1 1/2 Ritter - Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde

I saw this film yesterday and could not stop laughing, as most of the crowd in the almost sold-out theatre. This is very well made and full of surprises. The cast ist first-rate, especially Tobias Moretti delivers his best performance. You can feel that they had a lot of fun in the making of it. After his mega-success with "Keinohrhasen". Til Schweiger has done it again. Production values are top notch and as good as Hollywood standarts. Cinematography and sound effects are first class. There is even a new song by New Kids on the Block. This Til Schweiger guy really knows how to please his audience. This is also a film for the whole family and for repeated viewings!

Thanks to Rick Cavanian, Didi Hallervorden and Roberto Blanco 4-5 scenes are remotely funny, the rest of the movie had me cringing with pain due to unfunny jokes and horrific acting. Furthermore the plot has no continuity and failed to generate any suspense. Most chapters are introduced by showing the scenery or close-ups of some plants which isn't a bad thing per se, but these sequences are rather longer than needed. The soundtrack, while good (despite obvious Gladiator and The Dark Knight influences), doesn't seem to be aware of what's going on in the movie, the protagonists are accompanied by happy-go-lucky tunes almost all the time, in peril or not. Don't waste your time with this.

There isn't even a year between this and the release of Til Schweiger's previous film, "Keinohrhasen" ("Rabbit without Ears"). Thankfully, he didn't write the script this time around, so in the ever-growing Schweiger canon this film stands out: Instead of making a romantic comedy about an irresponsible manchild who learns to commit to a meaningful relationship by the end, this one is a broad medieval comedy. It has therefore more in common with similar German period spoof films, like the "7 Zwerge" ("7 dwarfs") movies or the earlier films by Michael Herbig, although none of these are set in medieval times.

A big advantage of Schweiger giving screenwriting duties to other people is the fact that he plays a different character than in all his other movies. His stale performance in "Keinohrhasen" didn't convince me of his acting talent, but I found him rather enjoyable here. He is still sloppily mumbling through his lines and his face muscles rarely move, but put a silly wig on him and write him as somewhat socially awkward, and you can make his role kind of funny and refreshing.

All the other players in this movie, most of them television personalities rather than actors, don't venture out of their comfort zone, and are therefore not as refreshing. The casting of Thomas Gottschalk as King Gunther is technically spot-on, but unfortunately Gottschalk takes his role far too seriously. Same for Udo Kier. The only genuinely good performance comes from Rick Kavanian, but that doesn't mean he made me laugh.

That's because the script is painfully unfunny. Some of the comedy bits are lifted from better films, and stupid pseudo-gags are extended way beyond what is appropriate. Which might be the reason behind the long running time. There is no justification for this movie being almost two hours long, it just makes its glaring writing and pacing issues even more apparent.

Many movies like this feature some anachronistic jokes, which often makes it hard for me to develop some interest or belief in their fictional worlds, but those jokes are often reserved for quick one liners, and since these films are typically quite fast-paced, they don't take me out of the story. In "1 1/2 Ritter," however, the pacing is painfully slow, so there is nothing to compensate for all the jokes that don't land or take you out of the movie. The performances, as described above, are very low-energy, so even they don't compensate for the lack of genuine comedy writing. Compare this to the movies I listed as comparisons above (which, mind, are no masterpieces either).

As a director, Schweiger is clearly out of his depth directing action scenes. A movie like this doesn't need good action because, unlike most historical dramas, the story doesn't require extended fight scenes, but that didn't stop Schweiger from including them anyway. And because he apparently couldn't afford a stunt double to perform some good choreography, all of them consist of rapidly edited close-ups of Schweiger going "hrrrng!" and violently punching his enemies.

As for improvements: At least the pictures in the film have a little more colour in them than in "Keinohrhasen," the camera work in general is pretty good, and the soundtrack is well-placed and might even be listenable if you listen to it independent from the movie.

at least if you are not really into pain. Or with the Scavenger's daughter, the Scold's bridle and the Iron Maiden, they couldn't hurt quite as much as watching this insipid movie. It is based on one idea, one really simple idea: Put actors into a medieval setting, but let them talk and basically act like contemporary TV characters. You can take an old script that was too bland to even use it for a TV soap, change the parts to king, princess, knight and troubadour. That's all. Imagine the men's stupid hairdos that make them look like hillbillies - and what's funnier than that. Don't overdo it like those Monty Python guys, using gags and stuff. The viewers are already laughing about the hairdos, don't over-strain them.

That is no exaggeration. The dialog and the storyline are extremely dull. How did the writers manage it to get their script accepted? With no images to distract from the trite content this seems to be an impossible task. Yet they succeeded. They probably put an image of a medieval hairdo on every single page.

Though "1 1/2 Ritter" is an intellectual disaster, the lack of money hasn't been the problem here. The art department's work looks alright. There are lots of well known German actors - acting stupid. Is this the most embarrassing role poor iconic Udo Kier ever agreed to stain himself with? Probably not. It's still a pity. The most dignified acting is delivered by Dieter Hallervorden, who's been infamous for his silly comedies in the Eighties. Compared to "Zeroes" comedies like "1 1/2 Ritter" they don't look half bad. A good thing for Mr. Hallervorden, annoying for nearly everybody else.

The only thing remotely interesting about this movie is the startling lack of any redeeming qualities and therefore the question: How could this happen?

I really was disappointed after watching this movie. The cast was promising, a lot of famous Germans actors and comedians are participating in this movie. Even the plot was promising but i don't know what happened. Some sequences were way too long, the beginning was lame and funny scenes weren't that funny. And this movie is NOT for the whole family, my advice: please leave your kids under 12 years at home, because an important topic is sex. I wished there were more funny moments in it. There is no spirit in this movie. Of course there were some points where i had to laugh, mostly when the character called Erdal was on screen. This was not a good German comedy.