This is a German movie from 13 years ago that runs over 100 minutes and deals with the (not so) everyday life of a couple construction site workers. It is written and directed by Peter Thorwarth, who was only 30 when this was made. He also plays one of the central characters of the film. His most famous work to this day is probably his collaboration on the "Die Welle" screenplay. Sadly, in terms of acting here in this 2002 movie, I have to say he was a massive disappointment and his plot was possibly the weakest. The movie is based on a short film by Thorwarth which also already featured Ralf Richter. Now that I mentioned Richter, this film has quite a couple actors who seem perfect for construction workers: Richter, Bär, Sözer and Brandner fit their characters nicely and same goes for Willi Thomczyk, who I have seen on "Die Camper" already. i like him and I think it is a bit of a pity he isn't in films anymore these days. He is not truly talented and his characters are frequently the same, but somehow I always enjoy watching him and he feels pretty authentic in everything he does. Apart from the ones already mentioned, this movie also has Heinrich Schafmeister and Stefan Jürgens in minor roles and these two are fun to watch as always. The only real female role is played by Alexandra Maria Lara ("Downfall"). She is still a rising star here.
The humor in this film is fairly in the face and vulgar (about erections for example) and may even be offensive to some audiences. I initially thought they really killed the Polish guy and it was fairly funny how he kept reappearing throughout the movie. In terms of drama, this movie was a massive disappointment though. There were some scenes, especially involving Thorwarth's character which were intended for drama, but none of these really worked and his love story with Lara's character was totally uninteresting as well. She was truly wasted in this movie. Another very funny scene was Bär's character's meltdown near the end and you could easily see that he is probably the most talented member of the main cast in this movie. But there was unfunny stuff too: the bomb was so random, everything involving Thorwarth's character etc. I also wondered how he was so forgiving towards the construction site workers after they bullied him all the time early on and then even watched how they killed another guy and made him disappear. Yet, he tries to become friends with them, obviously as Lara's character was the daughter of his boss. To me, all in all this film was a disappointment. it had its moments, but there just weren't many enough and they could have cut a lot out and kept this movie at 80 minutes with all the essential and funny developments. This would have helped the film a lot. At times, I felt that this was almost a "Werner Beinhart" live action movie. But it was not as entertaining as these animated cartoon films. Not recommended.
The humor in this film is fairly in the face and vulgar (about erections for example) and may even be offensive to some audiences. I initially thought they really killed the Polish guy and it was fairly funny how he kept reappearing throughout the movie. In terms of drama, this movie was a massive disappointment though. There were some scenes, especially involving Thorwarth's character which were intended for drama, but none of these really worked and his love story with Lara's character was totally uninteresting as well. She was truly wasted in this movie. Another very funny scene was Bär's character's meltdown near the end and you could easily see that he is probably the most talented member of the main cast in this movie. But there was unfunny stuff too: the bomb was so random, everything involving Thorwarth's character etc. I also wondered how he was so forgiving towards the construction site workers after they bullied him all the time early on and then even watched how they killed another guy and made him disappear. Yet, he tries to become friends with them, obviously as Lara's character was the daughter of his boss. To me, all in all this film was a disappointment. it had its moments, but there just weren't many enough and they could have cut a lot out and kept this movie at 80 minutes with all the essential and funny developments. This would have helped the film a lot. At times, I felt that this was almost a "Werner Beinhart" live action movie. But it was not as entertaining as these animated cartoon films. Not recommended.