Ehrgeiz Reviews

Black Panther (2018)

Solid but nothing more

[6/10 · 26 February 2018]

The real star in the movie "Black Panther", as I took it, should have been Wakanda. You have this super-powerful but cloaked little technology empire inmidst of Africa. Sure this movie is about Black Panther but it is also a lot about questions like those: should Wakanda be isolated since this worked, or open up its technology to other countries? Should it help out expat Wakandans or weaker countries or refugees? Unfortunately, this movie fails to really sell those points. The characters talk about it, but fail to show it.

On the pro-side of "Black Panther", there is mainly the stellar cast. Chadwick Boseman, Forest Whitaker, Lupita Nyongo, Martin Freeman, Serkis, all great actors. The discovery here is Letitia Wright as T'challas bubbly sister.

The movie plays it pretty straight and thats unfortunate. There is nothing really bad about the plot except that Killmongers story does at parts not fit perfectly in. But as hard they tried to sell Wakanda as amazing place, its somehow unimaginative especially when this movie is pitted back to back with Thor 3. It never comes to live the same way as the Grandmasters Junkyard/gladiator planet.

They fall short also to sell Killmonger as villain. Its a tragic character, he has his birthright and his life was taken away by the "good guys". But they miss the opportunity to give him he more leverage; he longs to see Wakanda but when gets there he just does run-off-the-mill evil villainry. It would be much more interesting if this was a guy who would be actually hard to fight for Black Panther.

Also, Serkis has the time of his life playing a wacko gangster and he gives a scene-chewing performance in the style of guys like Christopher Walken or Nicholas Cage which makes Michael B. Anthony almost look bland in comparison.

Surely, Black Panther suffers a bit from Marvel oversaturation. The origin story was a bit similar to Thor I; the action scenes don't offer much new against the amazing fights in "Winter Soldier"; and even the stakes are not so high, there is no "aliens or a super weapon" are destroying the world. It says something if even the typical Marvel spoilers in the end credits are relatively un-revealing.

Wer aufgibt ist tot (2016 TV Movie)

A "dramedy" that does not find its right balance...

[3/10 · 21 November 2016]

Bjarne Mädel is the go-to guy in Germany now for more complex comedic characters. In this made-for-TV-movie he is the washed-up, but arrogant salesman Lohmann. The basic plot is simple: when he picks up a mysterious hitch-hiker, things turn bad for him soon... his car crashes and he finds himself in a ghost like state while his body is in a coma. When he learns that his wife has to decide to pull the plug and seems to be very eager to do it, he uses his new ability to travel back in time to desperately set his former life straight regarding his job and his family...

This movie borrows its plot from a lot of fantasy movies, like "Groundhog day" and others... It could have been a nice little dark comedy, but it only works like one for the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the script takes the characters way too serious and we follow Lohmann exploring every corner of his sad life until it falls nearly into a "tearjerker" atmosphere. Besides Mädel with an usually good performance it has a mediocre cast, especially Friederike Kemptner who plays a guardian angel character with a little sadistic streak is pretty annoying.

After all, its just a made-for-TV movie, but the basic idea is not bad and it could have been handled better.

Welcome to Germany (2016)

Quite acceptable for a German blockbuster, still has its "buts"..

[6/10 · 14 November 2016]

A couple of wealthy Munich inhabitants, Richard and Angelika Hartmann, adopt an African refugee named Diallo for a couple of weeks until the officials decide if he can take permanent asylum in Germany...

Soon they have to check on their own views towards the refugees while Diallo learns that this family has quite some problems on their own, which includes also the Hartmanns adult children and their grandson.

The most successful German movies are usually light comedies, that's no difference here. What I liked about this movie that it covered a broad range of attitudes that Germans have towards the refugee crises, from far-left to far-right ones, things which people in Germany really think or say. There is also a subplot with an islamist among the refugees, or some Pegida-style "enraged citizen" protesters. Also, it covers quite a lot of other issues - estrangement between children and parents, growing old in a society where the job means a lot for the reputation of the individual and so on. It has no less than seven main characters and manages that well. I think it was also the right choice that they wrote the character of Diallo not as a hero character, but a rather normal guy who just fled his country because the one terrible act of violence that happened to his family. Acting-wise, Senta Berger and Heiner Lauterbach come from a different time than the younger actors in the movies and are in my opinion far above them. But, Florian David Fitz, does also a good job in the probably most unthankful role, playing the Hartmann son who is the clichéd manager who has no time for his son. Even Palina Rojinski, who is another ex-video jockey who turned to acting, does a little better than in her former efforts - and she has probably the most complex character, the daughter of the Hartmanns, who tries to escape an stalker, while struggling to finish her studies with 32 years and get a job, making her a kind of disgrace to her father.

