Dinosaurier (2009) User Reviews

The film's interest do not go in hand with mine

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 8 September 2017]

"Dinosaurier" or the long version "Dinosaurier - Gegen uns seht ihr alt aus!" is a German-language film from 2009, so two more years until this one has its 10th anniversary. The director here is Leander Haußmann and his father Ezard played one of the central characters in here. He died not too long after this one came out. Same applies to Walter Giller, but there are also actors who are still alive at a very high age in September 2017 and not too few actually: Tiller, van Bergen, Wolter, Hagen just to mention a few. So you see that old people are in the focus of the story here. And the title of the film is another indicator. This film is actually pretty closely connected to the 1970s movie Lina Braake and the central character's name is one indicator already. She is tricked by the bank in the person of a ruthless investment manager out of her fortune and her house and ends up in a residence for old people. These are the ones in the focus, especially one of them who decides to help Mrs. Braake with getting her money back. So basically almost the entire film is a scheme by the old to trick the bank, which is not a simple endeavor obviously. There is some drama here, but also a great deal of comedy at times. This should of course not be a depressing work. It runs for 100 minutes and I would say it is slightly inferior. The comedy requires talented writing in terms of dignity while still being funny and this was not always a success here, sometimes actually fairly clumsy unfortunately. The overall core story in terms of how they got the money (the outcome is of course never in doubt for every smart audience member) is confusing at times and maybe you need a Bachelor in economy to really understand it all, but that was admittedly already an issue in the 70s film. Thumbs up to Tom Gerhardt and Daniel Brühl, who don't have a great deal of screen time, but kinda make the most of it. In terms of sadness (death references), the movie never really delivers, but it also doesn't really try that much. It's much more about the uplifting aspects. One key reason why I did not like it that much is that I found Hagen pretty forgettable given how much in the center of it all her character is. There is a reason this isn't called "Lena Braake". Overall, it is a film that disappoints. The David-Goliath story against the banks that honestly every non-rich German despises is a very grateful one and even with that big advantage they had in making this film they did not succeed to do much more here than scratch the surface while still going over the top in a pretty bad way on several occasions. I give "Dinosaurs" a thumbs-down and suggest you go for the original instead.

Underrated

[johannkodnar · 8/10 · 7 January 2022]

A very positive surprise. Very funny, lots of good gags and laughs. And with a lot of subtle irony. Currently rated at 6.0, it is still clearly underestimated in my opinion.