FakeShemp-1

I love this film. Peter Maffay really can't act and he gives his lines in a way (German version) that I was laughing all through the movie. The whole concept is so pathetic and the cheesy score (okay, occasionally it's not that bad) drowns this flick merciless in sentimentality. "Joker" wants to be hard and tough and sometimes it does not look bad at all but it's more the ruin of an interesting concept, spoiled by the leading role and the typical 80ies cheese. Patzak can be a good director and I'm sure if he would have done "Joker" 10 years earlier, with Maurizio Merli for example... (haha), maybe this movie could have been pretty good, who knows. But I don't say that this version actually is bad. It's not bad if you are looking for some good fun. So I give it 4 out of 10 for the movie it wants to be and an unofficial 8 out of 10 for the unintentional comedy it is.

What happens when a genius of satire collides with popular comedians of German TV...? Not necessarily something good. The comedy-content is very poor and looks like thrown in just for commercial reasons to fit into the successful tradition of other German comedy-movies of the last years. But it's done very poor. Flat humour is not Polt's and his director's (Hans Christian Müller) cup of tea who have made great satires together in the 70ies/80ies for TV and the big screen. And because the comedy in "Germanikus" is loud and in the foreground, Polts more subtle ideas get almost erased totally here. I feel sorry for Polt because for me he always was and still will be the better and far more intelligent alternative to flat German comedy. Strangely, here he has delivered exactly what he does not stand for. This movie should be buried really deep. Gerhard Polt in his earlier films and especially on stage is a whole different world. A delight! But this movie here is torture. It was maybe messed up by too many cooks with too many differing interests. At least, it only can get better now! ;)

First of all, I am happy that Argento has returned to his old subject. SLEEPLESS is not bad. Not his best work but some people seem to have forgotten, that a logical story never was one of Argentos big talents. Maybe it is one of the rules of the giallo-genre not being too logical and realistic. Its origin were cheap italian mystery-novells and so the focus is not on the story in the first place, it's on the effect it has on an open minded watcher! And what I saw in SLEEPLESS were in my opinion enough of these effects. The acting was okay, and Sydow did a very good Job. The Carpet-Szene was cool, also the opener in the deserted "Ghost"-Train. After so many years of "absence", I had never expected this one being so good. I hope that Argento is really back now!!!