Its not a perfect movie, though. The setting is not too unrealistic - its not far fetched that refugees are adopted by German families, it happened sometimes since 2015 and was even advocated by some organizations. But, obviously, in the end reality has to be bent to provide the happy-end. This is too be expected.

I had more qualms with that despite a lot of things were done well, the movie was not hugely funny. The dialogues rely too much on playing around with clichés and tropes, going for easy wins by the audience.

Without spoiling too much, what will this movie say about the refugees in Germany, a country which took 700 000 of them?

Ultimately, it offers a "light conservative" solution: traditional family values will fix things, society and the state set things right. This may be a bit simple, may be part of the happy end, but its what I believe the movie wants to say.

Head Full of Honey (2014)

Not strong enough

[5/10 · 1 January 2016]

The best about this German movie who was one of the biggest hits in 2014 are some of the performances. I always thought Hallervorden to be a good actor even in his often unfunny 70ies and 80ies comedies. Jeanette Hain is also good as the antagonist. Schweiger himself has made worse and better movies in the past. In the last years he became notorious for putting his friends and kids in his movies. Same here, but his daughter Emma is at least not as annoying as her elder sister Luna who also gets shoehorned in many of his movies. First off, the movie about a little girl and her grandfather, who has got Alzheimer disease, is just a bit too long. I think this movie could easily be 30 minutes shorter. In my opinion the movie shows quite good what Alzheimer does despite it is not in all details realistic. But Schweiger again ruins the portrayal of his main character by his crude style of humour. Here, for example, the main character Armandus is fond of grabbing tits or pees in the fridge. So you get wrongly the impression this may have not been a good man before he became demented.

The School Girls (1970)

Notorious German blockbuster from 1970

[3/10 · 31 December 2015]

There was a cultural phenomenon in Germany in the 1970ies and early 1980ies which everybody wants to forget - low key sex movies, hundreds off them, which fared well at the box office. "Schulmädchenreport" (Schoolgirl report) was not the first one of them, but the most successful one. It had 7 million viewers when it came out, which is often the number the most successful movies have in a year.

Schulmädchenreport spawned of 12 sequels and dozens more of copies. For me, it delves in the "so-bad-its-good" area. Every movie of this kind has its own perks, here its his fake authenticity and morality. All school girl movies were produced by Wolf Hartwig, written by Günther Heller and most of them were directed by Ernst Hofbauer. These three may have been some of the most cynical hacks in the movie world, thats why I give it three stars.

Schulmädchenreport starts off, as most of the sequels, pretending to be a documentary about what school girls want sexually. The main plot borrows from "12 angry men": On a field trip, school girl renate sneaks away from the group to do it with the bus driver. She gets caught naked and the headmaster, parents and teacher gather together to decide if she has to be kicked from the school. All talk against her, but dad an psychologist Mr. Bernauer steps in... and the smut begins. Bernauer, who is supposed to be a 1970ies liberal, but looks up to his huge pornstache exactly like that kind of dad who would vanish at night to go the porn cinema, tries to persuade the parents to keep Renate at the school by telling them various sex stories... Now various little episodes with school girls doing it come up, intermingled by supposedly real street interviews. The interviewer is unintentionally hilarious when he asks women in a harsh and strict voice if they masturbate and the likes.

The documentary approach was surely partly done by the producers to avoid censorship, and they were kind of a successful in this. But it also added to the cinematic treachery they pulled of - in a successful way to appeal to many target groups. By pretending it to be real stories and to understand what young women want, they surely got some hippie free love advocates in. But they also catered simultaneously to the middle-aged men of the type who usually look sex movies in cinemas.

