todaystomorrow

In a way, TED BUNDY reminds me a lot of "THE" other movie by Matthew Bright, FREEWAY: its visual style is quite similar, and content-wise both of the movies tell a story of violence and murder.

The difference between the two of them lies in the fact that TED BUNDY is not a fictious story. It claims to be based on the actual events which cost the lives of up to 150 women. And one can't help but find it a little odd that such a movie obviously aims at being mainly one thing: entertaining. Whilst I usually don't have the slightest problem with violence being brought to the screen (FREEWAY, by the way, is a movie I absolutely recommend), I definitely DO have a problem with a movie depicting one of the sickest guys of our times as someone who's always good for a laugh or two, and most of his victims as being incredibly stupid and ridiculous, in fact at least as responsible for their own deaths as their killer, Bundy.

Honestly, this movie appears to be a - violent, of course - comedy-sort of film much rather than anything else. And thus it lacks an adequate feel of seriousness - which Bundy's crimes and victims would have deserved, as one should think. Furthermore, it totally lacks anything like an examination of Bundy's psyche, his past, the "reasons" for his behavior (apart from 20 seconds of monologue, which have nothing to do with the REAL Bundy). Important facts have been altered or even omitted. And all that remains is a shallow image of yet another killer, nowhere near the real phenomenon, who obviously was an incredibly charming, yet at the same time lethal man. One can't help but think that the name "Ted Bundy" and the nothing but vague outline of the real Bundy's story was used as a mere ploy to attract attention towards this movie.

Apart from that, the movie is quite well done from a director's point of view, and on the most part, the actors are really good. But all in all, given the "potential" of the REAL story, TED BUNDY is nowhere near as shocking and convincing as, say, HENRY - PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. And what it has to say about its subject and its deeds is, without a doubt, highly questionable.

We've slowly grown accustomed to the fact that Germans don't

seem to be able to make good movies. Now, for a change, maybe

a movie ABOUT Germans could be good? Nope. Not this one, at

least.

And this is to say even though it starts off quite fascinating:

claustrophobic, moody, dark. Together with a Nazi soldier, we

move through a gloomy tunnel in a bunker, and those of us who

have ever played Wolfenstein or even Doom will feel at home

almost at once. And so we start looking forward to shocks, to evil

things hiding in the dark, to a creepy atmosphere the film will use

and enhance until we will feel like being lost inside this bunker

ourselves, with nowhere to go.

Unfortunately what we really get is a lot of talking in the beginning,

later on a lot of gun-fighting, and, in between, second to none of an

atmosphere. Then again, how should it be possible for any

atmosphere to develop, since it is permanently being interfered

with by extremely weak actors? Actors who don't seem "German"

at all, and who have to enact highly unconvincing characters

loaded with clichés. B-movies typically don't care much about

atmosphere, and this one makes no exception. And it thus spoils

the only chance it had, looking at the story, which is nearly non- existing to annoying, looking at the obviously NO budget, looking at

the actors who are clearly below average. And, in contrast to other

B-movies, there's not even anything HAPPENING here! The movie

has nothing whatsoever to offer that could make it at least a

LITTLE interesting; neither concerning the story, nor the staging,

nor the effects.

All together, this ends up in: a moral to the story that barely

reaches the level of cheap soap operas; not a single character

being believable and not ridiculous; a monotonous staging of a

story that is totally irrelevant. Except for a small number of

moments actually managing to create something like an atmosphere, THE BUNKER means possibly as much a waste of

time as one could imagine it. Bury this movie - and bury it deep.

Surely not a great film. But an entertaining one. One which has a story to tell (two, that is). And this is enough to make it way more interesting an fun to watch than that German wanna-be flick "Run, Lola, Run" (aka "Lola rennt") - which uses the same basic plot-idea, but only to show off; to let the audience go "Wow, this director is really something different", as I feel it. All in all, "Sliding Doors" is nothing too special - but it delivers good entertainment. And that's more than a heck of a lot of other films.