"Adrenalin" or "Adrenaline" is a German movie from 1996, so this one has its 20th anniversary this year. It runs for approximately 90 minutes, not entirely sure about this one as I watched it with three commercial blocks and counting these it was over 110 minutes long, so 1.5 hours roughly seems accurate. Til Schweiger probably was not as big of a star back then as he is today, which explains why he also appears in an RTL movie for the small screen. Then again he makes Tatort films these days too and honestly the entire approach and story are similar to what his character from "Tatort" may have looked like. Actually, in the "Kinotatort" he is also out to save his daughter, there played by his real daughter, just like he is in here, even if in here she is considerably younger of course.
All in all, there were really many embarrassing moments in here, so that I would say 4 out of 10 is still a pretty generous rating. It is tough to believe that this film here is from the same people who made the excellent Christoph Waltz Euskirchen film two years earlier. The action in this 1996 film starts right away as Schweiger's character kills a criminal in cold blood and the first 50 minutes of the film are entirely used to justify this action and to show us how the guy he killed is responsible for killing Schweiger's character's family. It also feels very cringeworthy how they again and again depict him as the perfect father. The characters in this film lack shades as well and the worst thing is how they were actually trying to give them shades, but failed so hard. Yeah well, this film is pretty close to being a failure and the only moments it is an enjoyable watch are these when the film does not take itself too seriously, but these are truly rare unfortunately. And the ending is very much expected too selling us Schweiger's character as the perfect (yet flawed) action hero and the best father one could imagine, who gives it his everything in order to save his beloved daughter. Yeah, enough now. Don't watch it. Guys like Herofrth and Martinek in supporting roles are as forgettable as always. I certainly cannot recommend the watch here, even if this is probably still better than the Kinotatort because at least it does not run for another hour after the 90-minute mark and has a touch of guilty pleasure potential (what the hell was up with this blonde antagonist guy???). The action and plot and writing may all be pretty bad, but at least it almost never drags unlike Schweiger's way more recent work.
All in all, there were really many embarrassing moments in here, so that I would say 4 out of 10 is still a pretty generous rating. It is tough to believe that this film here is from the same people who made the excellent Christoph Waltz Euskirchen film two years earlier. The action in this 1996 film starts right away as Schweiger's character kills a criminal in cold blood and the first 50 minutes of the film are entirely used to justify this action and to show us how the guy he killed is responsible for killing Schweiger's character's family. It also feels very cringeworthy how they again and again depict him as the perfect father. The characters in this film lack shades as well and the worst thing is how they were actually trying to give them shades, but failed so hard. Yeah well, this film is pretty close to being a failure and the only moments it is an enjoyable watch are these when the film does not take itself too seriously, but these are truly rare unfortunately. And the ending is very much expected too selling us Schweiger's character as the perfect (yet flawed) action hero and the best father one could imagine, who gives it his everything in order to save his beloved daughter. Yeah, enough now. Don't watch it. Guys like Herofrth and Martinek in supporting roles are as forgettable as always. I certainly cannot recommend the watch here, even if this is probably still better than the Kinotatort because at least it does not run for another hour after the 90-minute mark and has a touch of guilty pleasure potential (what the hell was up with this blonde antagonist guy???). The action and plot and writing may all be pretty bad, but at least it almost never drags unlike Schweiger's way more recent work.