Nearly all school girls here are depicted as horny and insatiable man traps. Visually the movies were kind of harmless, showing only full female nudity. The hilarity today ensues from the bullsh*t the producers wanted to tell us for real about the backstories of the sex scenes. Many of them are crass and disturbing. It starts off with the first story where a 15-year-old girl sleeps with her stepdad and lets us know in her commentary that she seduced him with 12. The common theme is that nearly all of the schoolgirls hook up with older or much older men, like that is what hey do. In the crassest episode this is even adressed verbally. Here, a school girl who is a virgin has an older boyfriend who tries to blackmail her emotionally into having sex with him - she still refuses. Fine so far, isn't it? But this is "Schulmädchenreport". Her friend turns up and tells her a long story which begins with an attempted rape (with the dubious statement: "I don't think a man can ever rape a woman if she does not want it a little"). Later she is focused by some lesbians and does it unenthusiastic with them, so a lesbo scene could be shoehorned in. Normal sex want work also, so she gives her girlfriend the advice to do it with older men like she does now. And the virgin goes back to their demanding boyfriend and does it with him. So far, so camp. The main plot ends totally in this wake: Renate can stay at the school and it ends with a kind of disturbing shot where the daddys bring their daughters home holding hands.

Potato Salad (2015)

All whats wrong with German comedies....

[1/10 · 6 December 2015]

... comes together in this movie. Is it down voted? Sure. This movie was made by some you-tubers and somehow got a lot of hate because of that. But it definitely earns its 1-star-ratings. Its a major stinker. Not one of the kinds like "The room", "Turkish star wars" and the likes were they fail because they barely know how to hold a camera. Germany has a long history of spitting out a lot of bad comedy movies even since the 1950ies or so. Maybe so because in this genre you can - and a lot of people did - earn some cash with mediocre stuff. Made by you-tubers or not, "Kartoffelsalat" steps right into that heritage. Its not even unintentionally offensive like other bad movies. Everything is in there: - jokes (and we talk of a lot of stuff here) which were already lame in the time of our grandmothers and at which only six-year-olds would laugh at. - washed up older comedians and actors like Otto Waalkes which don't even seem to notice what a shite movie they are entering because they sold their last integrity years ago. While the young ones are so deluded that they think those cameos make the movie "cooler" - the old Seltzer/Friedman-thing of senseless spoofing the hell out of what its in their little minds ("Breaking bad" here, for example). One German celebrity named Jenny Elvers even spoofs her own former problems with alcoholism, yay. - a premise that is so unoriginal that you barely can believe this is done by young guys and not some old studio hacks. The premise - Zombies in a school setting fighting against losers - was even already done like this in another German called "Die Nacht der lebenden Loser"/Night of the living dorks. That was a mediocre movie, but this geniuses here set the bar much lower - an all-around atrocious cast. We seen more famous you-tubers fail when they do a movie, same here. I did not even see a video of one of their channels, and maybe they are more bearable there. Especially the main actor is clowning around in a super annoying way.

Russendisko (2012)

Ridiculous

[1/10 · 10 November 2015]

This movie is about three immigrants from the wave of Russians with German or Jewish ancestry, of which many came to Germany between 1989 and 1993. Its simply ruined by the strange decision to let the three main actors speak in perfect high German and not do accents, which everyone coming from Russia I met at that time, had. In their suits they also look like modern hipsters. So they come off more as the annoying douchebags you can find in every bar in Berlin today. Maybe they thought it was "racist" to let these guys sound as if they were from Russia, but it s not fitting at all especially since this is kind of a time piece.

Equally fatal is the decision to put Matthias Schweighöfer in the main role. His acting style is polarizing anyways (imagine a 30 year old man talking, grinning and gesturing like a child actor as Macaulay Culkin, but many think its "sweet"), but here it looks like he intentionally avoided to give his role any depth with his constant frolicking and grimacing. Unfortunately, despite its about three friends, he is in nearly every scene.

