Der Clown (2005) User Reviews

Destruction without sense

[NemoAB · 3/10 · 24 April 2005]

First off, I haven't seen the TV series about the same main character.

I know there is an audience for movies like this. But I tend to expect at least a small storyline that is been followed in the film. After watching "Der Clown" I am not sure what story was told there.

All I can recall is this: A guy, formerly a member of some sort of special forces, dropped out of that unit. Now he is free to break legal rules to successfully hunt down the bad guys. Of course his girlfriend had fought on his side and has been killed in action. We learn this in the opening scene.

The bad guys have the famous idea to rob gold bars (can money be more difficult to carry away?) and they do it with ease. It took just a grenade on the highway to get rid of all the chasing police force.

The Clown starts the hunt. A friend supports helicopters (yes, several of them, because they are wrecked one after the other). And a blondish journalist shows up, right in time to be taken hostage and later to kiss the clown. No other purpose for her to be in the movie. I already forgot how the bad guys were stopped in the end.

Action in a movie doesn't have do be explosions. But in this movie, everything explodes. And as in the German TV series "Cobra 11", cars tend to lift off in slow motion as soon as they hit a little obstacle. This is dull entertainment, destruction for the lover of brute force. You don't care for any character in this movie. The makers tried to make us feel for that poor man that had lost his girlfriend, but it doesn't work just by putting in the scene of her death in slow motion.

If you like TV productions like "Cobra 11", you will probably like this movie. But don't expect more. If you go to the movies to be touched and moved by the story, this is definitely not your film.

Miserable cinematic failure and waste of energy, budget and talent

[marco_23_polo · 3/10 · 25 March 2005]

I saw this film right on the day it opened in a large theater and even though I wasn't familiar with the original German TV Series I at least expected decent action entertainment and hoped to experience some two hours of fun and adrenaline.

But even my lowest expectations were completely shattered. DER CLOWN is a vintage cinematic failure - which rates even more painful, as it is conceived to be the first cinema released film of the newly formed cinema division of Germany's production company ACTION CONCEPT.

This is even more lamentable, as the film presents its assets in a very loose and disadvantageous manner: even though it contains some extremely strong elaborate stunts, explosions (of choppers, cars and even entire planes) and shootouts, which certainly would be worthy of a true Hollywood action production, these supposed assets are not presented as eye candy at all. The actions sequences are framed and edited in a dull way, making them look average, boring and uninspired. The blown up 16mm to 35mm image on the screen looks awfully cheap, the ongoing use of grand camera moves and particularly the frequent split screens pretending some artistic merits are just annoying and do make no sense at all!

But it's not only the failure of technical aspects, which ads up to me feeling FÜR DUMM VERKAUFT at the end of the screening. The actors, the storyline and the governing VISION of this project seem to be dis comfortably stuck in the feeling of average German 90s television bonanza (no matter how successful it must have been at its time) - and this doesn't add a sense of missing aura and charming feel to the flick...

And finally: the producers really ought to be warned for their slated upcoming productions: if you tailor you next films after this model DON'T EVER ATTACH THE KIND OF CREDITS WITH FEELGOOD BACKSTAGE FOOTAGE AND BLOPPERS ... it's simply downright embarrassing, period (I had to cover my eyes).

Finally I really have to mention, that the best experience of this very evening was the preceding trailer of the upcoming film KAMPFANSAGE (an ACTION CONCEPT CINEMA production as well), which appears to be far more satisfying and in terms of story, look, style, music, characters, acting and directing. And I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Rumors have it, that this guerrilla like film has been produced on a tight, little budget of EUR 300,000. Now, if there are guys who can make a supposedly appealing feature for such a tiny budget, why are other people of even the same production company (!) entirely unable to end up with something witty and gripping for an estimated budget of 8 billion Euros? That's a Gordian knot I haven't been able to untie yet...

A true and newly born German entertainment cinema is certainly about to appear on the spotlight - but DER CLOWN dosen't belong to it (... at least, that is what I hope!)

