"Die Meute der Erben" is a German television movie from 2001 and this one was written and directed by Ulrich König and I guess maybe it was still more common back then for one person to do both jobs because today, at least for small screen releases, we don't see it that often anymore. Anyway, this is a Regina Ziegler Filmproduktion and this does not offer great hope for a quality film and if you take a look at the director's body of work, you will find "Der Bergdoktor" back then and "Um Himmels Willen" more recently and even if there are some better projects listed too, it becomes clear that this is really not gonna be a good film. It runs for slightly under 90 minutes as they usually do and there are some cast members included that you may have heard of if you are not completely indifferent to German film. I am talking about Fitzmann and Fendel mostly, maybe Weisgerber as well and Flemming has been in some Schmonzetten (cheesy romance films) as we say here in Germany. And then there is the really young henriette Confurius who has been pretty successful in recent years and is maybe among the most successful actresses from Germany even right now from her age group. Kinda surprised to see her here as a child actress. Anyway, back to this film here: Pfitzmann died not too long after this film, actual it was his last non-series appearance. Rosemarie Fendel has not been with us for a while too unfortunately, but her role here does not feel that big anyway. And Veronika Fitz, a successful Bavarian actress, who actually has much more screen time died less than a week ago. So well, the cast here is relatively old and it is not too surprising taking into account that it is now almost 20 years later. And I wish in the face of these deaths I could say something more positive about the film, but sadly not.
It was really bad from almost all perspectives. The troubles start with Fitzmann and you can easily see that physically he was not ready anymore to play a central character in a movie. It is sad, but it is what it is. I felt as if he was not understanding even what he was playing, but really just reciting lines. Of course, they are also not doing him any favors at all with the script. It is plain bad and there are many cringeworthy moments. It already starts with the title because that one seems pretty inaccurate. It sounds as if there were 5 people or so behind his money, but it isn't true at all quantity-wise. And there are just so many individual scenes that feel cringeworthy. I will mention just a few. One example would be the start early on when the new young gigolo is presented to the family. Or a little later when we have one character in particular talk about the old guy having a romantic relationship with a much younger woman. Or said woman perhaps crushing a bit on the gigolo guy I mentioned earlier and there is one especially bad moment like when she talks about his tight buttcheeks. Oh boy, I actually felt bad for the actress in this scene, even if she is really not giving a good performance either when it comes to the moments that are not complete failure territory. Another failure scene is when the old man realizes his daughter is secretly watching him and he pretends to make out with another character then in order to lie to her. There is another story about a character who is pregnant as we find out at the end, but this character has like zero impact on the overall story from beginning to end. Is almost not existent and still they use her to give us another sour ingredient for a forced happy ending the way you almost always find it in films like this (especially Ziegler Filmproduktion). The only thing they did not fix was the relationship to the money-greedy daughter, which is almost a bit daring taking everything into account. I am sure they could have found another unrealistic way to do that as well. So yeah I am hesitant to say that older people will like this film more than younger (because of the cast), but I hope I am wrong with such a statement as they can still see this is a really really weak film for the easily entertained, who may forget there is no story in here as long as they keep pushing baby kittens in the audiences' faces. I give it a big thumbs-down. It is not a weak film, it is a terrible film. Even too bad to be showing at on television at 10:30 in the morning here in Germany. Stay far far away.
It was really bad from almost all perspectives. The troubles start with Fitzmann and you can easily see that physically he was not ready anymore to play a central character in a movie. It is sad, but it is what it is. I felt as if he was not understanding even what he was playing, but really just reciting lines. Of course, they are also not doing him any favors at all with the script. It is plain bad and there are many cringeworthy moments. It already starts with the title because that one seems pretty inaccurate. It sounds as if there were 5 people or so behind his money, but it isn't true at all quantity-wise. And there are just so many individual scenes that feel cringeworthy. I will mention just a few. One example would be the start early on when the new young gigolo is presented to the family. Or a little later when we have one character in particular talk about the old guy having a romantic relationship with a much younger woman. Or said woman perhaps crushing a bit on the gigolo guy I mentioned earlier and there is one especially bad moment like when she talks about his tight buttcheeks. Oh boy, I actually felt bad for the actress in this scene, even if she is really not giving a good performance either when it comes to the moments that are not complete failure territory. Another failure scene is when the old man realizes his daughter is secretly watching him and he pretends to make out with another character then in order to lie to her. There is another story about a character who is pregnant as we find out at the end, but this character has like zero impact on the overall story from beginning to end. Is almost not existent and still they use her to give us another sour ingredient for a forced happy ending the way you almost always find it in films like this (especially Ziegler Filmproduktion). The only thing they did not fix was the relationship to the money-greedy daughter, which is almost a bit daring taking everything into account. I am sure they could have found another unrealistic way to do that as well. So yeah I am hesitant to say that older people will like this film more than younger (because of the cast), but I hope I am wrong with such a statement as they can still see this is a really really weak film for the easily entertained, who may forget there is no story in here as long as they keep pushing baby kittens in the audiences' faces. I give it a big thumbs-down. It is not a weak film, it is a terrible film. Even too bad to be showing at on television at 10:30 in the morning here in Germany. Stay far far away.
