"Vier gegen die Bank" is a German movie that came out during the Christmas holidays last year (2016) and it is the first work by director Wolfgang Petersen in a decade. For a change compared to most of his recent work, it is not a big Hollywood blockbuster, but a German movie that unites some of the country's biggest movie stars right now. We'll get to that later. The film is not too long, only runs for 89 minutes roughly plus ending credits and it is actually a remake of a television film Petersen made in his 30s back in the 1970s. When he made this new version here, he was 75. Both films are based on a novel by Ralph Maloney and this 2016 film was written by Tripper Clancy, actually his very first full feature film writing credit. And for that I guess he does a solid job for the most part. Unfortunately, there are 3-4 really bad scenes that eventually result in the film losing all credibility that was built up for the entire rest of the film. Such a shame. One scene would be the streaker scene. Another one would be the date scene towards the end. No worries, they are fairly easy to identify as these are the scenes that once again try to turn this into some kind of spectacular even while sacrificing the core of the film.
Now about the actors: Til Schweiger has been in many many films nationally and internationally and his best efforts, also as a filmmaker himself, like Keinohrhasen are long gone. Liefers is an actor who is painfully limited and basically plays obnoxious, very intelligent characters that try to make supposedly funny jokes far too frequently. Schweighöfer is a terribly limited actor who is the epitome of what is wrong with German cinema right now when it comes to comedy movies. And Herbig has a pretty successful and good television show a long time ago, but everything he has done afterward was painfully mediocre, bad or horribly overrated (Der Schuh des Manitu). So you see that my opinion of this quartet is really not high at all. The consequence is that my expectations where somewhat low and I was right. For me it is no surprise that the outcome is disappointing, but those who see quality actors in the names working on this one probably are disappointed. So who is the worst of the bunch. I guess it would be Schweighöfer who sinks the film in basically every scene where he is in the center of it. Liefers did well for the most part and it surprised me a bit, perhaps because he managed to hold himself a bit back this time and not go painfully over the top next to these big names. Schweiger is okay I guess, doesn't have too much to work with, but the character suits him and reminded me a bit of his collaboration with Tarantino. Herbig was weak too, but not as weak as Schweighöfer.
If you take a deeper look into the cast list, you will read the names of Michelse, Yardim, Pallaske, Heinze and a few others, maybe Traue too, who are admittedly not known for having great talent when it comes to their range, but still have active careers thanks to their charisma. Anyway, in their defense you need to say that they often suffer from bad scripts as well. Then again role selection is something that you can blame an actor too, so no valid defense here. Back to this film: Looking at the names I would not have been too surprised if this had run for an hour longer, but luckily it did not. It is not a mess completely as there are several scenes that are worth checking out, but the lows were just much lower as the highs were high. Overall, even of many won't agree, also with looking at the lack of experience from the screen writer and the work Petersen has done in the last 25 years, I do believe that this film is a letdown as expected. There was potential for a positive outcome, but the flaws are too dominant. I give it a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.
Now about the actors: Til Schweiger has been in many many films nationally and internationally and his best efforts, also as a filmmaker himself, like Keinohrhasen are long gone. Liefers is an actor who is painfully limited and basically plays obnoxious, very intelligent characters that try to make supposedly funny jokes far too frequently. Schweighöfer is a terribly limited actor who is the epitome of what is wrong with German cinema right now when it comes to comedy movies. And Herbig has a pretty successful and good television show a long time ago, but everything he has done afterward was painfully mediocre, bad or horribly overrated (Der Schuh des Manitu). So you see that my opinion of this quartet is really not high at all. The consequence is that my expectations where somewhat low and I was right. For me it is no surprise that the outcome is disappointing, but those who see quality actors in the names working on this one probably are disappointed. So who is the worst of the bunch. I guess it would be Schweighöfer who sinks the film in basically every scene where he is in the center of it. Liefers did well for the most part and it surprised me a bit, perhaps because he managed to hold himself a bit back this time and not go painfully over the top next to these big names. Schweiger is okay I guess, doesn't have too much to work with, but the character suits him and reminded me a bit of his collaboration with Tarantino. Herbig was weak too, but not as weak as Schweighöfer.
If you take a deeper look into the cast list, you will read the names of Michelse, Yardim, Pallaske, Heinze and a few others, maybe Traue too, who are admittedly not known for having great talent when it comes to their range, but still have active careers thanks to their charisma. Anyway, in their defense you need to say that they often suffer from bad scripts as well. Then again role selection is something that you can blame an actor too, so no valid defense here. Back to this film: Looking at the names I would not have been too surprised if this had run for an hour longer, but luckily it did not. It is not a mess completely as there are several scenes that are worth checking out, but the lows were just much lower as the highs were high. Overall, even of many won't agree, also with looking at the lack of experience from the screen writer and the work Petersen has done in the last 25 years, I do believe that this film is a letdown as expected. There was potential for a positive outcome, but the flaws are too dominant. I give it a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.