... I rated it 3 lame stars for some whacky pyrotechnics and for the hyped-up lips of German I-wanna-be-a great-star Xenia Seeberg ...

Knew the series and liked it? Then go for it, otherwise skip it.

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 21 September 2017]

"Der Clown" or "Der Clown - Tag der Vergeltung" or "The Clown: Payday" is a German German-language film from 2005, so it is already over a decade old, that of course is a follow-up to the pretty well-known television show of the same title. We find out early on about the events that resulted in the title character retiring from his prestigious job, but everything that follows afterward in this 100-minute movie is all new in terms of plot and story and characters. Sven Martinek is of course in the lead and the fact that he is okay as a lead actor in action films makes him better than most of the other cast members and that really says nothing positive about this project. There are a couple more names in here that you may have come across if you like German films. These would be the admittedly fairly stunning Habermann, Seeberg, Otto, Brambach and even little Bernhard Hoëcker has a cameo as a petty burglar that really surprised me. Fittingly with his voice acting role on Shrek, he is called Rumpelstiltskin by the protagonist here. As for the story, it would be a lie that it is memorable whatsoever and there are some pretty bad moments involving the dialogues which is somewhat expected if you take a look at the people who made this film and what else they have come up with. But luckily it is not permanent and for the most part, it is just a tolerable random action film and not a genuinely horrible movie either, even if it is far from the level where I would recommend it to general audiences. It's not a great loss if you skip it. It is really really difficult to find anyway these days. So who should see it? Probably only those who also saw the series back then enjoyed it. Those will probably like the approach and also the closure offered in here and honestly unlike many other films who take themselves seriously while being frequently even worse than this one here, this is a film that also has its lighter moments, even if many of them are also more embarrassing than funny. So yeah, I give this one a thumbs-down. Go for something else instead. It's only good if you are in the mood for somewhat stupid action film entertainment. But then it's close to a perfect choice I guess. Being into clown action alone isn't enough. If so, maybe try the new It instead or the Killer Clowns from Outer Space epic.

Send in the clowns

[Lari-Fari · 2/10 · 27 March 2005]

"Der Clown" is the movie version of the German TV – series by the same name, running quite successful from 1996 to 2001. The series was about some guy who is officially dead but in truth is sitting in his hideout, waiting for the bad guys to move. Whenever something is seriously wrong, he'll put on a clown mask and go rampage, vigilante – style. So far, so good, on to the Big Screen...

A merry bunch of bad guys with hockey masks wants to steal the German gold reserves. The guy who once was the Clown has retired after his girlfriend was killed in action, but now it's time for him to take his costume out of the vault, put on the smelly rubber mask again and kick some bad butt.

Boy, this has gone wrong. Big time trash bonanza! First of all, it was not shot on 35 mm, it does not even look like 16 mm, I have a certain feeling that they did it on video. Bad video, that is, with the predominant colours being red (explosions, the actors' faces) and grey (everything else). It looks terrible, but on the other hand, that fits quite well with about all other aspects of this production. The movie desperately tries in every scene to imitate big loud Hollywood action flicks (which is absolutely okay), but obviously the makers neither have the talent nor have they understood anything (not okay). Every five minutes there is a big, red (you know, video) explosion or something, our heroes escape one way or the other, with always the same pathetic piece of score. I would accept that those scenes do not have any kind of emotional impact, but the movie does not even work as an entertaining no-brainer, never! And whose fault is this? Yes. Send in the director, writer, editor and all the other clowns responsible for this catastrophe! May they lower their red video faces in shame!

The screenplay was obviously written by a chimp that was tied to a typewriter. It reveals a total lack of sense for pace, logic, characters, dialog, you name it. There is absolutely no storytelling. You could zap into this crap every time, stay with it for five minutes and change the channel again, without the feeling that you're missing something before or after what you just watched, it has made-for-TV written all over (Afterwards I even had problems to summarize the story at all...). This terrible excuse for a script is turned into an uninspired, uninterrupted inferno of hectic, shaky shots. Honestly, I saw home movies that had more virtuosity than this. Heck, not even the action sequences look good! The most annoying thing however is the extensive, completely unmotivated use of time warps and split screen effects throughout the whole movie (I don't mean two or three times, it is in almost EVERY scene). And for those who are still with us: The sound mixing is the worst I was forced to listen to in years. Bad, bad, bad!

