"Drei unter einer Decke" is a German television film from 2003, so this one is also moving closer to its 20th anniversary. Maybe it happened already, depending on when you read this review of mine. In any case, this runs for 1.5 hours, minimally under, and that is pretty much the standard running time for small screen releases here in my country. There are exceptions, but not too many. One of the most interesting things about this film is probably the director. Peter Weck turned 90 this year and may have been a prolific director, but the one thing he is even more than that is a prolific actor and he has only been retired for five years now. He already appeared in Romy Schneider's "Sissi" back in the day. In this film here, he does not appear in front of the camera though. He never (with one exception) wrote the screenplays for his films though, so the one in charge here is Cornelia Willinger and that is no surprise at all because she worked on screenplays many times for films and projects that have a South German (or Austrian) component. Also if I am not mistaken this one here is the third film from a triloggy and Willinger also was in charge of the screenplay for the very first film that has a fairly surprising running time. At least here on imdb, but I guess this is correct. Anyway, back to this one here: Helmut Fischer, the star of the previous installments died shortly after the second movie, so this one we have here is mostly a tribute to him I would say. Seeing his face at the very end in the sky was a charming inclusion, just like the ways in which he is talked about in here on other occasions. He is still omnipresent really, even if we do not see him. This tribute component makes it a bit difficult for me here too to give the lowest rating possible, but I have to be neutral and it just was not a good or interesting or funny movie at all from any perspective unfortunately and also a step down in quality from the previous one. There the rating was too low. Here it is kinda accurate. Anyway, Fischer may have been gone, but they brough in a trio of really familiar faces to make up for that: Elmar Wepper, Uschi Glas and Jochen Busse. Fritz Wepper is of course the one person at the center of the story and he is back from the second film just like Heidelinde Weis. By the way, with some of the actors' backgrounds here and also the director's origin, I am fairly surprised this is not at least an Austrian co-production. Oh well, one thing that is a bit messed up here is the order of the cast list. Uschi Glas may be somebody most Germany immediately recognize, but a great actress she is not. This is not even what I wanted to say though. What I wanted to say is that she should absolutely not be first credit. There are several others with more screen time than her and also some of those were in the first film already, so Fritz Wepper and Weis, as overrated as they may be, would have deserved this honor. There was a gay character in the second film, but he is out of the picture now. We are getting a brief explanation where he is. Instead, Jochen Busse, an actor I kinda like, gets to paly a gay character as well this time and he, as gimmicky as it may have been, was among the more interesting aspects of this film. Then again, I may be biased here as, like I said, I like him. Also saw him at a theater earlier this year between the first and second corona wave. As for Elmar Wepper, I always thought he is the more talented Wepper brother, so a bit of a waste because his inclusion and what happened to his character offered almost nothing for the actor to show us his talent. The actress who palys the character working as a tombstone seller I was totally not familiar with at all. But August Schmölzer deserves a mention as well. Pretty impressive to see some of the films he has been in, even if it may not have been big parts. Probably superior to pretty much everything everybody else here has done in their long careers. Yep, most cast members here are fairly old. But also kinda fitting that neither Schmölzer's face nor name felt really familiar to me before I took a deeper look. My loss I suppose.
