Steig. Nicht. Aus!

"Steig. Nicht. Aus!" is a remake of the Spanish thriller "El desconocido" (or known in the USA under its equally non-specific title "Redemption"), and as the older movie is currently on Netflix in my region and I like to compare different adaptations of the same story, I watched the Spanish film before going into the German update.

So, having seen the same story a couple days prior, my problem with "Steig. Nicht. Aus!" wasn't as much that it was terribly made (it's at least more watchable than most movies I would give 3 stars), it's that the movie gave me nothing new that I didn't already get out of "Desconocido". In fact, some aspects of the remake are a few steps below the original.

Take, for example, the opening scene, which is the only scene that writer-director Christian Alvart doesn't lift from the Spanish version: Our main character talks to a strange woman on a plane about his fear of flying, which stems from his not being able to just step the vehicle and get out. Get it? Because he won't be able to get out of his car either, once the film stars proper. Foreshadowing!

The opening scene quickly morphs into the that of "El desconocido," and from that point onwards Christian Alvart's script is little more than a German translation of that movie's script. This practice of making the same movie again in a different language is very irritating to me, because the experience of watching this movie can be almost completely replaced by watching an earlier movie - and one that is much better made.

Much of this movie revolves around main actor Wotan Wilke Möhring sitting in a car and talking to people on his phone. Sadly, he is no Tom Hardy (or "Desconocido"-star Luis Tosar, for that matter). He alternately under- or overacts, leading to some unintentionally funny moments. Luis Tosar in "El desconocido" was able to portray different levels of concern and panic, slowly growing more stressed as the film went on. Möhring just gets rid of every emotion that isn't extreme anger or slight uncomfortableness.

The direction is equally unsubtle, with many cheesy zooms in Möhring's face when he is in beast-mode. The music is also quite overbearing, at least in the beginning. The supporting actors do a good job, and the film is overall probably quite watchable if you've got nothing better to do with your evening. If you have the choice between this and its predecessor, I would strongly advise you to watch the other one, though.

The good intentions are obvious . The effort of Wotan Wilke Mohring is impresive. The film has few great moments . But... . Far to be bad, it has few huge sins. Against the story, it is not convincing. Second, it seems be only a strident moral lesson. Not the last, you feel the end becoming predictable. And, sure, one more problem- it is too, too long. The last seems be the basic sin.

This movie had me nailed to my seat, or rather: seats. I had to make two attempts at watching it. I am a father of two myself, and the first time round I had to turn off the tv when things got to tough for the kids. But the seed was sown and I found myself wondering what the heck was going on in this story, and I needed to find out. So I watched the rest online two days later. I don't regret it. I felt the pain of the father, wondered about the villain and his next moves, got angry at the police making bad mistakes, and rooted for the heros. And at the end I realized that this is what good movies do.

P.S.: Emily Kusche did a fantastic job. I loved her even better than Wilke Möhring. In every second, the emotional state she displayed reflected precisely the situation she was in.

There are quite a few things here that may feel ... well wrong to say the least. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun with this genre entry from Germany. It is very americanised ... apart from our main hero breaking down and crying! That would never happen in a Hollywood movie of course. But the other parts can be considered taken from US movies of similar nature.

And I don't mean that in a bad way. The movie overall keeps up its own inner logic. So if you roll with that and suspend your disbelief you'll be entertained and on the edge of your seat until the end (which slacks a bit or lets off steam, but there are worse things out there)

What about these bad reviews? I started breathing again when the movie was over. This was intense. Great acting of the father and daughter. I felt like I was in it, yelling at the police with their stupid decisions. I really liked it.