Lammbock

I have to admit, guiltily, that I quite liked Lammbock, even though it manages to serve up cinematic gaffes faster than McDonald's soggy hamburgers: plenty of silly dope-induced jokes aimed at a very immature audience, cheap rip-offs from Kevin Smith, Roger Avery and Quentin Tarantino (... etc.) 's oeuvres, totally improbable subplots that lead nowhere fast, pointless and -- even worse -- unentertaining violence, underdeveloped characters; in short, a movie that doesn't quite gel. Still, the director Christian Zübert seems to know how to handle actors and consequently there are some great performances (notably from Lukas Gregorowicz, Marie Zielcke, Julian Weigend, the ever- dependable Moritz Bleibtreu, and the underrated Elmar Wepper) despite the somewhat deficient script. Heck, there are some great, memorable scenes as well, only they are outweighed by others that that are born dead. I would suspect that the film's problems are mainly due to the directors lack of experience, which in turn would have required an experienced producer, who should have known when to step in and call the shots.

I will be on the lookout for Christian Zübert's next film, and overall I enjoyed watching his film -- on the telly. Had I seen it in the theatres I probably would have been disappointed.

Lammbock is one of these - new modern german movies, made by "hot young" directors - bullshit. The movie is supid from the first minute on. The six minute starting dialogue about Pamela Andersons Breasts is a sign of that, what follows. Boring quotes, humor about incest, puking and drugs. But there is nothing new in it. It seems, that the director has made a summary of every urban teeny legend he ever has heard in his high school time. No Joke was bad enough for him to fit his 110 pages Screenplay. There is only one word with wich i could describe this movie - cheap! A black chapter in the career of Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie Zielcke and Sönke Wortmann.

This film breaks the boundaries of the 'typical' German film, creating a whole new genre for the German speaking film. It is a film full of catchy lengthy dialog, which is dominated by the very funny character Kai. The film deals with the issue of being cool, and how you present yourself towards others. Kai is very observant of this fact, constantly judging other peoples actions and commenting on these. Whilst doing this he comes up with new wild theories, which are highly entertaining ranging from Baywatch actresses breast implants, to golden goal theories.

His partner in crime is fed up with his lax attitude to life and the aimless life he leads. He himself though is also never happy with what he is doing, always complaining that he's wasting his valuable time doing nothing, but never realises that this is his own fault. His attempt of studding law seems pretty vague and half-hearted and remains a grey area throughout the film whether he is ever going to complete it.

Spun into these issues of the main characters, the film shows their new innovative and highly lucrative business plan of distributing cannabis products through their own pizza delivery service: 'Pizzaria Lammbock'. This business of there's goes extremely well allowing them to lead a relaxed and carefree life. In their new found 'paradise' they become careless and too trusting, ultimately letting in an undercover cop in their little secret. Turning their environment and that of their friends into a hostile terrain. The two weed mongers don't find out what kind of mess their in until its all too late, and the undercover cop comes out of the closet!!! What follows then after is a desperate fight to come clean of their deeds which are now not only drug possession with intent to distribute, but also a lot of other things have heaped up on their shoulders. Yet the serious situation the two main characters are in and how they manage to deal with it, by no means lowers the entertainment level, varying from extreme laughter to suspense and surprise.

Whether their encounter with the police, leaves them behind bars, or just makes them turn over a new leaf, or indeed leave them unchanged remains the little incentive to learn German and then find out for yourselves!!!

I don't think it is justified to diss Lammbock because of a) "toilet humour" or b) low moral standards. It's a funny movie, which demonstrates the problems of growing up instead of making a pure comedy out of it. There may be some harsh scenes, but in no way are they dominating the film. instead the movie treats its characters with honesty and doesn't sell them for a cheap joke, which you can see in so much "growing-up"-comedies: it has a certain warmth at his heart. It is indeed a german attempt to make an "earnest Tarantino-style" -movie but Lammbock doesn't even try to hide these facts - it is in some way a homage to Tarantino-style dialogues.

A friend of mine and myself find new Tarantino (he's a Tarantino expert, i only like Kill Bill II) Hommages, in the dialogues, as well as in the non-dialogue scenes. The trashtalk at the beginning reminds of the "Like a virgin" discussion from Reservoir Dogs, the (violent?) part of getting rid of the hunter could be an imitation of the PF scene where Vinces blows his hostage's head off by mistake. The "thought behind" could have been making a Tarantino-lookalike movie, just without (or less) violence and strong language (what I personally dislike about his movies. Cutting ears off, come on!).

Of course the humor is not everyone's taste. If you like drug-influenced trashtalk, this is your film. the single episodes seem pieced together without the "red line" between them (except the characters like Frank and Schöngeist. I love those guys - "Halt's maul du Scheißf..." - "Frank. Contenance!"). Actors do imo a pretty good job - W. W. Möhring always playing with his hair, and, one of my favorite scenes, the headshop scene, where L. Gregorowicz stand still looks impressed.

I personally love the movie, for I'm quite in this kind of twisted humour (I love The Big Lebowski as well).

stay tuned

DK Lord Marshmallow