Der Überfall

As an American who speaks not only German but is familiar with Viennese dialect, this was an interesting film, but without an understanding of those subtleties (and perhaps even the outsider's perspective), much of the humor is lost.

No, it is not primarily a comedy, in spite of the billing as such, though the actors do come from the Viennese cabaret tradition. However, there are some really funny moments lost in the subtitles, primarily dealing with the formality of Viennese dialect. So, if you watch it with subtitles, sorry?

The acting is pretty good, and the filming was done better than most (sorry, true) Austrian films. Worth seeing for sure.

In German: 7.5 Subtitled in English: 6

It's hard for me to tell whether this film is good or not. I didn't like it. To say it more accurately: I really suffered this one and a half hours in my cushioned seat. First, and this one is easy: It is the worst austrian movie of the past ten years I've seen. Haders performance is far behind his possibilities, and Dueringer... well, I don't like him. He's not acting, he's playing himself. I liked 'Hinterholz 8', but I can't see anymore of his performances, because it's always the same person, without any changes - there's no acting. The worst part of this 'experience' was, that everyone in the theather was expecting comedy. And it surely wasn't. There have been a few good jokes, the rest was death-scaring serious. But many guys sitting next to me didn't get this, and they laughed the whole way through. I think it's the advertisments fault, which made us believe that this is a funny movie. Who knows, with a more serious, more quiet auditorium I might've been able to enjoy this film. But that's not the only point. 'Der Ueberfall' has boring scenes with absolute no message (I think so, 'cause I didn't find any), and more than once I thought about leaving the theather before gettin' real angry 'bout myself, because that was such a waste of time. To say it again, maybe I would have liked it more with no idiots laughing loudly during scenes, in which düringer beats his hostages or gets punched bloody just minutes later. It was the 'Three Kings' effect: There everybody expected comedy and saw a hard, rude war movie - stuff to think about. But there the audience checked this, and after about thirty minutes of 'reorganization' I was able to see 'Three Kings' in the right manner. At 'der Ueberfall' this was impossible. Maybe I will see him once more - alone and in front of my tube, and maybe I'm gonna repeal my opinion then. For now: Don't waste your money, go and see 'Indien', 'Wanted' or even 'Hinterholz 8' on video, if you want to see good austrian stuff. Because those are good, 'der Ueberfall' isn't.

From time to time, some Austrian stage-comedians produce a new film, in which they criticize some actual social problems, mostly using one of heir former stage concepts with lots of gags and a depressing ending. Those films get many visitors, more than any other home-made movie because they are really funny and entertaining. But that's all. This time, although Roland Düringer and Josef Hader, two of our best-known comedians are playing the lead roles, it's not a so-called "Cabaret-film". It's a real movie, where not just actors and script are important but also photography, editing and music - yeah, I was surprised: For the first time, they dared to use English songs! Usually, Austrian movies are high-quality or entertaining (or none of them). "Der Überfall" is both. I've been waiting for a movie like that for a long time: it makes you laugh and it makes you think and the ending is great because you have to decide yourself whether it's happy or sad. If I'd have to choose, I'd send this movie to Oscar 2001.It has a chance to be nominated.