Slugs (2004) User Reviews

Nice little austrian comedy

[ruediger_vienna · 7/10 · 16 March 2004]

Nacktschnecken (translated "slugs") is an Austrian low-budget comedy with quite a fine plot: Three young pals plan to earn money by shooting an hardcore-porno movie. But is it really so easy to shoot some gang-banging with home-video equipment?

What sounds like some stupid German 70s sex-movie is in fact a very entertaining comedy, both clever and sensitive. So if you like new Austrian cinema like "Hundstage" (which is - of course - much more serious) - you should not miss this one.

The flick was shot in Styria, so much of it's charm depends on various local accents (like a Viennese pimp, a girl from Graz's upper class, rural-styrian working class heroes e.a.). So this movie is not really easy to translate.

Porn to be ... done

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 8 December 2021]

This is not Zack and Miri make a ... nope, this is an Austrian movie where they think they can easily do one. And they would be right in the normal world probably ... if they wouldn't all have issues of their own. Be it love triangles, false expectations, weird behaviour in general and so much more akwardness.

All that culminates in quite a few funny scenes (and a lot of scenes that show actual scenes from other porn movies - so "real" sexual situations and/or nudity from the actors themselves here) - and an ending that seems quite otherworldly. Now I like where they went with it - but I also think it could have been staged better. Something is missing to push this over the top, where it would belong.

So while this is at least a decent effort (if you are not too squeamish about the mentioned strong sexual themes as I would call them), it is also not a great movie either.

Good work, worth to see.

[faysulla · 7/10 · 13 July 2004]

I've seen this film on the Moscow International Film Festival 2004, where it was shown only twice in the non-contest programme. On my opinion this is the great example of the non-Hollywood low-budget motion picture. The scenario is very good, characters and acting are good, no FX, but it was so funny ...and their Austrian dialects.... Some scenes were shot like parody on the Lars von Trier's "Idiots" but looked funny and not serious. As a conclusion: good work, worth to see.

I'll really buy the DVD with this film when it'll be available in shops.

I did not find it that funny or entertaining

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 16 August 2016]

"Nacktschnecken" or "Slugs" is an Austrian German-language film from 2004, so this one is already over 10 years old. It is one of the most known (non-documentary) works by the later writer and director Michael Glawogger and he got help with the script here from actor Michael Ostrowski, who also plays one of the main characters. The photo of this title already gives kinda away that it is the story of a bunch of guys trying to set up a successful porn business in Austria. So we see all kinds of footage how they are trying to make a porn movie. And the film does not go easy on us. It is pretty graphic and we even see male genitalia at one point. But the film is about a lot more than this because as the professional relationships (and tensions) between the cast & crew grow, so do the personal relationships between them, which does not really make their endeavor any easier.

So this one is a mix of comedy and drama with the comedy component probably being dominant. I as a German audience member cannot say I knew too many cast members here. Only Friedrich, Buck and maybe also Kren seemed familiar faces. But I am not sure if this was the main problem I had with this film. Probably not. I just felt that most characters weren't too interesting or fascinating to watch, even if they tried to make everybody interesting, which is pretty obvious. Bu they were far from succeeding as much as I hoped they would Georg Friedrich is fun as usual in the scenes he has and he can let it all out without appearing too nonsensical I guess. I would not say it was a failure, but it was also not a good film that I'd recommend to anybody I like. If you still enjoyed the watch, there is a sequel you may want to check out. I, however, was glad it ended after under 90 minutes already.