Achtung, fertig, Charlie!

If you served in the Swiss Army, you WILL recognize yourself in this movie... and will enjoy watching it. You get the feeling of: "Yeah, that's how it is... oh, yes, I remember that exercise... That guy is just like our CO (or whoever)... oh, yeah, the Grenadier vs. Füsilier antagonism..." and so on..

If you never did serve in the Swiss Army, you probably won't understand half the jokes... and then the movie is just plain boring.

This comedy is decidedly Swiss. You have to know the Swiss Army to understand it.

I loved it, but I did serve. (I recognized myself most in the character of Korporal Wyss...) Most of my friends who are not Swiss or managed to worm out of military training didn't think it fun... not because it was inaccurate, but because they didn't understand the context.

I am swiss and I really liked the movie. Maybe it's because I'm a girl and I didn't have to go to the military.

I think the movie is funny and there are many parts that really can be true. What I didn't like too much is the acting of some actresses. Actually of just one actress. She's better off just singing...

Michael Koch was great and I hope he's gonna be seen in other upcoming movies. Melanie Winiger (ex Miss Switzerland) did a great job, just too sad she didn't get successful in Hollywood. But I hope we're gonna see more of her acting. Marco Rima was great as usual. He's a real comedian! All in all I really love the movie, I think it's worth watching it. Unfortunately I doubt it will ever be shown in an English speaking country (but maybe they'll have English subtitles on the DVD)...

I have no idea why the Swiss themselves seem to dislike the film. I work in the industry, and when saw this, I was very pleasantly surprised. I only understood the subtitles, as is the case for almost all foreign films with me, and this was by far one of the funniest.

So, I'm not really doing a fair comparison to Hollywood films. But if I was, I'd say it was somewhere between Eurotrip meets American pie in terms of quality and comedic value. In terms of Swiss films, its by the far the best and only Swiss film I've ever seen.

Its the closest I've ever been to the Swiss army, but from what I understand, its a joke. And this film makes a great parody of it. Plus there is a token romance in it, Romeo and Juliet style, very tense.

.. Switzerland has never had such a big movie-budget as at the moment, and still can't make any really good movies? ah yes right, they just don't know how (yet)! for every conscript from Switzerland who has done his military service or every girl who has had a boyfriend who did it (or done it herself), this movie is OK! (hence the 5 point vote).. some bits are funny, because they really took every cliché and overdrew them (the pacifist from the french speaking part of Switzerland for example). the different dialects of Switzerland also have a big part in this set up, and this of course works great in swiss-German.

but as a movie for anybody else? .. no way! i would be astonished if anybody from outside Switzerland (non-swiss) could really have a good laugh..

so much for the story.

acting: oh well.. i've seen worse, but no Oscar-worthy performances. imagery/technical: they are getting there. it's OK, but some better filters would made it visually more appealing.

This film makes "American Pie" a sophisticated movie! No further comment needed. Humor is cheap, dialogues are stupid and the cast is awkward. Every cliché is used several times without any original twist. And far the worst, the movie turns out to be more catholic than the Pope. It's so sad.