Hardcover

first of all, hardcover is one of the better German comedy flicks. knocking on heaven's door raised the bar to judge on this genre. C(r)ook also is one of those movies definitely to take into consideration when watching German comedies. Hardcover, a mix between a buddy-movie and the motive of the odd couple or even culture clash has some short cut dialogues not lacking a gag but especially the character of lulas gregorowicz takes some momentum out of the progress. wotan wilke möhring is credible in the role of a German redneck with his phrase-like behaviour of speech and his fair-haired girlfriend. the playing with stereotypes works well without appearing hackneyed. one of the movie's highlight when gregorowicz and möhring have the task to threaten the operators of an adult website for their boss.

the movie is for sure no blockbuster by German standards, there still is no flick which can hold the candle even close to knocking on heaven's door. anyway, after some real subterranean TV productions this is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel for German comedy film making and raises hope for further productions.

Ewa (Polish starlet Anna Dereszowska) does what girls like her always do when they want to get guys like us to like them: laugh a lot and pour us drinks. What is true for her is true for the entire movie. It tries very hard to please the audience. But we're not some guy, and this is not a date. We're discerning moviegoers, and this is supposed to be an offbeat comedy. But the story is so pointless and the jokes are so lame it's hard to stay interested, or awake. The only character I developed a fleeting interest in is the publisher's petite groupie (Anne Bolik). Too bad she has an on-screen total of about 15 seconds. Everybody else feels like they're from the cardboard cut-out section of "Wrestling Writer's Block for Dummies". Key message: Düsseldorf is really ugly. Like we didn't know. I guess writer-director Christian Zübert isn't the next Kevin Smith after all. I recommend his debut, "Lammbock", instead.

A very boring film, unfortunately. Just a waste of time. Wotan Wilke Möhring's acting is fine, but neither him nor any other actor could have helped this lame movie come alive. The basic idea feels very artificial and "wanna be" American - British Gangsta Flick. Maybe the director wants to be Guy Ritchie. He sure isn't. The story is predictable and not original at all, the dialogue is horribly written. The actors are doing their best, but " Hardcover" has neither enough heart, emotion, humor, realism, guts or thrills to keep any audience interested. The script definitely could have used a lot more work ( maybe a couple of years) , the directing is just mediocre, like a TV movie.

I loved Züberts two earlier films, LAMMBOCK and TREASURE OF THE WHITE FALCON. And in this one she shows again, that he can create authentic, likable characters, funny situations, that he can tell warm-hearted stories without being cheesy... but: nothing more! This movie is very nice, very entertaining, funny, but i lacks this little extra that made Züberts previous movies so special. One has the feeling that he relied to much on the stuff he knows he can do and didn't really aim for something new or pushing his limits. Moviegoers seem to see it the same way. It got decent reviews and in the cinema everybody laughed, but it bombed big time at the box office. It seems to miss some edge, some special stuff, that makes you pay seven euros.

So, lets view this one as a short rest in the career of this director and lets wait for his next movie, where he hopefully goes to the edge again!

I just like a movie that doesn't try to be more than it is. The premise is by no means news. Two really different loosers are stuck together against their will and become friends.

What i love is that the director really trusts his story and doesn't try to tune his film up with action-sequences, fancy camera-work or flashy cutting. He just relies on the chemistry of his two main-actors, which is fabulous and on his authentic but very unpredictable story. The dialogue is very funny and so is the situation-comedy.

This movie doesn't reinvent cinema but it knows what it wants to be, and is - nothing more, nothing less - a very funny, very entertaining character-driven down to earth movie.