Handyman (2006) User Reviews

Crappyman

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 26 January 2019]

"Handyman" is a Swiss production from 2006, a 1.5-hour comedy full feature movie and the director here is Jürg Ebe and he is also part of the writing team. The film is in the German language and features Swiss actor/comedian Marco Rima playing the main character with Berlin-born actor Oliver Korittke playing his co-lead. Another Swiss actress, Regula Grauwiller, plays the biggest female part, which is still relatively small, even if she is in it from beginning to end. Her scenes are not that many and only feel like included to push forward the two men's story line. Certainly not a good example of quality writing for female characters. Now back to this movie itself. This is the story of a man who keep getting left by his girlfriends for all kinds of reasons, some of which may not even be his fault. With the help of a radio show host who is a bit of an expert when it comes to women he tries to solve that problem. The reward for the host would be that the struggling man could be his inspiration because he needs to write a book really quickly to satisfy the publisher. Okay, not the best story line, but tolerable I'd say. In the end with comedies, even if the plot is important it comes more down to how laugh-out-loud or at least subtly funny the movie ends up to be. This one here is not really a success in thatg department. Rima does what he can, but still seems lackluster at times. The character was not perfect for him. Korittke I always found a fairly overrated actor. One thing I struggled with right away was how these two really got together and made this pact after how they could not stand each other at all it did not feel by any means like something that could be happening. Of course, the fact that he falls for the other guy's girl is also a bit too much of a coincidence and that she falls for him too, but that can somewhat be excused for story telling purposes if everything else had been right. But it's not. The final rooftop scene, it is not half as serious as it may look is more embarrassing than funny or dramatic and we all know nobody would jump let alone die that night. I hated it. Right when I thought it could not get any worse we see Korittke's character apparently fall in love again with another woman, not one of the two chicks arguing, but a firefighter. Oh well, not too surprising either given the quality before that. But I did like somehow that Rima and the female lead get together in the end apparently as everything else would have been just plain stupid with how Korittke's character cheated on her all movie long. Would they in reality too? I am undecided. In general all this cheating made it difficult for me to like Korittke('s character) and he was clearly intended to be liked just like Rima's. And the argument, he is flawed, but everybody is and he is still a good guy is not really working for me here. What else can I say about the film? Oh yeah, there were more embarrassingly bad moments in here, like for example the piano singing sequence involving Rima (and Grauwiller). Man that was cringeworthy to watch and did not fit at all for the character. So yeah overall, it shows this was the first effort as writer and director for Ebe and I am not too surprised he hasn't done anything else almost since then in terms of moviemaking. Admittedly, it is not all just him. His cast is not doing him any favors really I must say. It is never even a remotely funny movie, but luckily the true failure moments like the music performance are also not frequent enough for the film to hit rock-bottom. My suggestion is nonetheless you skip it. The title is pretty weak as well in terms of being a reference to a recurring word one character calls another in this movie. But never mind, just watch something else instead.

Best Comedy for ages

[mcblack · 10/10 · 9 March 2006]

Absolutey awesome. the handyman is the best comedy since years. In matters of swiss films, it is the funniest movie since "HD-Läppli" from the fifties. Handyman contains a lot of jokes from different sections. Nevertheless it is a very entertaining movie. Unlike most comedies, there isn't a sequence where you get bored. Very, very recommendable. Marco Rima himself is fun, if you only look at him. for swiss people, and for those who understand the different swiss dialects, it is very nice, that there are a lot of different dialects within this movie. also the special guest DJ Bobo has, very unlikely for him, a funny part in it. Very entertaining, and also very true, the movie shows, that the Germans are a lot different to us swiss people. No offense meant.