Der Clown

First off, I haven't seen the TV series about the same main character.

I know there is an audience for movies like this. But I tend to expect at least a small storyline that is been followed in the film. After watching "Der Clown" I am not sure what story was told there.

All I can recall is this: A guy, formerly a member of some sort of special forces, dropped out of that unit. Now he is free to break legal rules to successfully hunt down the bad guys. Of course his girlfriend had fought on his side and has been killed in action. We learn this in the opening scene.

The bad guys have the famous idea to rob gold bars (can money be more difficult to carry away?) and they do it with ease. It took just a grenade on the highway to get rid of all the chasing police force.

The Clown starts the hunt. A friend supports helicopters (yes, several of them, because they are wrecked one after the other). And a blondish journalist shows up, right in time to be taken hostage and later to kiss the clown. No other purpose for her to be in the movie. I already forgot how the bad guys were stopped in the end.

Action in a movie doesn't have do be explosions. But in this movie, everything explodes. And as in the German TV series "Cobra 11", cars tend to lift off in slow motion as soon as they hit a little obstacle. This is dull entertainment, destruction for the lover of brute force. You don't care for any character in this movie. The makers tried to make us feel for that poor man that had lost his girlfriend, but it doesn't work just by putting in the scene of her death in slow motion.

If you like TV productions like "Cobra 11", you will probably like this movie. But don't expect more. If you go to the movies to be touched and moved by the story, this is definitely not your film.

I saw this film right on the day it opened in a large theater and even though I wasn't familiar with the original German TV Series I at least expected decent action entertainment and hoped to experience some two hours of fun and adrenaline.

But even my lowest expectations were completely shattered. DER CLOWN is a vintage cinematic failure - which rates even more painful, as it is conceived to be the first cinema released film of the newly formed cinema division of Germany's production company ACTION CONCEPT.

This is even more lamentable, as the film presents its assets in a very loose and disadvantageous manner: even though it contains some extremely strong elaborate stunts, explosions (of choppers, cars and even entire planes) and shootouts, which certainly would be worthy of a true Hollywood action production, these supposed assets are not presented as eye candy at all. The actions sequences are framed and edited in a dull way, making them look average, boring and uninspired. The blown up 16mm to 35mm image on the screen looks awfully cheap, the ongoing use of grand camera moves and particularly the frequent split screens pretending some artistic merits are just annoying and do make no sense at all!

But it's not only the failure of technical aspects, which ads up to me feeling FÜR DUMM VERKAUFT at the end of the screening. The actors, the storyline and the governing VISION of this project seem to be dis comfortably stuck in the feeling of average German 90s television bonanza (no matter how successful it must have been at its time) - and this doesn't add a sense of missing aura and charming feel to the flick...

And finally: the producers really ought to be warned for their slated upcoming productions: if you tailor you next films after this model DON'T EVER ATTACH THE KIND OF CREDITS WITH FEELGOOD BACKSTAGE FOOTAGE AND BLOPPERS ... it's simply downright embarrassing, period (I had to cover my eyes).

Finally I really have to mention, that the best experience of this very evening was the preceding trailer of the upcoming film KAMPFANSAGE (an ACTION CONCEPT CINEMA production as well), which appears to be far more satisfying and in terms of story, look, style, music, characters, acting and directing. And I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Rumors have it, that this guerrilla like film has been produced on a tight, little budget of EUR 300,000. Now, if there are guys who can make a supposedly appealing feature for such a tiny budget, why are other people of even the same production company (!) entirely unable to end up with something witty and gripping for an estimated budget of 8 billion Euros? That's a Gordian knot I haven't been able to untie yet...

A true and newly born German entertainment cinema is certainly about to appear on the spotlight - but DER CLOWN dosen't belong to it (... at least, that is what I hope!)

... I rated it 3 lame stars for some whacky pyrotechnics and for the hyped-up lips of German I-wanna-be-a great-star Xenia Seeberg ...

But whoever came up with this crap? The series had more action, more funny lines, and a packed story altogether. The effects are crappier than I've ever seen before. Take the shot with the lorry that's being rocketed - you clearly see a dummy driving. Or the shot where a car passes a tram, it's clearly computer generated.

Might not be that bad, but untrue characters that do really stupid moves, it might have been acceptable at the beginning of cinema.

And then the soundtrack. After practically every scene a bit of English or German noise has to be added. Why, is it a musical or what?

Really awful and unbelievable. We've seen many events in other movies before, and a lot better. I loved Kommissar Rex, Derrick, Der Alte, Der Klown, but this is major C*R*A*P!

I don't know which film the writers of the other comments have seen, but I enjoyed the movie "Der Clown". You should not forget that this is an action film and this genre is not defined by a complex story or portraits of characters. An action film must contain action and there is a lot of it in "Der Clown". There are many difficult stunts, e.g. with a helicopter. Only very few people can fly a helicopter as it is shown in the film! Almost every big object explodes, not only cars ... The split screens are not silly, but a very interesting feature. They increase the speed of the film. There are quick changes between the different places of action. It fits very good to the genre of action films. Silly is in my opinion the discussion about the other technical stuff (video, red colour). I watch films because of their content and not as technician. I also appreciate the way in which the background of the story is shown. The Clown remembers how his former girl friend was killed by a gangster - a scene which he will never forget. During this flashback you can hear the song "Kein Weg zurück" (No way back) of the band Wolfsheim - a good combination of content and music! So, I can say that it is a good film which was made by professionals who knew very well what they did!

I like to agree with Markus Schnitzler , it's a rock-solid action movie, made to watch just for fun, not to consider the worlds biggest problems ! The stunts are incredible, cars and motorcycles of course, but helicopters, and not only one, they crash 2 and just an airplane too.

And I like the split-screens too, they look good and they can give you a lot of information in a short time and the story rolls on.

Of course the story is not the best , I've ever seen, but it is so far OK, cause you don't go there to ask for logic and depth, right ?

If you like fast and breathless action, here you can get it ! It is certainly worth a try :-)