Horst in Translation ([email protected])
Crime novels starring Jerry Cotton have existed for a long time and been especially successful in Germany, so it was not a surprise that the character would also make it to film at some point again. This is a German movie from 6 years ago by writers and directors Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert and the duo has worked in the past on some projects that I quite enjoyed, such as "Der Wixxer". Fittingly, Oliver Kalkofe and Bastian Pastewka have also brief appearances in this 100-minute movie here, well more like slightly over 90 and a massive almost 10-minute long credit sequence. Christian Tramitz, definitely a famous name here in Germany, plays the title character and it is nice to see him in a lead role for once. I think he is the most talented from the Bullyparade crew and also has solid range in terms of drama apart from being a really gifted comedy actor of course.Unfortunately, the strong premise in terms of the people who made it and the people who starred in it, very many famous names, even if some appear only in one or two scenes, did not result in a quality film. Tramitz and Ulmen were decent together, but the story just was not as good. It was very generic, rarely funny and the moments when the film takes itself seriously from a dramatic perspective were rather cringeworthy instead of edge-of-seat material. Technically, this may have been a decent achievement, which also the German Film Award nomination proves, but for me a film is at least 50% story reliant in terms of the decision if it was a good or bad movie. And while it is not entirely bad, the negative outweighs the positive here I must say. A bit of a missed opportunity. I don't recommend the watch. Not even Penelope Cruz' attractive younger sister can add a lot. Or maybe that was actually somewhat expected as the character is a prime example of irrelevant writing. Thumbs down. Watch something else instead.
