People think about the original two with a warm feeling of nostalgia and are thus in part blinded by the fact that this isn't that much different from them. This has more softening humour than the first two, and the main plot is actually nothing new, but I don't see that as a problem.

Terminator 2 is better, and maybe the first one as well, but I don't think this deserves even nearly as much bashing as it has received. It has nice action scenes (even though at least one of them is a bit over-length), and the lovable humour unique to the terminator series is present. It's a great movie well worth the franchise.

The movie has action, humour, a few plot twists, and thanks to these, it doesn't really feel boring on the first view. The problem with the movie is that it has far too many supernatural elements: different kinds of immortality, many possibilities of eternal or semi-eternal damnation, several different magical gimmickries with very weird rules, the ship that's faster than any other for no obvious reason (the black pearl), a very supernatural ship (the Dutchman), and other things I won't mention not to spoil the plot.

If you have one supernatural force, there's no problem: for example the first movie worked just fine, as do Star Wars movies with their "force". But the second and especially the third film in the Pirates series just mix too many elements, and that's why nothing seems to matter any more. Luckily the movie has humour and even ironizes its weird characters and multiple cases of supernaturality. Still, although entertaining, the whole experience seems somewhat hollow.

Jack Sparrow is still fun, but the first sequel was more funny and less of a mess than this one, and the first pirates film had a far more coherent plot. Still, if you like adventure films spiced up with humour, and don't care about getting that deep into the characters you'll probably love this. And even if you aren't a friend of these types of films, chances are you'll still like it for its entertainment value.

The movie begins like any romantic comedy: the first minutes don't exactly go straight to the action nor give any huge expectations, but you are open-minded to see where the movie is going to develop. But after the first few minutes the irritation starts. Time after time you're confronted by the utterly stupid, illogical and helpless behaviour of the starring couple. I mean, if there is absolutely no way you could imagine any one you know to behave like the way these two behave, how are you supposed to enjoy any of it? And when in addition this submitting stupidity (and it's not like it's a Dumb & Dumber kind of stupidity, since these two are supposed to be like a normal young couple) leads into a devastating mishap one after another, the irritation accumulates to a level I don't remember experiencing in any other movie.

By the time about one third of the movie has passed, it becomes obvious that there isn't going to be any change. All you will see is irritating scene one after another, seasoned with some of the worst examples of poo humour ever. Depending on the point of view the ending may bring some consolidation to the otherwise crappy content, but for me the only consolation was the relief I got when the movie actually ended.

It's not like I couldn't enjoy a dark comedy (Very Bad Things for example is a quite good one), but since Duplex offers practically no plot to follow nor characters to identify yourself with, and the jokes are mostly artificial, predictable, unfunny and even disgusting at times, and since the only real substance is the misfortune of the main characters, there is really no way I could recommend this to anyone.