Kir Royal (1986)

Easily one of the best German TV series

[10/10 · 11 January 2015]

"Kir royal" is a German TV series about the mishappenings of society reporter and major douche bag Baby Schimmerlos (Franz Xaver Kroetz). Unfortunately it ran only for six episodes but is still regarded high by critics and the few people who saw it. And rightfully so. This series, made over 20 years ago, has still such a quality, that it makes me really angry that our TV is filled with so much mediocre stuff especially regarding series and made-for-TV movies. In a way, even in international standards, it was ahead of its time. 12 years older than Americas "South park" it featured portions of the gross out humor and touchy subjects. For the time, it was quite graphic, showing a homosexual couple lying in the bed in the second episode and in a later episode even the main actors penis. Baby Schimmerlos, greatly played by Franz Xaver Kroetz, is the reporter who loves to dig in the dirt and would do anything for stories featuring the rich and mighty. Senta Berger plays his beautiful wife Mona, who is regularly mistreated by her husband and is kind of the good conscience in the story. Herb (Dieter Hildebrandt) is Baby's photographer who seems to be nicer on the surface, but is even more amoral and cynical. Edda (Billie Zöckler) is his wise, loyal but outspoken secretary. Frau von Unruh (an also excellent Ruth Maria Kubitschek), is the somewhat naive chief editor of the newspaper, who loves dirty stories as much as to keep the image of the newspaper clean. The greatest performance was done by Kroetz himself, who had the difficult task to make the viewer sympathize with the highly unsympathetic and shallow "Baby". The series was not only bold in having a dirty language and such. In many ways, it was a satire about German-style corruption of the rich and mighty which was kind of widespread in the mid-80ies. Some of the characters Schimmerlos deals with are thinly veiled counterparts of real life personalities, like Consul Weyer, a then famous strange salesman and likely betrayer where you could buy nobility titles, in the 3rd episode. The only thing I did not like was the ending. The sixth episode was weaker and it kind of ended disastrous for the main character Schimmerlos. Unfortunately, the series was never picked up, but director Helmut Dietl and writer Patrick Süskind tried to use the formula several times later - but never to the efficiency of "Kir Royal."

Suck Me Shakespeer (2013)

Better than expected

[6/10 · 10 January 2014]

In Germany this was the "hot" autumn movie that everybody liked, the critics as well as the audience. When I watched it, I did not expect much, thought by the trailers it was stupid, but I have a knack for shitty teenager/school movies. Its the story of Zeki Müller, a convict who was just released of jail. While looking for the loot of his last robbery, he gets confused as replacement teacher - a great opportunity to take time and slowly dig out his treasure, who is hidden under the schools gym. He soon gets appointed to the worst class and gets along with a "Dont bother me at all"-attitude; for what he clashes soon with Lisi, a young idealistic teacher and former class mate of his (ad sure, the potential love interest of the movie). I expected a run-off-the-mill rom com, but, well, it was little kind of better. Especially the first half is original since they show Zeki as a kind of guy, who not only does not care for the pupils, but is not afraid to look bad as often in this kind of movies. Elyas M'barek, Germanys upcoming young male movie star, does a nice and convincing job here, while I did not like him in his former roles. It is also nice, that while education is a big subject in Germany these years, producing heated political debates and book bestsellers, they do not take the schooling aspect too seriously and keep it easy. Its not a really great movie too, because the second half follows the formula totally and leads to the obvious happy end and has the "everybodys' got talent"-message mostly of the movies with troubled teenagers have. But if you like those type of movies, its worth a look.

Paradise: Love (2012)

As well-thought as it is painful to watch....

[8/10 · 15 January 2013]

HEAVY SPOILERS

Teresa, a Austrian woman in the age of about 50, spends her holidays in a Kenyan beach resort. She meets there her disgustingly horny friends, and soon it is clear, that all the holidays are about is to get sex with young black men. Teresa is a little reluctant first, not knowing how to get in touch. This changes quickly, when she ends up in a cheap motel with the first of the many intrusive street merchants/de-facto male prostitutes. He treats her too harsh so she leaves in horror before intercourse starts. Though agonized at first, she meets the next day the softer and seemingly more romantic Munga, with whom she spends two days drinking, smoking dope and having sex. Munga starts to have steadily increasing financial demands, covered up by stories tho help relatives who are sick and in need. When Teresa refuses to give him more money, he forbids her to touch him and hides from her the next day. You can run, but never hide - soon she discovers at the beach, that his "sister" she got to know earlier is actually his wife, and berates him, rips his rastas and beats him in a humiliating way at the public beach - only to have sex with the next merchant later that day. This time, she gives that guy money without second thought, when he tells her, that he needs it for the treatment of his brother who "just" happened to have a motorcycle accident.

