Barboelsch

I only heard about this movie more than 30 years after it was filmed. Luckily, I was able to pick up a DVD that contains the 'Director's Cut', meaning all footage still existing has been put together to form the entity.

I'd watch Star Wars and LotR even if those were bad movies, just to see Christopher Lee. Yet him in his first major as Lord Summerisle was...

Wait!

Oh, man, this is about that abominable Neil LaBute flick with Nicholas Cage and stuff?!?

Cripes!

Hell, yes, there's one thing about it, that's not totally f**ked: Amongst all futile USish attempts to remake European (specially British) movies, The Wicker Man is only the worst but one: The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the one failure to exceed it in miserability!

When first I heard that there would be a Hollywood-made 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide' movie I thought: this can only go wrong.

When I learned that they casted Ford Prefect with a Negro, I knew: it MUST HAVE gone wrong.

Please take a minute to read my explanation aimed at the salvage of political correctness: The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is purely genuine British stuff. Even though in London there they have Lenny Henry and they have Don Cheadle and they have Lennox Lewis, still, County Surrey (in which at least the Earth's part of the story is to take place) is sort of a place in which blacks don't come natural. Why is this important? Because Hitch-Hiker's Guide is not about traveling in space and it is not about meeting aliens. It is not about shooting ray guns nor is it about time travel. It is about being English, and nothing else. Seeing a US gangsta rapper playing Ford Prefect immediately indicates, that the British thoughts behind it have been americanized (basically, not grasped, that is). That's why I knew it HAD gone wrong.

What I saw, though, introduced a whole new meaning of the word 'wrong'. Pretty much every cool thought of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide books was minced into some please-everyone-who's-IQ-resembles-the-room-temperature kind of fashion with the result of pretty much nothing funny at all.

I recommend not to watch this movie by any means. It ain't worth nor time nor money.

However, it sported two and a half good things: the introductory Music's Banjo theme reminded me of something - and (yes!) it was the reprise of BBC's Hitch-Hiker's Guide TV series' main title. Secondly the original Marvin from the TV-series was reactivated for a cameo in the scene where the protagonists queue in some Vogon public office. The remaining half is Stephen Fry as 'The Voice' - knowing that they would have hired Peter Jones had he still been alive.

Thanks to Tim Burton's Batman (1989), I will always be in a movie theatre when there's a new Batman feature shown, even though with the set of sequels the subject gradually declined from Batman Returns (which was unnecessarily bad) down to Batman and Robin (which was bad enough to be reason for a law suit).

Anyhow, Batman Begins is different in the sense that it is actually good. The plot is plausible, the acting is convincing, the story is enthralling with a nice twist towards the end (as usual I was the last to expect that) and they have the coolest Batmobile by far. It remains to be seen, though, how Batman would be satisfied with the subsequent Batmobile models.

But the coolest fact of 'em all is, that the Gotham City Cops drive Mercs throughout the film! Unless, of course, I was so tired I mistook a Hyundai XG for a real Mercedes (I watched the 12a.m. - Midnight - special Preview, and all this on a school night).

Summary: if you watch this movie, you won't regret it!

When I saw this movie, I noticed, that it had one joke in it, that made me laugh (that's OK - Periode 1: Traumschiff Surprise sported nil).

And it had Helge Schneider in it, too. What else could one ask for?

In Detail: Waalkes is still a main character. That's a bummer because the best Waalkes parts were the samples and tidbits of his silly noises played during the end credits.

Rüdiger Hoffmann actually filled his small role pretty well (he plays the magic mirror). One wouldn't expect that, knowing him as a so-called comedian.

The others aren't really worth mentioning. And I refuse to give credits to Nina Hagen, as others feel driven to do.

Luckily enough, as I said, Helge Schneider is in it, in too small a role, though, unfortunately.

So all in all a movie that can be missed out with no regrets.

It's kind of weird. Angelica Domröse speaks in the movie of a Banana and why it's bent, yet she as an actress has probably never seen one. Also her parents most likely chose her name 'Angelica' (note: the name is spelt 'Angelika' in any German-speaking country) to mock the Soviet system and give credit to the American way of life. Just like pretty much anyone else in the GDR (note: if ever you meet a girl in Europe named 'Doreen', 'Melissa' or 'Mandy', it's pretty safe to say that she's from East Germany).

Pretty much all of the home appliances shown are authentic, yet they had to introduce coffee and cosmetics (which didn't really exist in the GDR at that time) to make it suitable for the political demagogues. Imagine it: the fact that there is a sentence in English ("excuse me, only one glass for you") could have led to a total ban of the entire movie.

What else is there to say? Try to understand the lyrics of the Band 'Puhdys' featured manifold in this flick and the in-between-the-lines-messages and how this was important to get thoughts of freedom past the GDR's government's census.

Well you guys probably don't and will never understand what kind of fruit GDR's socialism sprouted, but watching 'Paul and Paula' could theoretically help you get at least a glimpse.

Now here is the truth about 'Achtung, fertig, Charlie!': I've read other user's comments and I got the feeling they didn't like the movie but I can tell you why: because they are Swiss themselves and they don't like to hear the truth.

Now lemme tell ya: It is the truth. Good things first: I'm from Germany. That's why I can tell. I used to work with a bunch of Swiss blokes and the two main topics were Dope and the Mafia. No - not Army pocket knives, nor cheese, banks or Cuckoo-clocks, but Dope and the Mafia. So here we are - the movie shows Switzerland exactly as it is.