Okay, as for the film here, the reason I struggled ith it mostly is because they did not get in the effortless comedy from the second film. Here and there I laughed, not too often, but still. All the shots at comedy in this one here felt really forgettable overall sadly. This includes the running gag that Fischer's character is sending messages from up above by putting objects in beer mugs. Objects that definitely do not belong in there, like fruit from a chestnut tree or golf balls. These two were really bigger than I expected. Okay, what else? Another reason why it did so little for me was that the more serious plot inclusions like the role of Glas' character were not really elaborated on in an entertaining manner. I remember in the movie from the mid90s there may have been this woman who caused chaos by starting an affair with the two bosses, but it was always tongue-in-cheek with how they described her, how they helped her (too much) etc. This was missing here unfortunately. The plot with the medium and Weis' character maybe falling for him was also not good enough to be kept going for pretty much the entire film. And what was up with his girlfriend or almost-fiancée? Anyway, I guess the almost 20 years age difference are made up for by F. Wepper's character starting something with somebody where there is an even bigger gap perhaps. Or they just did not look their age. Everybody gets their romance. So did Glas and E. Wepper. At least implied. They weren't siblings, were they? Anyway, back to Weis' character. Her tears early on (or sad face) showed us that she does care for her deceased brother, but nonetheless she plays a character that almost could have been a main antagonist here with her business plans and her greed for the inheritance. But they are still keeping it light and vampire dreams are also just included for comedy reasons. I somewhat pictured Fischer as a vampire because of that, so mission accomplished. But for her not so likable business strategy here, Weis also gets her fair share in terms of how she is especially haunted by Fischer's character. At least until she understands that there shall be no big changes to the place and she will not treat F. Wepper's character this poorly for money reasons. Family is key. This is one value that is appreciated especially in South Germany. Anyway, the title here also makes obvious that there are not really any antagonists and Weis is nonetheless one of the likable characters. You could argue who the third one would be this time. The other Wepper? Glas? Nope. It becomes obvious quickly that it still includes all three siblings despite Fischer's and his character's death. Said title is not super easy to translate, but it is a common saying for people sticking together basically and here's three of them. I think there is also a specific translation in English, but I don't remember it right now. Also something like "in bed with each other" or so, but without a sexual component altogether obviously as they are related. However, it is also not too important. The one thing for you to take from this review is that you want to skip the watch for sure this time. Highly not recommended. Only see it if you are Bavarian and adore the "mia san mia" attitude and also appreciate almost all of the actors. Other then Busse's scenes and this being a heartfelt (yet unsuccessful) tribute to Helmut Fischer, there is really nothing positive for me to say this time.
Okay, as for the film here, the reason I struggled ith it mostly is because they did not get in the effortless comedy from the second film. Here and there I laughed, not too often, but still. All the shots at comedy in this one here felt really forgettable overall sadly. This includes the running gag that Fischer's character is sending messages from up above by putting objects in beer mugs. Objects that definitely do not belong in there, like fruit from a chestnut tree or golf balls. These two were really bigger than I expected. Okay, what else? Another reason why it did so little for me was that the more serious plot inclusions like the role of Glas' character were not really elaborated on in an entertaining manner. I remember in the movie from the mid90s there may have been this woman who caused chaos by starting an affair with the two bosses, but it was always tongue-in-cheek with how they described her, how they helped her (too much) etc. This was missing here unfortunately. The plot with the medium and Weis' character maybe falling for him was also not good enough to be kept going for pretty much the entire film. And what was up with his girlfriend or almost-fiancée? Anyway, I guess the almost 20 years age difference are made up for by F. Wepper's character starting something with somebody where there is an even bigger gap perhaps. Or they just did not look their age. Everybody gets their romance. So did Glas and E. Wepper. At least implied. They weren't siblings, were they? Anyway, back to Weis' character. Her tears early on (or sad face) showed us that she does care for her deceased brother, but nonetheless she plays a character that almost could have been a main antagonist here with her business plans and her greed for the inheritance. But they are still keeping it light and vampire dreams are also just included for comedy reasons. I somewhat pictured Fischer as a vampire because of that, so mission accomplished. But for her not so likable business strategy here, Weis also gets her fair share in terms of how she is especially haunted by Fischer's character. At least until she understands that there shall be no big changes to the place and she will not treat F. Wepper's character this poorly for money reasons. Family is key. This is one value that is appreciated especially in South Germany. Anyway, the title here also makes obvious that there are not really any antagonists and Weis is nonetheless one of the likable characters. You could argue who the third one would be this time. The other Wepper? Glas? Nope. It becomes obvious quickly that it still includes all three siblings despite Fischer's and his character's death. Said title is not super easy to translate, but it is a common saying for people sticking together basically and here's three of them. I think there is also a specific translation in English, but I don't remember it right now. Also something like "in bed with each other" or so, but without a sexual component altogether obviously as they are related. However, it is also not too important. The one thing for you to take from this review is that you want to skip the watch for sure this time. Highly not recommended. Only see it if you are Bavarian and adore the "mia san mia" attitude and also appreciate almost all of the actors. Other then Busse's scenes and this being a heartfelt (yet unsuccessful) tribute to Helmut Fischer, there is really nothing positive for me to say this time.
