Review of Schtonk

Schtonk (1992)
1/10
Schtink!
16 June 2007
A horribly heavy-handed attempt to turn the real-life case of the forged Hitler diaries into a German comedy (a contradiction in terms, if you ask me, and I am German), this schtinker is an unabashedly broad, strictly one-note stab at what director Dietl probably takes for satire. Based on a pedestrian script which provides no laughs at all (except if you're a die-hard fan of fart jokes, that is), it features sleazy, grotesquely over-the-top performances by basically everyone involved (although George and Ochsenknecht stand out as particularly hammy), ugly, overlit photography and an unnervingly blaring score. Dietl not only proves that he has no sense of timing whatsoever - each and every punchline can be seen coming round the bend a mile away and is milked to the last drop when it finally arrives - but also displays a disturbingly childish penchant for "dirty" words which, quite obviously, he thinks are funny by themselves. To top it all off, at nearly two hours running time, the whole affair is so interminably drawn out it'll bore you to near-death. Avoid at any cost - and please do yourself a favor and give Dietl's other films (especially "Late Show" and "Rossini") a very wide berth, too: they're even worse.
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