The climax is Teresas birthday. While her teenage daughter does not give her a phone call, even when she reminds her on the mailbox for that, her Austrian friends have a "surprise". They try to start a sex party and have one Kenyan man with them, who strips for them. The four elder women try to heat him up, by stripping themselves, getting touchy e.g., so that he will get an erection - without success. Later, when the friends left, Teresa tries to have sex with a little shy clerk of the club, whom he seem earlier when she and another friend make fun of him in a little offensive way. Teresa throws him out angrily, when he refuses to lick her pussy. Then she cries.

Seidls "paradise love" is a multidimensional movie, who is definitely hard to watch for the viewer. Especially the sex scenes are kind of an endurance test, for several reasons. You see the extremely obese Teresa partly or fully naked, and some of her friends. Also, while you never see the actual intercourse, the scenes are very long, and they deal mainly about, how Teresa kind of negotiates in an awkward way, what the males shall do and not (for example, how to touch her titties).

While many other viewers say that they feel more for the Teresa towards the end of the movies, I feel different. When her need for a little romanticism is put to a test by Munga and she learns how prostitution there works, she becomes kind of mean, and even more demanding for cheap sex. In between she deals - towards her friends and the men - with her self-pity, telling them how ugly she is.

The whole prostitution business is shown very realistic here, and not so much different how it works for men. I like how Seidl shows, despite their is a "mutual business agreement", it does not really work out many times. The Austrian women here are, despite sex-hungry, often a little racist and many times openly offensive towards the Kenyans. The interesting thing is, that the environment in that very touristic place supports that attitude. The most impressive picture, to me, is early in the movie: On one side, in the club, the all-white tourists laying on their sun lounges, on the other side, at the start of the beach, the lurking street merchants, just separated by a little white line - guarded by a paramilitary looking black guard of the club. The imagery is great, anyways; the camera man of this has a very good feeling how to use light and manages, f.e., to show the dream-like beach in a bright, but also cold and threatening light, one time.

This movie is not fun, never mind what other critics say, and though some parts of it are very satirical, I think, it goes more in the drama direction - with a main character, that is hard to like. Anyway, it is strong, powerful movie, but only for those people, who like to look in the depths of human society, enjoy highly realistic movies, or like movies where you can think a lot about.

Ghost (1990)

10 stars only for Tony Goldwyn

[10/10 · 18 October 2011]

Tony Goldwyn as Carl Bruner does one of the best jobs in movie history for a guy deeply in panic - maybe, similar to the airplane episode in "Twilight Zone". Thats why I still like to watch the movie when its on the TV. Forget about the love, the magic, the cheesy special effects and the crooner music. He is playing a guy who notices to late he has made one mistake too much, and even for greedy intentions, and later is sweating his brains out. Best moment in the movie, when he notices he was framed by Whoopie. I may switch off "Ghost" later, but I never miss that moment. Otherwise - Demi Moore with a worse hair cut then in G.I. Jane, and it even inspired girls at the time.

Lammbock (2001)

Very good movie, but with one vile scene in it

[8/10 · 13 June 2007]

I like "Lammbock" very much. To me it is not a typical "Stoner"-Movie, but more about friendship, about making your way in life and how narrow the cliff between good life and danger/peril sometimes is. It has very good dialogues too; from the acting Moritz Bleibtreu delivers most jokes, but Lukas Kantorowicz to me prevailed and was just great. Mainly is a comedy; but some of the content is very deep and like the "small man in your head"-discussion (which starts about the two guys discussing if anyone would suck only soccerstars Mehmet Scholls dick or anyones dick) true in a psychological sense. There were two things I did not like:

• the scene, where Stefan mistakenly humps his sleeping sister and discovers it only in the morning, is just disgusting. Not only that it has nothing to contribute to the story, it is just vile and no content worth for joke (I think this was their intention).

• also, I did not like the end of the movie so much; when Stefan by free will fails his final exam and also leaves the country. It was like a plea for egotistic behavior, leaving all behind, after his father - who helped him out in a very difficult situation - and Kai helped him so much.