But I wouldn't say that it is not entertaining. "Der Clown" features tons of incredible, unintentionally funny moments, e.g. a stunt, where at least a dozen burning police cars fly through the cloud of an explosion (red, of course) on a highway. Yes, this is a cool stunt. No, it is by no means a tragic, emotional scene which would maybe, and only maybe, justify the use of slow motion and pathetic syntheziser strings for two long minutes. It however gets really, really tasteless when the main character has a flashback of how his girlfriend died. This is edited like a music video, with the lethal bullet entering the girl's body within the rhythm of the music. My god, what were they thinking??

If you're into trash and maybe even survived last year's moron fiesta "Daniel – Der Zauberer", this is definitely a must see. If not, be warned. You'll probably feel the urge to go rampage afterwards, vigilante – style.

Banal, Obvious, Trite

[denis888 · 2/10 · 23 May 2007]

I love both Eva Habermann and Xenia Seeberg for their incredible performances in immortal Lexx Series. But here I was so badly shocked and so much disappointed that no words can come in. The plot is a real obvious silliness - bad guys, Xenia is among them, are always plotting some bad actions, only to steal some big chunk of gold from some place. Good guys, including Eva and some mystical Der Clown, as a modern day Robin Hood, always hinder them on doing that. There are many cars exploded, some helicopters, some airplanes, some cycles, some bombs, some more... It all looks like a cheap remake f some Commando or Rambo films, only with poor play and cheap budget. Xenis does not play, she only makes effective poses and shows her legs galore. Eva is better by a hair width, she is always cool but then frightened and brave. I say, this is a brainless, light weight ditty, not a serious thought behind. Do not waste your time on that. But it is good for laughs.

worst film ever made

[marcsch1 · 1/10 · 13 October 2005]

This is by far the worst film ever made. It lacks idea, talent and originality and makes Ed Wood's films seem like Oscar masterpieces. Even the special effects and stunts are boring and completely laughable. It feels like it's been made by monkeys. the "acting" is nonexistent and against the Geneva Conventions and the dialog is so embarrassing that i had to switch it off from time to time. Even a piece of mud would act better that this ensemble. It is a complete waste of time and money. If you want something interesting, i recommend to rather watch static on TV and to avoid this film under all circumstances.

I *loved* the series

[ofjeworstlust · 2/10 · 8 January 2006]

But whoever came up with this crap? The series had more action, more funny lines, and a packed story altogether. The effects are crappier than I've ever seen before. Take the shot with the lorry that's being rocketed - you clearly see a dummy driving. Or the shot where a car passes a tram, it's clearly computer generated.

Might not be that bad, but untrue characters that do really stupid moves, it might have been acceptable at the beginning of cinema.

And then the soundtrack. After practically every scene a bit of English or German noise has to be added. Why, is it a musical or what?

Really awful and unbelievable. We've seen many events in other movies before, and a lot better. I loved Kommissar Rex, Derrick, Der Alte, Der Klown, but this is major C*R*A*P!

The sheer joy of pure action

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 29 January 2008]

Apparently based on a German TV series of the same name and with much of the same cast, "The Clown" moves at a somewhat rushed pace, especially in the first half, that makes it feel almost like an extended series episode; the story also has some questionable points (they find the bad guys' first hideout via a pizza delivery?), and the direction is at times overly gimmicky, overusing the slow-motion and the split-screens. In spite of all that, the film satisfies on its intended pure-action level. The stunts, explosions and chases are exceptionally spectacular, easily on the level of a James Bond movie if not better, and seemingly all done for real, without the use of CGI. It's a film that seems to have been made only for the sheer joy of action, and it transfers much of that joy to the viewer. And of course my comment would be incomplete without mentioning Eva Habermann (the good girl), who is very very beautiful and very very physical, and Xenia Seeberg (the bad girl), who looks a lot like Angelina Jolie, from the expressions to the pouty lips, and gets to fire hundreds of bullets, one of them right into the gut of a man she had just kissed passionately. (**1/2)

Pure action

[lucent-3 · 9/10 · 10 April 2005]

I like to agree with Markus Schnitzler , it's a rock-solid action movie, made to watch just for fun, not to consider the worlds biggest problems ! The stunts are incredible, cars and motorcycles of course, but helicopters, and not only one, they crash 2 and just an airplane too.

