noxom

I just saw this movie at the Berlin Film Festival's Children's Program and it just killed me (and pretty much everyone else in the audience)! And make no mistake about it, this film belongs into the all-time-250! Let me tell you that I'm in no way associated with the creators of this film if that's what you come to believe reading this. No, but this actually is IT! Nevermind the "kid's-film" label on it, "Klatretösen" ("Climber Girl") is on almost every account a classic (as in "biblical")! The story concerns 12-year old Ida (magnetic: Julie Zangenberg), who is devastated to learn of her daddy's terminal illness. Special surgery in the US would cost 1.5 million and of course, nobody could afford that. So Ida and her friends Jonas and Sebastian do what every good kid would - and burglarize a bank! Sounds corny? Don't forget: This is not America and "Klatretösen" is by no means the tear-jerking Robin-Williams-multiplex-plat-du-jour nobody takes seriously anyway. Director Fabian Wullenweber set out to make a big-budget-action-comedy for kids and, boy, did he succeed! Let me put it this way: This film rocks like no kid-film and few others did before. And there's a whole lot more to it than just the "action". After about 20 minutes of by-the-numbers-exposition (well, granted) it accelerates into a monster that:

• effortlessly puts "mission impossible" to shame (the numerous action sequences are masterfully staged and look real expensive - take that, mummy!)

• dwarves almost every other movie suspense-wise ( no easy-they're-only-kids-antics here )

• easily laces a dense story with enough laughs to make jim carrey look for career alternatives

• nods to both damon runyon and karate kid within the same seconds

• comes up with so much wicked humor that side of p.c. that I can hear the American ratings board wet their pants from over here

• manages to actually be tender and serious and sexy at the same time (ohmygod, what am I saying?? they're kids! they're kids! - nevermind, watch that last scene!)

• stars Stafan Pagels Anderson, who since last years "Mirakel" is everybody's favourite kid actor

What a ride!

Prior to the press-screening of this movie I was told that the director had already taken pains re-editing this thing due to disastrous test-screenings. Well, you certainly won't gather that from viewing this outright piece of rubbish as it is now! Let me assure you that I'm in no way unimpressionable with action movies and I sure can embrace stuff like "Terminator" or McTiernan's own "Die Hard" for the sheer fun of it. But this film is a complete disaster! The so called story involves the cruel gladiator-like sport of the original film, but fails to even begin to hint at the multi-layered social commentary of its predecessor. Instead you get loads of rah-rah-machismo and an uninspired, humorless and boring storyboard that makes the 90 minutes of the film feel like an eternity. The camera work is a major embarrassment too: fervent cutting doesn't allow you to actually see anything and the whole thing plays like an MTV-clip from hell. Oh yeah, and star Rebecca Romijn-Stamos runs around topless a lot, but without a proper context "it didn't get me excited, it just made me feel mean", as the song goes...