DoppelPack (2000)

Good movie with obvious story

[8/10 · 13 June 2007]

The movie is about two Mid-Twenty-Guys hanging around in Dortmund. Hoffi is good-looking, easy-going, but not very clever; his best friend Lehmi is more clever, but also more serious and bit pessimistic/aggressive. This movie follows them around a day where they practically do not do much more than walk trough the city in search mostly for beer, but also a gift for Hoffis sisters birthday. On the way they more or less stumble over their dream girls and end up with them on a punk concert. I think this movie is about the unrevealed dream of many Germans, which was subject of more famous works like the fairy-tale "Hans im Glück" or the novel "Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts": not being serious, living in the day AND be happy (which is not possible for many of us). What I like most, were the dialogues, which point out very good the Ruhrpott dialect with its many funny expressions. Also the characters are very sympathetic. For such a small movie, it has an excellent cast (the main protagonists are great, but their also interesting appearances like that of the excellent stage actor Edgar Selge). Two points I did not like: - the movie is a bit too positive about drinking. The protagonists drink all day; but people with this habit I know usually appear to me as losers and not guys who appeal to attractive girls. - some things of the plot were just too obvious, like in a Rom-Com. This goes for the love-story, but also for the struggle scene, which seemingly has to be in every "buddy" movie. I would have liked if they at least have canceled the latter; there are friendships which can be exciting without struggle.

Mein neuer Freund (2005– )

One of the best shows on German TV ever

[10/10 · 11 January 2007]

Despite in the beginning there were difficulties, that this show would even make it on the screen (on the first run, it was canceled after some volumes), it might be one of the best shows that ever aired in Germany. Basically, it may seem just like another one of dozens of Reality TV-Shows. But they got Christian Ulmen in it. A girl (and in three cases a young man) have to spend a weekend with a complete stranger and pretend he is her/his pardner to their friends and families (this was done in British TV before, I think). Ulmen did a great job in playing the "fake-friends" as complete whackos and assholes - and this is why this show is so great: he is Knut a (literally) stinking old-fashioned rock dude and self-declared artist, who enjoys to shout out very obscene and unbelievably bad jokes. Or "Ecke", an obvious dope-smoker, who ever does silly and nerve-enduring raps. Or "Alexander", a man from the nobility, who is keen on inhuman "New Economy"-business tacticts and treats every other persons at servant. The contestants (who would win 10 000 Euro, when they lasted one weekend with this dude) mostly had a really hard time! Because of Ulmens talent as an actor, this is far more a comedian show than a Reality show. Bad thing is there will (and was not planned) any continuation of these mini-series with seven or eight episodes, because Ulmen estimated after the first airing, that in future times he will be recognized to easily...

Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb (2005)

Average movie about an average time

[6/10 · 13 February 2006]

The 80ies were a very calm era in Germany. Student revolution and the terror by RAF was overcome, while the economical crisis of the 90ies was still ahead. But for some reason the people had great fear, especially of an atomic 3rd world war, which was in a way irrational.

"Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb" treats these subjects. A mother and her son move to some kind of hippie community (new forms of living together also were quite popular) near a nuclear power plant in rural northern Germany. The mother falls in love to the leader of the community. Her son, who liked more to live in the city, has problems to adopt the new lifestyle, but he soon finds some friends. He hates the hippies and is more into drinking, shooting with rifles and stuff. So the movie - which got some good renown by German critics move on.

I personally felt some disappointment after watching this. For a satirical comedy, the movie had to much depression in it, as the community slowly decays. Also I did not like that there was sometimes so much distance between the mother and her son, as if they were no relatives. I think the goal of the movie was to portray the atmosphere in the 80ies. In this, it succeeds, but the plot is a bit pointless and awkward. I think sometimes, the more artistic German movie makers have a certain fear to give direct messages, everything is subtextual, a bit "dogma"-like, which is why they have this boring touch (for examples movies like "Halbe Treppe" or "Erleuchtung garantiert).

If you'd like to see a comedy about leftist communities, I much more recommend Moodysons' "Together", which is way more funny and elaborated. The beginning of "Together" with the naked people seems to have inspired the beginning of this movie, too.

Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)

Just a shite movie, nothing more

[1/10 · 9 September 2005]

Because many people wrote about how "cult" this movie was, I rented it one time at the video store. I don't care if its made by Troma or not, it is just a whole load of sh*t... The basic story may be great, a surfer gang of Nazis trying to invade Californian beaches. But the outcome - forget about it. The whole movie shows only the inability of the makers, especially in the ridiculous "fighting" scenes. They could not even make the Nazis look like real Nazis, with Uniforms and so on or at least in Skinhead Style. Despite some senseless dialog, the movie has not much to offer. No sex, no gory violence, except for the basic idea a very conventional story - Surf Nazis take over the beaches, the "oppressed" other surf gangs take revenge. There are lot B- and C-Movies of the 80ies which are much better.