And I like the split-screens too, they look good and they can give you a lot of information in a short time and the story rolls on.

Of course the story is not the best , I've ever seen, but it is so far OK, cause you don't go there to ask for logic and depth, right ?

If you like fast and breathless action, here you can get it ! It is certainly worth a try :-)

Funny Movie

[mattin · 8/10 · 22 October 2005]

Who the heck visits a movie spin-off of a German trash TV-Series and doesn't know what to expect? This film was great: funny lines, great stunts, simple story. It delivered exactly, what I needed! In fact, it was like a double feature of the show with more budget. Well, the director seems to be a little bit "over-talented", but in the end, it was a great fun to watch this movie. The acting was OK, the only downside was the replacement of Diana Frank as Claudia Diel. The movie would have worked the same way with the original team and I'm not sure, why they replaced her with Eva Habermann. Maybe it was because off age or money, I don't know.

My Name Is Dieter, You Must Pet My Monkey, Der Clowns Verboten!

[verbusen · 9/10 · 22 April 2006]

OK let me just say that I was very entertained by Der Clown. I will usually channel surf right past the dozens of straight to video action crap that Hollywood puts out every year but I caught Der Clown close to the half way point with this dude in a clown mask on a BMW being chased by a hot Euro babe and a dude on another BMW bike and I said, hmmmm, lets watch this and see where it goes. Now I, being an American (overseas of course because Der Clown is verboten on the US cable channels), have never seen the TV show so I don't come in with a bias to compare this movie to. But I mean judging by the one and two star comments, you Germans take your A Team shows very seriously I see! I thought this movie was really cool with lots of expensive cars and helicopters and even a cargo plane blown all the hell up, and the explosions were very very large, because we don't like girlie-man explosions on Der Clown! It also made a few jokes along the way so I mean Dieter, you need to lighten up, Der Clown is very entertaining! 9 of 10 not on a regular movie film scale but compared to any straight to video action flick put out in Hollywood, Der Clown is one of the coolest crap action movie I've seen. I'd like to see it in German with English subtitles next time, just to hear those hot Euro babes talk!

a good action movie with interesting features

[webmaster-1403 · 9/10 · 3 April 2005]

I don't know which film the writers of the other comments have seen, but I enjoyed the movie "Der Clown". You should not forget that this is an action film and this genre is not defined by a complex story or portraits of characters. An action film must contain action and there is a lot of it in "Der Clown". There are many difficult stunts, e.g. with a helicopter. Only very few people can fly a helicopter as it is shown in the film! Almost every big object explodes, not only cars ... The split screens are not silly, but a very interesting feature. They increase the speed of the film. There are quick changes between the different places of action. It fits very good to the genre of action films. Silly is in my opinion the discussion about the other technical stuff (video, red colour). I watch films because of their content and not as technician. I also appreciate the way in which the background of the story is shown. The Clown remembers how his former girl friend was killed by a gangster - a scene which he will never forget. During this flashback you can hear the song "Kein Weg zurück" (No way back) of the band Wolfsheim - a good combination of content and music! So, I can say that it is a good film which was made by professionals who knew very well what they did!

The best ever movie made on planet earth.

[erasih · 10/10 · 15 December 2019]

I have been looking for this movie 4 ten years, since I lost the DVD and couldn't recall the title name nor the cast, though I watched it 12 times. The cinematography, SFX and stunts are out of this world.

I WANT TO BUY THE "Der Clown" MOVIE AGAIN, WHERE CAN I BUY IT?