"Kundschafter des Friedens" is a German 90-minute movie, still very new from 2017 and it was written and directed by Robert Thalheim. i really liked Thalheim's previous film "Eltern", but I am genuinely disappointed with this one here. I think it is pretty accurate to call it a German version of Bruce Willis' RED as it is about a gang of seniors who were really successful back in the day in their respective jobs that had a lot to do with secret missions, surveillance and governmental responsibility. There is also an occasional touch of German history in here, but it never feels really authentic or relevant and just thrown in for the sake of it. This is a criticism that also applies to other areas of the movie. There are definitely serious moments, but honestly I found it very difficult to take them seriously, such as doubts about fatherhood (the burning note shows us that nobody really cares about the importance of this matter, embarrassing), a scene when one character tries to get a transmitter into a target person or just the entire liberation plot. One reason may be that it is honestly all extremely absurd and that people are cracking jokes from start to finish.
About the cast: Henry Hübchen is the lead actor and he is decent I guess. He does not have too much comedy to work with and this is fine as drama is his bigger strength and he is elevating the material on some occasions. Still he is not good enough to make it work eventually. The script is just too weak for that overall. The two main male supporting actors are Michael Gwisdek and Thomas Thieme, even if they randomly disappear during crucial segments of the film. I personally never liked Gwisdek much and this film does not change it at all. He is basically throwing punch lines at us all the time and beyond cracking jokes there is nothing to his character. This is also because the actor almost always goes over the top with his line delivery and it is truly embarrassing. As for Thieme, I am quite a fan. I liked his introduction here, which was one of the rare funny occasions of the film, and he has some more solid moments throughout the film. But he does not really have the depth to his character or screen time to truly make an impact. The perfect example of these two is really their last scene together, everybody applauds Gwisdek's character, but Thieme is really the one who did it. But the worst, maybe saddest was honestly Winfried Glatzeder, an actor with a prolific past who has been struggling recently with finding roles and ended up in the Jungle Camp. His scene where his character was begging the other guys to join them because he still has it in him almost felt as if Glatzeder was begging the other actors to get more screen time. It felt extremely awkward I must say. Anyway, even if he disappeared quickly, he still had he epilogue scene during the credits.
The only real female character in here is played by Antje Traue. What can you say about her? She certainly has some impressive films (foreign productions) in her body of work and she was quite stunning physically, there is no denying. The performance was solid I guess, nothing too bad or good, but definitely not on par with her other attributes. They also did not do her much favors in terms of the script. First she is somewhat built-up as a potential love interest to Hübchen's character, then he suddenly could possibly be her dad. They sure wasted her a bit in terms of writing and same goes for Jürgen Prochnow, a genuinely talented character actor who has weak material to work with here as well. And the film lacks in the writing area in general. It wants to be taken seriously at times, but the plot as a whole as well as certain details just don't make any sense. Can Thieme's character really walk out with (what they think is) a bomb at the end? Is the paternity plot twist anything above television soap opera level? Is it really realistic to depict one of the commanding officers of the BND as a snitch? And there is a lot more than that. I don't think this film works from a comedy perspective or drama perspective at all. It has ambition and occasional good moments in both areas, but eventually it does not elaborate convincingly in either. I give "Old Agent Men" a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
2 out of 4 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
