Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Late Show" is a German 105-minute movie from 1999, so it will soon have its 20th anniversary. The writer and director is the late Helmut Dietl and this is one of his most known works. After his big success with "Rossini" and "Schtonk" a bit earlier, this was probably a very eagerly awaited film and expectations must have been huge. When a man like Dietl makes a movie about the German television business with legendary show-masters Harald Schmidt and Thomas Gottschalk playing the main characters, then this has to evolve into something big right? Well, it did only to some extent I guess. Maybe the film really suffered from its expectations. But I enjoyed the watch, which is probably because I like the two I just mentioned, especially Schmidt and I am also a fan of Olli Dittrich, Karl Markovics and Dieter Pfaff who play minor characters in here, but still get a decent amount of screen time. Veronica Ferres I have never been a fan of and I don't think she is a good actress but I can look beyond her thanks to the people in here that I like.The comedy is extremely dark here and there are no taboos in this movie. Harald Schmidt is excellent as a ruthless television executive who knows no friends, boundaries or shame when it comes to reaching high audience numbers. Same can be said about his assistant played by Jasmin Tabatabai and she received a German Film Award nomination for her portrayal. I think for the most part (especially the Schmidt scenes), this was a very good watch, but there were parts that did not entertain me too much too, so it's far from a great movie. These would include the characters of Orléans and Ferres mostly, even if the final scene at the show was okay with Gottschalk's character confessing his love to Orléans'. And I also liked the very last talk show scene which rang very true with animal documentaries being so human. Haha. Unfortunately, this film once again shows that Goottschalk just isn't a very gifted actor. This could have been much better with another more skilled performer instead of him. He is an outstanding host, no doubt about it and he single-handedly carried the most successful European television program for decades, but acting (as we know from his "Supernasen" films) may not be his biggest strength. But he is not bad enough either to destroy the film. I enjoyed and give it a thumbs-down, but like I said this has subjectively to do with my liking for many of the actors in here. If you don't appreciate them as much as I do, you probably could end up being bored or even annoyed here.

piedera I grew up and went to university in the times of Gottschalk's and Schmidt's Late Night Shows in Germany. Watching this movie 15 years after it was produced still left me entertained. German private TV and media of the 90s well-observed, some brilliant acting. Even Gottschalk manages, though he basically plays himself. Yeah, and Dietl absolutely wanted to have his girlfriend Ferres in all of his movies. He could/should have done without. Who really convinced me was Harald Schmidt, who is actually an educated actor. I loved his cynical TV show and it is just great to see this cynic overacting as a cynic pulling strings. The scene where he loses control of his face when he consoles Engel's stalker nearly made me fall off the couch. I also liked the roles of Jasmin Tabatabai, Dieter Pfaff and Olli Dittrich. And it was good to see Helmut Zerlett and his band on the show again!

fitzharraldo Maybe I'm biased. I have to confess that I have severe problems to like homegrown movies (especially those German films they used to call "comedies"). But with Helmut Dietl directing I thought it at least possible that "Late Night" could prove to be an interesting film. It didn't. So what went wrong? I expected a biting satire about all those idiotic television programs that continue to overflow our everyday life and the people that "create" them. Obviously, there are great possibilities in that concept. Dietl tried to make this kind of satire, but he tried too hard. "Late Night" is a satire without laughs. The screenplay contains too many things that won't work (most of all the plot). As usual with German comedies, the film is mainly dialogue-driven, while visual gags do not exist or are clumsily executed. Only two or three gags really work. The directing is not up to Dietls usual standard. But the biggest problem is that this is a comedy about television, that was co-produced by a television station, that is cast with popular show masters and that looks most of the time like a TV-movie. I wonder what the people involved in this production wanted to say about television - that everybody makes **** instead of them? After viewing this movie, I am afraid that this is not true.

wude Helmut Dietls satire places Halrald Schmidt at the front of biting black humor. Furthermore, I found Jasmine Tabatabai worth mentioning as a victim of higher forces. Altogether successful, although unfortunately a somewhat weak ending - nevertheless recommended, provided one likes H. Schmidt!