Some films can probably only be understood if you speak the language or come from the country of production. Club Las Piranjas brings together several icons of television in a grotesquely crude parody of club holidays at their worst. Hurray for Judy Winter as the permanently drunk manager and Angelika Milster and Hape Kerkeling as tourist-hating entertainers.
3 Reviews
small but nice
gudrun-krueger27 August 2005
This movie is hilarious - but only for fans of Kerkeling. He is a brilliant comedian in Germany. "Club Las Piranjas" is, besides his former picture "Kein Pardon", a must-see for all devotees of coruscating humor. This film is much more better than Kerkelings last one "Samba in Mettmann". So if you have seen this one before don't be deterred by "Club Las Piranjas". This is really a masterpiece. I have to admit that the first half is much more better than the rest but who cares, when you have such a terrific cast as Kerkeling, Brandner, Milster and Winter. All of them are excellent character actors in Germany. So if you are looking for an enjoying but candid movie you have to see it. It's worth watching- it is!
Friends or foes?
Horst_In_Translation21 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Club Las Piranjas" is a German movie from 1995, so this one already had its 20th anniversary last year. It is a television production directed by Ulli Baumann and one of the two writers here is Hape Kerkeling, who also plays one of the main characters in the film. Kerkeling is considered one of Germany's finest entertainers and show hosts these days, even if he has not been too prolific in recent years in terms of public appearances. But maybe that's why he is so well-acclaimed and respected still. In any case, I cannot really say I think he is one Germany's best actors. He is solid I guess, but nothing really stands out compared to other cast members here, even if he already plays the baitiest character of the film probably. Other than him, the cast includes a handful more actors that are at least known here in Germany. I will not go into detail about the names as you can check out the cast list yourself. But none of them truly made an impact here. It is a film about a group of tourists who go to the holiday club mentioned in the title and the two directors of the club (one of them Kerkeling's character) plan their guests' activities. And they do so to a level that may appear unpleasant to the group of guests already and the longer the film goes, the more they ask themselves if they are guests or prisoners. Yes it is a fairly absurd comedy film, but this is frequently the case when Kerkeling had an impact in the creative process. Nonetheless, neither the writing nor the acting convinced me and even Horst Krause who I am usually a big fan of kinda disappointed me here, only one or two scenes where he made me laugh. The result is that almost all the characters, especially the tourists, are entirely forgettable. And I would say that, near the end, when the film is even trying to make a bit of a dramatic impact, it is not working out well at all. All in all, this is not one of Kerkeling's best achievements and I believe the IMDb rating is way too high. Not recommended.
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