Plan B

Just saw the movie and I had so much fun!!! Yes, I was a bit skeptical because Martial-Arts or action movies are not the kind of movies I like to watch, but I'm glade that my male friends dragged me to the cinema! Of course you can tell, that three of the main characters are no professional actors,but the boys are very likable and authentic. And those action scene made up for it even more. All fights were brilliant and very nice to watch. You can see that the boys are very experienced stuntmen.

I hope that these guys get a chance from the (German) audience! The fight scenes were brilliant, the humour was great, the boys were awesome and likable. All in all it's a very nice movie to watch with friends and lots of popcorn!

Three martial arts and wannabe stunt men and their manager get accidentally involved in criminal vs criminal kidnapping and are forced to retrieve four clues in order to save on of their friends. Add to this some corrupt and rogue cops and a few betrayals and lots of really good staged fights and you get good fun for over an hour and a half The guys are pretty naïve and keep repeating cliched from every classic action movie. They are very good fighting but not particularly smart so they make lots of mess until achieve their goal. It is not an great movie nor a Jackie Chan one; but very close. Fights are good; the guys have just enough sympathy to carry the movie and there produce some funny moments. In brief; there are far worse ways to spend some free time. This is not regretable.

When I first walked into this film, I had no idea what to expect. I had never heard of this film and just watched it because I had already bought a festival pass at the Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival.

Let me pre-face this review by saying that I grew up on action films and martial arts cinema. When I watched Plan B, I was blown away. The main attraction of the film is of course it's martial arts - and it is AMAZING. The fight scenes are like a throwback to the days of Bruce Lee and early Jet Li in that it isn't filled with headache-inducing cuts but all fight scenes are from mostly a single side-camera view. The athleticism, speed and power of the three main characters are a sight to behold. Out of the three, the star is Korean-German Cha Lee Yoon who is every bit as good as current Tony Jaa or Iko Uwais. That's not to take away from Can Aydin and Phong Giang, who are both also tremendous. Part of the reason why the action is so great is because the Reel Deal stunt crew is just that, a real stunt team made up of these three magnetic young men.

It's not just the martial arts though - these three stuntmen are loaded with charisma and the film is funny as hell. You can really notice that these three guys are best friends in real life. The film is loaded which hilarious moments interspersed between the incredible action sequences and the acting is very good as well.

Overall, this film has the best martial arts sequences in recent memory, especially for a western film. I highly recommend it for anybody who is a fan of martial arts, comedy or action films.

This is not supposed to be high art. This is supposed to entertain and delight you - and serve you some very fine action (choreography). And it delivers on those things. Humor is in the eye of the beholder, so it'll depend on how much silliness you can withstand. If you can and relish in it, there's another factor for you to be entertained by this.

We should not build to much or expect to much of the story. It's quite simple and easy to follow. We should also not be too judgemental on German genre movies. Esepcially if they can be so much fun as this. Yes there are flaws, quite a few of them. But while you could start picking this apart, you could use the time, just having fun - like the actors and everyone seemingly involved in this had! Good for those guys and anyone who likes action movies - I was almost being being too tough on the movies beginning and how over the top it was - until they pulled the curtain and I was like "ok, they're not takng themselves too seriously, we are all in on it"! Let's go and let's do this ...

I'm a huge fan of tacky 80's stuff. Give me the synths, give me the neon lights, the glaring colors. I'm also a huge fan of ridiculous movies that don't take themselves to seriously and that are shockful of over-the-top-action. "Plan B: Scheiss auf Plan A" has both... the 80's vibes and the ridiculous action, but nevertheless I found myself disappointed.

The story is simple: Three friends who are stunt men and their agent accidentally get tangled up in a crime plot surrounding the evil crime lord "Gabriel". In an almost video-game-like manner, the four friends have to fight through four stages to find Gabriel's safe. While they are hunting down Gabriel's treasures, they are also being chased by the police...

There's a lot to like about this movie. First and foremost the fact that this is a great action piece that doesn't come out of the usual mainstream Hollywood circles and that therefore breathes some fresh air into the genre. And then the whole 80's nostalgia and the general style, which is beautifully extravagant.

That said, the plot is far too random, even for a movie that takes obvious inspiration from B movies. A little more coherence would have been necessary. Moreover, while the action is INTERESTING, it is also not compelling—and that's ultimately the movie's downfall since action is what you're really in for with 'Plan B'. Our three stunt men protagonists (all of which are actually stunt men in Hollywood) certainly have a great sense of physicality, but the fight choreographies are a little disingenuous and at times genuinely boring. A lot of straightforward hitting and kicking, but relatively little variety. Also, on the acting front: While our three stunt men are quite likable characters and you do relate to them, the whole energy between the group members seems a little fake and unconvincing. And some of the jokes they make amongst each other are rather dull...

My recommendation is to watch this movies with friends to have a few good laughs over a beer. It's not a must-see, but it's certainly fun and short-lived background entertainment, made with a cool sense of style.