Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Götterdämmerung - Morgen stirbt Berlin" or "Bombs Under Berlin" is a German movie from 1999, so it will soon have its 20th anniversary. The director is Joe Coppoletta and there is not too much done wrong from him here, so I am a bit surprised that this is possibly his most known work. The writer is Rochus Hahn and looking at the script he (and he alone) is responsible here I am truly surprised he worked with Wortmann in "Das Wunder von Bern". It is really more fitting to see he is also the one behind "Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen", which was a pretty garbage film too for the most part. Yeah well.. the script is really by far the biggest problem here. It already starts with the title, as sensational and boastful as it gets and with the only aim to get as many people as possible to check this one out. If at least the slightly over 90 minutes would have delivered any quality. Then again, looking at Christiane Paul, Tim Bergmann, Sven Martinek, Saskia Valencia and others, you probably should not be surprised by the outcome. These are all performers who have very little range, but still careers because of their charisma possibly or recognition value or just because they were at the right time at the right place.Anyway, lets take a look at the story here. There is a massive bomb under Berlin and all the government does against it is have a team of historians and scientists work on the issue. No special forces, no constant police presence nothing. Just a young woman and her gang, one of which is her boyfriend of course. Oh yeah and the woman's grandfather was a high profile Nazi who may know a bit about the problem. Of course they only meet him (or anybody who may know something from back then) if they are related to Paul's character. Really, these people are so stupid that they almost deserve a big bomb to explode under their asses. And apart from the huge core plot in the film being absolute garbage (yes they occasionally find bombs from back then still, but it has nothing to do with reality that they did not find this one earlier if it's so big and powerful), there are also several minor scenes that don't make any sense at all. One example would be when Vogler's character is hit by a car and the first thing Paul's character does is take a call from her boyfriend. Why call the police or an ambulance? Or another scene is that her boyfriend appears out of nowhere to save her when she is injured by the old man. Or talking about the old man, he sacrifices his entire plan and his views when his grandson appears completely out of nowhere. That was so strange and random. Yeah, this movie does not make any sense at all and if you think American films centered around catastrophes are bad, then you have not yet seen the German approach. Theer are several more that really suck. Last but not least, I mentioned Rüdiger Vogler briefly and it saddens me to see him attached to a project like this small screen production with his successful past in Wenders' films, but I guess you still have to earn a living, also (or especially) as an older actor. Anyway, this film is a contender for career's weakest for everybody working on or in it. I highly recommend not to watch it. The first half is forgettable, the second half is really bad.