As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (2001)

To cheesy to be really good

[30 October 2003]

"So weit die Füsse tragen" - translated in English "As far as the feet can carry" came out in 2001 and was kind of flop in Germany. The movie has some good actors in it, like Michael Mendl, Hans Peter Hallwachs and also the main actor, Bernhard Betterman, does a good job. Its a story of a single german POW Clemens Forell, who escapes from prisoners camp in siberia and walks thousands of kilometers to the border of Iran, where he would be in safety of the sovjets. It was a true story, and in the 50ies a very popular TV series (much popular than this movie) was made of it. I did not like that movie very much. I think there were just to much thinks mixed together - a love-story, the plot with russian smugglers, the scenes with Forells family and much more. It could not really concentrate on one topic: the hard conditions of war prisoners in Germany and adventurous scenes were put together - in a bit cheesy hollywood-like style. That works in Germany with american movies, but not with german ones. And so it could not satisfy german watchers: For people interested in politics or history of that time, it contained not enough information; for blockbuster watchers was not enough action in it. Thats why I think this movie is even better for foreign watchers: they get a bit about german history, but theres some adventure to and it never gets to deep that they cant understand some things. Rating: 4/10

The Miracle of Bern (2003)

good movie, but out of Germany nobody probably would care ...

[24 October 2003]

The movie was much better than I expected. It has some flaws, but I still would give it a 8 out of 10. The movie is about the world championship 1954, when the national soccer team won its first world cup. Though you cant make a movie fully out of soccer scenes, the main focus is on a boy who is a huge soccer fan and carries the ball and training clothes for his idol, Germanys star forward Helmut Rahn. The boys father was in the war captured in russia. When he returns, it is like he is alienated to his family. But in the end he sticks together with his son, and they drive to the final in the switzerland (the boy thinks, Rahn could not win an important game without him at his side). There is also a sub-plot with a soccer reporter and his wife (which does not like soccer, but joins him to the Switzerland), which is a bit pointless, but has an excellent performance by young actress Katharina Wackernagel. And there are a lot of scenes about the Bundestrainer Sepp Herberger and his soccer team, which are to me the highlight of the movie. They are very funny, and the editors found a lot of actors who look very similar to the original players. There are some scenes which depict some ideas about german history and would any historician probably turn to rage, but that does not matter a lot. Would this movie be of any interest for people out of Germany? Well, I think, no. One funny thing is the lot of german dialects that are spoken here. And the movie works better if you know something about german history and the details of the world championship (a lot Germans know them). In many other countries, soccer is not as popular. It would be the same reason why american baseball movies (for example) would not work here.

Year of the Dragon (1985)

The casting is strange

[24 October 2003]

Hmm... I did not find that movie very thrilling... Perhaps after 18 years it has got some rust on it. Some things I found very strange Despite Mickey Rourke was only 29 years old at the time of the movie, they made him look like he was 40 (with some grey hair and very granpa-like clothes). Otherwise, the asian reporter seems to be sexually attracted by that bum-looking cop, even if he insults her to the worst. Then there is that woman who is claimed to be Rourkes Wife in the movie, and if he even looks old, she still looks more like she is his mother. And in one scene in the asian restaurant the bad guy (John Lone) tells Rourke even how good his wife would look?? I think the casting guys were sleeping a lot at work.

Riverplay (2001)

Ittenbach gets more interesting

[13 October 2003]

Ittenbach is actually the most known of the few german splatter directors. I liked this movie very much. It is not as campy as his earlier ones, and is based on a really good storyline. Though, as mentioned in the other comment, Ittenbach lacked to have really good actors and technique for it - otherwise it would be surely a genre-classic.

The story: six people gather accidentally on a hut deep in the woods. Nob and his wife Susan are not on good terms and it is likely that they will soon divorce. A canoe trip shall save her . On the river they meet soon Daniel und Walter, two friend, who have been to jail together. In the woods they meet Phil and Linda. They are an evil couple, who kill wanderers and eat them.

