Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"U-900" is a German movie from 2008 and another of these works where we have a German comedian with his own show enter the big screen and it goes wrong in most cases, just like it does here. The director of this film that will have its 10th anniversary next year is Sven Unterwaldt Jr., who is mostly known for his Otto collaborations. There's two writers here and one of them is Oliver Ziegenbalg, who is an experienced comedy writer, and the other is Michael Gantenberg, who worked on Alles Atze with the lead actor. The film runs for under 90 minutes excluding credits and it stars the fictitious character of Atze Schröder (the actor behind him had a court order issued that nobody is allowed to say his real name), this time not in his kiosk, but over half a century back posing as a lauded German admiral. There you already have the first connection. I would say that you could call this film overall a poor man's version of a mix between "Das Boot", Austin Powers and the Helge Schneider film "Mein Führer". Schröder's co-lead is Oliver Wnuk ("Stromberg"), but his character adds absolutely nothing at all. Truly disappointing as all he does is be a vehicle to Schröder's character. Catterfeld has a couple solid moments, mostly when she is not posing as a male soldier.The bad guys include some known names too. My favorite Horst Krause has one scene only though early on sadly. Götz Otto is probably the best from the bunch and that says a lot as he is a relatively mediocre actor who shines through his physicality most of the time. And if that is already enough to be better than the rest, then it's not the very best sign in terms of the ensemble performance in here I must say. A lot of the jokes aren't working in my opinion, but I am also biased because I never found the self-centered approach to comedy by Atze Schröder particularly funny or smart. Still luckily, here and there there is a moment that may make you smile. Good news is this film has zero ambition to be taken seriously from the drama or war perspective and that's basically what saves it from being a complete failure. But that does not mean at all it was a good watch by any definition. It went by relatively quickly as it borders and pointless fun on several occasions and the absurdity of it all is sometimes worth it. Still I would say the relatively low IMDb rating is spot on. This is trash with occasional guilty pleasure potential, but not good enough in any area to a degree where I would recommend checking out. With the exception of Catterfeld's stunning looks of course, but even these had to be hidden for the majority of the film. I believe her and Wnuk met through this film and they are still together today, so at least something good came out of it for the cast. But for audiences it really doesn't. I suggest you watch something else instead.
