German Movie Reviews »
Film Shots: Storage 24, We Are the Night, and My Ex
STORAGE 24 (2012) Prolific British writer, director, actor and more Noel Clarke returns in his 4th film of 2012, science fiction horror thriller “Storage 24”, directed by Johannes Roberts, helmer of a variety of...
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Urban Explorers (2011) Movie Review
“Urban Explorers” offers a horrific twist on the apparently popular new pastime of urban exploration (also referred to by the particularly hip as Urbex or UE), in which practitioners make their way through abandoned...
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12 Paces Without A Head (2009) Movie Review
“12 Paces Without A Head” tells the purportedly true tale of German pirates Klaus Stortebeker (Ronald Zehrfeld) and Godeke Michels (Matthias Schweighofer). The film imagines the story of these folk heroes as a buddy-action-comedy,...
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Encapsulated Cinema Goes To SIFF: Nobody, 3, and Outrage
So the Seattle International Film Festival kicked into high gear this past weekend, and will be screening more than 400 movies over the next month or so. While Eric Cartman’s “gay cowboys eating pudding”...
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Siege of the Dead (aka Rammbock, 2010) Movie Review
The current craze for fast running zombies spreads to Germany with “Siege of the Dead”, a.k.a. “Rammbock”, another slice of ghoulish mayhem that marks the debut of writer Benjamin Hessler and director Marvin Kren....
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Downfall (2004) Movie Review
It seems to me that there is a metaphor embedded somewhere in Downfall, transforming what is at first glance just another World War II film into a provocative account of the final days of...
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Final Contract: Death on Delivery (2006) Movie Review
The English-language German movie “Final Contract: Death on Delivery” (aka “Dark Ride”) reminds me of the English-language French movie “Riders” (aka “Steal”). The two films have very much in common, including a lack of...
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Tattoo (2002) Movie Review
The plot is set in Berlin, where a maniac is preying upon people with intricate tattoos, harvesting their skin and leaving them for dead. The detective assigned to the case, Minks (Christian Redl) is...
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Anatomy 2 (2002) Movie Review
Despite everything you may have heard, “Anatomy 2″ is not a Teen Slasher film — and in this case, that’s a bad thing. Not having seen the original, I can’t tell if the whole...
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Demonium (2001) Movie Review
I knew I was in trouble when the first 12 minutes of “Demonium”, an Italian horror film, involved these scenes: a very unattractive woman having sex with her lover over the opening credits, then...
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The Pool (2001) Movie Review
“The Pool” joins the recent spate of German-made Teen Slasher movies to go international. Although the film is made by Germans and set in Prague, and most of the actors are German, the film’s...
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Nowhere in Africa (2001) Movie Review
I’m reasonably certain that Caroline Link’s “Nowhere in Africa” will strike a cord with a lot of people. After all, it did when the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 2002, although how a...
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Stalingrad (1993) Movie Review
The predicament for German filmmakers who want to tackle World War II is this: how do you make a movie, with heroes and such, about a historical period when your country was out slaughtering...
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Das Boot: The Director’s Cut (1981) Movie Review
I am told German Wolfgang Petersen’s movie “Das Boot” is the submarine movie by which all submarine movies are measured. It just so happens that the submarine in question is a German one, and...
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Heaven (2002) Movie Review
“Heaven” is the latest film from German Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”), and stars Cate Blanchette (“Bandits”) as Philippa, an Englishwoman in Italy who plants a bomb in a man’s office, only to have...
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The Princess and the Warrior (2001) Movie Review
Writer/director Tykwer’s follow-up to his breakthrough hit, 1998′s Run Lola Run, is 2000′s The Princess and the Warrior, a film that is not about a princess, a warrior, or a magical fantasyland. The movie...
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Bandits (1997) Movie Review
Bandits is a German movie about a rock band made up of 4 different women with only one thing in common — they’re all currently serving sentences in prison. The band is led by...
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Run Lola Run (1998) Movie Review
“Run Lola Run,” if nothing else, certainly lives up to its billing. Our heroine, played by a orange-haired Franka Potente as the titular character, certainly does a lot of running. I’ve never seen a...
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