Die menschliche Bombe

From the moment a movie starts with "based on a true story" you know what to expect...drama, and if there is any motherheart around you better have a handkerchief near you. This is the story for the dumb couples I suppose...men have their action-scenes (the hostagekeeper is a real psycho, even if he can't act) and women can start crying as some kids are threatened to be shot down while Patsy Kensit (always nice to see) is the mother with a heart... What's the story you say? Well, a psycho hostages a classroom with rich kids at where Patsy Kensit is the teacher who tries to calm down the psycho. And with that you can save 2 hours of your life cos there is nothing to be added. So yes this movie is terrible, such a story has been told 10000 times before!!!

Okay movie. Could be done better. Plus sometimes it seems like Gerardt Dach has 2 or 3 different voices. Marcia is the only one who plays an okay role. The rest comes over like some cheap actors.

story: Marcia comes back to her family in Germany after losing her husband in the USA. She starts teaching at an international school with kids from rich people. While teaching her class becomes hostages from a guy who has no real motive for kidnapping them and only wants 25 million dollars. Interesting ending though.

Since this movie was based on true events, and centred around a group of small children and their young teacher - Patsy Kensit - being held hostage by a crazed fanatic it should have had me on the edge of my seat, but it didn't. The main problem was that the crazed fanatic was a really bad actor, and I didn't believe in him for one moment. Most of the children were more frightening than him, mainly because their acting was dire. Surely they could have cried a bit more convincingly. They should have been made to watch the rushes, that might have helped. On the other hand, Prochnow was tailor-made for his role as a policeman still haunted by the memory of the murder of the athletes at the Munich Olympics and determined not to let the same thing happen again, and it was interesting to learn how tight-fisted and devious governments are willing to be even when children's lives are at stake. If the ending is true then it's amazing, but I suspect a little dramatic licence may have been taken here. An okay watch in the end, but it should have been better.

This gets off to a bad start with no character development, but once it gets going it's quite interesting despite poor acting from most of the players. A couple of the actors are quite good, though, and Prochnow is terrific in this role.