Lammbock

This film breaks the boundaries of the 'typical' German film, creating a whole new genre for the German speaking film. It is a film full of catchy lengthy dialog, which is dominated by the very funny character Kai. The film deals with the issue of being cool, and how you present yourself towards others. Kai is very observant of this fact, constantly judging other peoples actions and commenting on these. Whilst doing this he comes up with new wild theories, which are highly entertaining ranging from Baywatch actresses breast implants, to golden goal theories.

His partner in crime is fed up with his lax attitude to life and the aimless life he leads. He himself though is also never happy with what he is doing, always complaining that he's wasting his valuable time doing nothing, but never realises that this is his own fault. His attempt of studding law seems pretty vague and half-hearted and remains a grey area throughout the film whether he is ever going to complete it.

Spun into these issues of the main characters, the film shows their new innovative and highly lucrative business plan of distributing cannabis products through their own pizza delivery service: 'Pizzaria Lammbock'. This business of there's goes extremely well allowing them to lead a relaxed and carefree life. In their new found 'paradise' they become careless and too trusting, ultimately letting in an undercover cop in their little secret. Turning their environment and that of their friends into a hostile terrain. The two weed mongers don't find out what kind of mess their in until its all too late, and the undercover cop comes out of the closet!!! What follows then after is a desperate fight to come clean of their deeds which are now not only drug possession with intent to distribute, but also a lot of other things have heaped up on their shoulders. Yet the serious situation the two main characters are in and how they manage to deal with it, by no means lowers the entertainment level, varying from extreme laughter to suspense and surprise.

Whether their encounter with the police, leaves them behind bars, or just makes them turn over a new leaf, or indeed leave them unchanged remains the little incentive to learn German and then find out for yourselves!!!

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.

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!

I have to admit, guiltily, that I quite liked Lammbock, even though it manages to serve up cinematic gaffes faster than McDonald's soggy hamburgers: plenty of silly dope-induced jokes aimed at a very immature audience, cheap rip-offs from Kevin Smith, Roger Avery and Quentin Tarantino (... etc.) 's oeuvres, totally improbable subplots that lead nowhere fast, pointless and -- even worse -- unentertaining violence, underdeveloped characters; in short, a movie that doesn't quite gel. Still, the director Christian Zübert seems to know how to handle actors and consequently there are some great performances (notably from Lukas Gregorowicz, Marie Zielcke, Julian Weigend, the ever- dependable Moritz Bleibtreu, and the underrated Elmar Wepper) despite the somewhat deficient script. Heck, there are some great, memorable scenes as well, only they are outweighed by others that that are born dead. I would suspect that the film's problems are mainly due to the directors lack of experience, which in turn would have required an experienced producer, who should have known when to step in and call the shots.

I will be on the lookout for Christian Zübert's next film, and overall I enjoyed watching his film -- on the telly. Had I seen it in the theatres I probably would have been disappointed.