About the movie itself: you can always argue about the acting, but this was not Shakespeare nor Lessing, but genuine Swiss acting. So we will not be so picky about certain aspects of acting that could have been better. Let's take what this movie was made for: delivering a feeling how it is to be Swiss. And they did - just that! And splendidly!

Besides, it is a funny movie, spiced with good jokes for those who listen carefully. And a touching love story, too. Just go and watch it!

By the way: you might want to check out "Die Schweizermacher" - 'cause it's worth it!

I saw this movie and watched it again, as it had so many moments of pure enjoyment in it. Yep, I admit, Smith's black slang advices need to be accustomed to - yep, I admit, Damon and Theron could've done it way back throughout the movie already and yep, I admit, not knowing anything about Golf might make it hard to appreciate the flick.

However, I'm not a Golfer myself and so I get the faint feeling that this is yet another movie produced for Europe, accepting that the original crowd wouldn't get it anyway. I had the same feeling about "The Sports Pages" (http://imdb.com/title/tt0218624/). I hope that there is nothing wrong with Golf movies in general. Not that I'm a golfer but I plan to become a caddy during spare time.

Have you ever been stuck in an elevator? I was, so I can tell you how it is: the lights go dim, the lift stops, you press the alarm. After a while, the lift moves again, you step out the door and promise your little boy to treat him to some ice cream for not panicking.

That alone is not merely enough to fill a TV commercial. Consequently, if you plan to extend the scene to feature length, you have to add a little bit of spice to it. Job one - adding spice: very well done.

You have one youngster-half-criminal well-enough looking dude, an old guy, frustrated by the view of a small pension awaiting him, who therefore filled his pocket with a DEM 100K loot on his last day, and a semi-successful businessman who wants to screw the you-don't-how-old-she-is ravishing employee.

Well of course this ain't enough because at least you expect some sort of plot also. Job two - plot: not badly done.

By all means, girlish 'she' shows cold shoulder to semi-pro, youngster pounces on the opportunity, old man acts astoundingly cool. And - so much for action - the cables do snap, there is a showdown in the elevator shaft, bad guy dies and old man walks away unharmed, plus: young guy eventually gets chick.

Now for some cinematographics. Job three - really well done.

Whatever claustrophobic vibes you might feel in such a situation - they delivered it. Motions, noises, everything, it all falls in place to make you 'live' inside that cabin.

Last of all - dialogues. Job four - expectations exceeded.

German moviemakers have always been well-known for a lack of ease. Here it's the same, but for a reason. Each of the characters has a personality, and the screenwrite took some time to fashion them. Whatever they say to one another shows a lot about who they are - people - but at the same time leaves lots of space to imagine what we don't know, or what we don't want to know. That's what those Germans are really good at, and not surprisingly many of those kind of movies are placed on a Tarantino level - at least by those who understand them. I've never seen the dubbed version (if there is one at all), so apparently you can only enjoy this piece if you are familiar with the German language.

Read other comments to find out what actually happens in the movie.

Hmpf! I've read a fair deal of criticisms about Larson's movie and none of 'em credits substantial kudoes. Well here's why: you have to know Germany to enjoy it, if not BE German.

Wasn't it a funny movie to watch (just like Galactica was)? Didn't the special effects look pretty good at that time (just like in Galactica)? - and: weren't the spaceship starting sequences just stunning (exactly identical to those from Galactica)?

Irony notwithstanding.

To German citizens, Buck Rogers is a classic. Alongside 'The Persuaders!' (featuring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore) Buck Rogers is the one example to show why dubbing a movie is not all that bad. Of course the guys at 'Berliner Synchron' knew right away that the thin dialogues of the original movie wouldn't make a killing if anything at all, so they added a few lines that made Buck Rogers a full-fledged comedy. Just like they did with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore.

Besides this fact what would a Hollywood Science-Fiction movie be without Germany? The only real building shown in the movie is the Berlin Convention Centre (although people often mistake it for the BMW office building in Munich). And the Draconian's version of barn dancing is but a copy of Kraftwerk's 'Die Mensch Maschine' (The Man Machine, Kraftwerk, Dusseldorf, Germany). So it seems like the Germans live in what a US movie maker imagines the future to look like.

Well what the heck, learn German, watch the German dubbed version and have a great bit of laughter! Because you're worth it.

It is tricky to write a review of the "Sports Pages" as it consists of two almost independent stories, "How Doc Waddens finally broke 100" and "The Heidi Bowl".

While the Heidi Bowl describes an event that actually happened and that is still in the mind of pretty much every US football fan, the Story of Doc Waddens is entirely fictionuous.

Well, I happened to see the "Sports Pages" twice during my two-week holiday in Varadero. However, the most disappointing issue is that obviously US viewers don't seem to understand it at all.

Part one - Doc Waddens - is full of between-the-lines humor and Bob Newhart plays his role as good as a Brit would do. Ever imagined you have just been pleaded 'not guilty' after killing a Golf enthusiast friend, and now you want to buy the victim's set of clubs from the widow? Weird ideas of that kind by the truckload and a brilliant performance by the staff.

The "Heidi Bowl" sports the well-known football event but wrapped in half a dozen of small or not-so-small stories that all lead to the big final. A well-filmed view on the typical American everyday-craze that make them look so stupid everywhere else in the world. Yet they, themselves, just don't get it.

Go and watch it, it's great!

Barboelsch

It is a hilarious spoof of agent stories and twin citizens that is so cool I don't expect any American to understand it. Well-known Rock'n'Roll-Band Trio ("Dadada") humiliate established Hollywood cast by outrageous performance, twisted humour an a plot that leaves nothing to desire.