Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Die Jagd nach dem Schatz der Nibelungen" or "The Charlemagne Code" is a German television film from 2008, so this one has its 10th anniversary next year. The director is (then already) experienced filmmaker Ralf Huettner and he got together a handful known names from the big screen for his project here, such as Sadler, Zimmermann, Bohm and Busch. Fans of the German television show "Szromberg" will also see two familiar faces here. And we have a very early career performance by the young Liv Lisa Fries, one of Germany's rising stars in recent years. So the cast is not the problem I guess, even if some of them admittedly score more through character than range. You can decide for yourself which of these fit the description in your opinion. The movie is pretty long, runs for almost two hours and it can be seen as a bit of a German equivalent to the "National treasure" films starring Nicolas Cage from around that time. I explicitly avoid making a connection to Indiana Jones, even if I am not really a fan of his films.Anyway, this one we have here is about Charlemagne and with this reference, the English-language title is actually way more accurate than the German. But with the likes of Fritz Lang turning the Nibelungen into such a myth in Germany, they preferred that one. The most surprising thing, however, here is how much awards attention this movie received. If you look at the German Television Awards, it was one of the big players that year, even if it did not win a single trophy. Seriously? I guess it must have received nice audience numbers too if it gets such a reception. I will admit that it is, in terms of the subject, pretty unique for a German movie as 95% is crime now and back then already too I guess. This does not make it a good film. None of the performances are memorable. The plot felt like it took itself more seriously than it had any right to to be honest. And the story as a hole had more than just a few lengths for this runtime. But how can you blame the filmmakers when audiences and awards bodies honor mediocre and entirely forgettable works like these if they come up with no less than two sequels and turn this into a "Die Jagd nach" trilogy actually, that is maybe not even over yet. The best thing about it is really Sadler's decision to stay away from these sequels and another actor followed in his footsteps playing the protagonist Eik Meiers. But it should be over as it sucked from the beginning. Don't watch.
SteveScout
This movie was produced straight for German TV, so it had to deal with a extremely limited budget compared to similar Hollywood movies like "National Treasure". Having that in mind - which the normal audience does not have - this movie is not only produced very well, it is purely amazing how much the producers achieved with "so little" money - dozens of outdoor locations throughout the whole of Germany, action sequences, crowd scenes, cathedrals, graves, caves - they managed to get all visual ingredients for a good adventure in there. If Hollywood produced their movies with so much care, they could save a lot of money. Of course, you SEE that you are watching a TV movie, even if it is the moist expensive single TV movie for Germany up to date - the crowds are a little bit smaller, the helicopter camera flights a little bit less, the visual effects look a little bit more cheesy, the action sequences are not that carefully choreographed and the car chasing sequences end without having destroyed anything and after less than a minute compared to a big budget movie. But all that would not matter at all, if one would have tried not to imitate the big prototype movies from Hollywood, which feature cool visuals but often rarely any story or good performances, if one would have tried to find a own language, a own pace, a new approach to the adventure genre - and last but not least: If one would have had a really good screenwriter for dialogue! ;)Because you can make the best and thrilling low-budget movies with less than three locations if the script kicks ass and if the director can create amazing tension with his ensemble for the audience - but nothing has been achieved here. The dialogue comes with cheesy one-liners, some actors seem to be completely overwhelmed with the stuff they're supposed to be saying (Bettina Zimmermann is one of THE German actresses, but she seems to be completely lost here, never finding her character throughout the whole movie), the part of the hero's daughter does not anything to the drama or the development of the story and only destroys the believability of scenes with bad acting and - worst of all - there's never a real threat for our heroes, the film fails to create suspense and the "whew-now-the-story-really-sucks-me-in"-feeling through the whole running time. The showdown, for example, is so badly and boring directed that you think the director must have had a follow-up movie and tried to get away from this one as fast as possible.So in the end all that remains with the audience are the beautiful German landscapes - and the sad understanding that, once again, German filmmakers completely lack a own vision of how to tell a story to make a good movie that is more than is worth watching twice or renting the DVD.And if someone would want to rent this movie, after he has seen all the other similar international movies of this kind, I could only recommend it because of the actor Fabian Busch - he's the one making this movie at least entertaining as hell when he appears on screen. With his character everything is just perfect - he's perfectly directed, the script gives him funny and brilliant lines and his whole appearance is great to watch. Why wasn't the rest of the movie created as entertaining as his character? *sigh*