Soon a corpse of one of their victims is found. None of the three couples knows whom to trust, and Phil and Linda slowly try to reach their goal - to kill the four other ones... Compared to other Ittenbach movies, this one is not very gory, just in the final, which is in some ways great. I like the "serious" Ittenbach more than the "campy". If he goes on like this - which is not very probable, though - he could be a big name in the horror business, as Jörg Buttgereit already is.

Premutos: The Fallen Angel (1997)

Strange, campy and a bit funny

[13 October 2003]

The german gore scene is not very big - the most movies go on the account of three directors: Jörg Buttgereit, Andreas Schnaas and Olaf Ittenbach. The later has been the most active in the last years, and it seems that his movies become (slightly) more professional. "Premutos" has a strange plot about a boy, who finds a magic book and summons an satanic angel called Premutos. But in fact it is kind of a funny movie with a lot of people being transformed to Zombies, who attack a small family. The movie contains a lot of gore; the humour does not function every time, and mostly the film is very gore. Scenes which I remind positive:

+ The films (anti)hero Mathias gets kicked in the balls when playing soccer and is then examined very gay urologist - to me the most funny scene in the movie. And it leads to the key scene - when he glues some old liquid to his balls, he is turning to the Überzombie.

+ In another scene the family celebrates the birthday of Walter, Mathias father. One guest is digging a booger out of his nose, forming it to a little ball and then flicks it into the mouth of his woman, who is suppressing him and also talking all the time.

+ There is one black actor, and I think even in the German version they dubbed him, because he has two voices - one with a very broad bavarian dialect, one in "normal" german

But these are only the best scenes. I did not like the final, when they take a tank to kill the zombies - it was just tooo unlikely and I didnot think it was very funny. And also very bad are the "historical" scenes of the subplot, which are based in the Time after Jesus Christs death and the battle of Stalingrad. Oh, and I think some of the side actors are even for a gore film to bad.

Violent Shit (1989)

Germanys most gory series ever... but not worth to look at

[13 October 2003]

I have seen three Schnaas movies, and I all hate them... though I like Splatter movies. The "Violent shit" series is the most gory of them, and I also think they are the most gory Schnaas movies. The plot, the actors, the effects are incredibly bad. I have seen one of the three "violent shit" movies, I dont know which one - does not matter anyway. The whole point of it is to kill a lot of people in very brutal ways - like slaughtering and castrating them. While other genre movies, especially the on a negative way very impressive "Cannibal Holocaust", try to put a sense in it or explain something, this is just GORE. They are disgusting because they are so boring. I dont know why Schnaas still even tries to put one of his nutty plots in it and does not just randomly mix butcher scenes.

Punk'd (2003–2015)

Too agressive to be really funny

[10 August 2003]

In this show Ashton Kutcher and his team of practical jokers screw some celebrities. Why not, but this show is not very funny, because these guys lose the point how to entertain the audience. Instead of pulling the people into clever-absurd situations their ideas are very plain (naked guy in a shop, security test, a guy smashing a fake one celebrities car with a baseball bat). Its boring, because these jokes are so simple that you always think youve already seen them on another practical joke test. The only exciting is how some of the victims react and so is this show more like a psychical stress test for stars than an entertaining show. Really on my nerve went the in-between comments of Ashton Kutcher, which showed that he has a very primitive sense of humor.

Die totale Therapie (1997)

You better watch this one!

[9/10 · 20 July 2003]

Certainly one of the best horror thrillers in german speech. A group of people, all suffering by psycho/social problems, are visiting a kind of seminar in a farm in bavaria. But the master of the seminar is like a sect guru and uses very sadistic methods to discourage the people and to break their will. All hell breaks loose when he tries to rape a young female.

Wild at Heart (1990)

Lynch-Movie? Gifford-Movie!

[20 July 2003]

Cool Movie. But you cant really compare it to Lynchs other works like "Twin Peaks" or "Mulholland Drive". Barry Gifford wrote the novel and the script and despite some changes, "Wild at Heart" is a movie in his typical dirty pulp style. The characters "Reggie", "Santos" and "Perdita" also appear in another movie, for which Gifford wrote the script, named "Perdita Durango". Typical for Gifford: Tex-mex people and countryside, small but strange stories like that one with Griffin Jones, ehhr... explicit violence and guys starring which could have jumped off an Slayer video clip.