Eis am Stiel, 8. Teil - Summertime Blues

Highly underrated last part of the Eis am Stiel series. For the first time, it feels like watching a professional film. Benny and his friends keep their pants unzipped for a change, and like to open a beach bar. This change of formula might be annoying for die-hard fans, but at least it creates space for something called a 'story line'. The focus is mostly on the Johnny character, which was a good decision as Zachi Noy is clearly the best actor of the three. A welcome surprise after the horrible parts before.

By the way, the actors in real life are completely disgusted / traumatized by the Eis am Stiel films and deeply regret playing in them, as they felt exploited by the producers. Oh well. You can read all juicy details at the Eis am Stiel fan site (in German): http://kasi69.ka.funpic.de/eis-am-stiel-domizil/index-hauptseite.htm

In the last entry in the 'Popsicle' series we have somewhat of a conflict, namely a slight return to form but a compromise of content. The Popsicle series has had many twists and turns during it's reign, it started out as a raunchy Iserali 'American Graffiti' homage, branching into a series of entertaining, if dopey, sex comedies and then, from Episode 6 onwards, a shameless cash-in on it's former glory, complete with bored cast members and non-existent stories. So it ends as bizarrely as it started, as a German teen movie. Raunchy content is more-or-less ditched in favour of a more family friendly approach, keeping in line with the TV edits of the previous movies very popular on German television. The boys are back, older but not much wiser, with yet another name change (do the translators even watch previous entries??) this time aspiring to open a Hawiaan-style bar with a little help from a rich investor. The key to his help is the rich investor's daughter who has long harboured a crush on bad boy Bobby (Momo) who has no interest in romancing a geeky accident prone nerd to gain the necessary cash to make Hughie/Yuhadle/Johnny's (!!) dream a reality. Interestingly it develops that Zachi Noy's multi-named character is the love-lorn one here replacing Benzi's usual character-ark and in the process giving him little to do. Bobby or Momo has a nice change of pace exhibiting a possible softer side but proving by the final reel that the new writers keep Bobby in check. To say it's flawed is an understatement, it's certainly nowhere near as interesting as the first entry but thankfully seems like 'Gone With The Wind' compared to the previous one! This time the German producers have paid for proper versions of GOOD songs from the era and the new writers at least have bothered with a thread of story (although typically twee and easy) and took the characters (bar poor Benzi) is some new directions. Shame they forget to up the laughs and give the Popsicle fans some scantily clad babes in the process. At least it's a fitting end to this branch of the series, if a watered down one.

In what turned out to be the last in the Lemon Popsicle series, there's a change of attitude and some characterizations. Way past high school age, Huey (Zachi Noy), Benji (Yiftach Katzur), and Bobby (Jonathan Sagall) decide to rebuild a long-dilapidated bar. They enlist the daughter of the landlord who's not the usual sex symbol or ethereal beauty that permeate these movies for help running the place. Her name is Polly (Elfi Eschke) and she has a massive crush on bad boy Bobby who actually seems interested in her too which is unusual for him. I'll just now mention that this seems like a Cinderalla tale but there's some twists that one may or not be able to predict if one is familiar with certain movies. This time, while there's some nudity, there are no sex scenes despite the presence of some of the women from previous entries. Oh, and I should also mention that I couldn't find an English-dubbed version so I settled for the German language one so despite that I noticed some visual gags, some of which were funny. Star Noy thought up the story and so it's mainly about him. Also, this film seemed more dramatic than usual for the series. With all that, I quite enjoyed Summertime Blues. A little more than a decade later, an attempted reboot happened called The Party Goes On which I'll review next...