Lammbock

Stefan (Gregorowicz) and Kai (Bleibtreu) are best buddies who run a rundown little Pizzeria named "Lammbock". However, rather than Italian delicacies, the customers tend to order their home-grown Marihuana, which is hidden under a leaf of salami. While Kai is your typical Stoner, content to smoke until the end of his life, Stefan comes from a more rigid, upper-class background and tends to worry about his examinations to become a lawyer (and getting caught smoking by his stern father (Wepper). Other than that, the duo is concerned only with their marijuana-plantation in the woods, getting stoned, playing video-games, getting stoned, talking trash, partying with their friends-slash-customers and, well, getting more stoned. Trouble arrives when. Trouble arrives when their plants are infected with parasites and they seek aid from smooth-talking Achim (Weigend), who just happens to be a young, ambitious underground-cop.

Let me say first of all: I'm not the biggest fans of many of the actors in "Lammbock". Especially Bleibtreu, who for a while was hyped as movie-star and Wotan Wilke Möhring, later hyped as protagonists in crime- and action-films have a rather limited acting-range, examples that almost anybody can learn how to function a piano but many will never become master-musicians. However, for their roles in "Lammbock" they fit like fists in gloves.

The movie often has a very witty dialog and incredibly funny scenes, that makes it sorta a German mix between "Dazed and Confused" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". To mention a few highlights would be Möhrings performance as stoner suffering from Tourette's syndrome (making ever second word from his mouth an unintentional obscenity), a scene where Gregorowicz is forced to swallow some highly potent hashish and then attend a formal dinner with his father's colleagues or a policeman (himself a pothead) who lectures future underground-cops.

There are some uneven, even unnecessary subplots and plot lines, especially those involving Stefans little sister Laura (Zielcke), her Aids-test, a potential liaison with Kai and of course the infamous "unintentional incest"-scene, which go nowhere and add nothing to the movie but time. But those moments are few and far between and take nothing from the overall quality. What separates "Lammbock" from many similar-themed films – say, for example, the Jay & Silent Bob or Cheech and Chong flicks – is, that "Lammbock" is rarely over the top or some overblown parody and shows the protagonist as people easily can relate to, be they friends of this kind of horticulture or not. It's not like in the mentioned Cheech / Chong films, where you simply know that the duo will escape while smoking the largest joint since Bob Marleys last birthday party, but rather, it keeps the viewer rooting for our "heroes", even fevering along with them (especially in the last quarter of the movie).

Word of warning though: some of the dialogs will make little sense if you're not familiar with the German background in which the topics take place and if you've never been out with your buddies, smoking the "hooch", well, you might not get the point in the first place.

Other than that, I'd call it one of the best (if not the best) stoner-comedies produced in Germany (where possession generally carries a hefty fine, possibly jail, social discrimination, etc, etc).

7/10

I don't think it is justified to diss Lammbock because of a) "toilet humour" or b) low moral standards. It's a funny movie, which demonstrates the problems of growing up instead of making a pure comedy out of it. There may be some harsh scenes, but in no way are they dominating the film. instead the movie treats its characters with honesty and doesn't sell them for a cheap joke, which you can see in so much "growing-up"-comedies: it has a certain warmth at his heart. It is indeed a german attempt to make an "earnest Tarantino-style" -movie but Lammbock doesn't even try to hide these facts - it is in some way a homage to Tarantino-style dialogues.

I think that Lammbock is one of the best movies ever about dope. If you don't like dope you will likely think that the dialogues are boring and the film is lame - if you have ever liked cannabis, you will laugh loudly about the funny dialogues and the great humor. No, I am not saying that you would have to be stoned to see this movie, this movie is just one of the very few realistic drug-movies. Well, the story isn't realistic, but the atmosphere is. I think that is it, what makes this movie so great, it has managed to catch the atmosphere like it would be in a real smoke-inn. In most cannabis-related movies (i.e. saving grace, cheech&chong, half-baked) , the effects of this drug are pretty unrealistic, the users are described as stupid, brain-amputated, mumbo-jumbo-bubbling monkeys and many of those have this "drugs are bad"-morality. Not so in Lammbock. The users are normal people, some are crashed, most aren't, and they behave pretty much like real, pot smoking people (well not WHAT they do, but HOW they do it). The acting is just great! Lammbock is free of morality and thats good - I want to watch comedy to be entertained, not to be educated. Well, there are some scenes I didn't like either (i.e. how they treated the forest-worker), but that's not the humor of the whole movie and it doesn't spoil the film! This movie gave me back my faith in German comedy!

You don't have to be into smoking (weed) to find what is going here funny. This comedy goes above and beyond what others do. Our two main protagonists do stuff ... well, it's a good thing they are so likeable. And after all it is a movie, so no harm, no foul (in reality). The actors in general ... so good. I usually am very critical when it comes to German actors ... I can not fault them! And that elevates the movie more. I feel really bad now that I have not watched this before/earlier.

But my missing out on this aside, I could watch this back to back with the sequel, which while it ain't as good as the original still has quite the flavor to it. If you are too sensible you may feel offended of course, by this and even more by the Remake. If you find it on yourself I would urge you to watch this and have fun with it. Take the ride the characters offer you and just have a good time. The movie is set up to offer you that - without having to take any drugs

Lammbock is one of these - new modern german movies, made by "hot young" directors - bullshit. The movie is supid from the first minute on. The six minute starting dialogue about Pamela Andersons Breasts is a sign of that, what follows. Boring quotes, humor about incest, puking and drugs. But there is nothing new in it. It seems, that the director has made a summary of every urban teeny legend he ever has heard in his high school time. No Joke was bad enough for him to fit his 110 pages Screenplay. There is only one word with wich i could describe this movie - cheap! A black chapter in the career of Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie Zielcke and Sönke Wortmann.