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Uncapie Says THE GOOD GERMAN...Isn't!!
Merrick here...
Uncapie sent in a look at THE GOOD GERMAN.
I had a funny feeling about this film when I wrote about its trailer
a while back. Unfortunately, Uncapies review seems to bear out my suspicions.
I believe this is the first review weve run for this film itll be interesting get a few more perspectives before becoming too skeptical. This being said, I think Uncapie is right: Steven Soderbergh is truly a hit or miss director, and theres a chance this may be one of those projects that simply doesnt come together despite the overall caliber of personalities involved. Well see.
Heres Uncapie
Uncapie Says THE GOOD GERMAN...Isn't!!
Merrick here...
Uncapie sent in a look at THE GOOD GERMAN.
I had a funny feeling about this film when I wrote about its trailer
a while back. Unfortunately, Uncapies review seems to bear out my suspicions.
I believe this is the first review weve run for this film itll be interesting get a few more perspectives before becoming too skeptical. This being said, I think Uncapie is right: Steven Soderbergh is truly a hit or miss director, and theres a chance this may be one of those projects that simply doesnt come together despite the overall caliber of personalities involved. Well see.
Heres Uncapie
Soderbergh is good when he's good, bad when he's bad. There's noin-between with this guy. "The Good German" just doesn't cut the sauerkraut.
Based upon the book of the same name, the movie borrows heavily from "Foreign Affair," "The Third Man" and "Casablanca." Set in post World War II Berlin during the Potsdam conference, George Clooney portrays a former reporter and American captain that accidentally stumbles upon his German ex-girlfriend, Cate Blanchette, who is desperately trying to escape her past. Clooney is assigned, a driver in the motor pool, Tobey Maguire, who runs a black market scheme on the side that uses Blanchette's character as a prostitute while he tries to secure a visa for her and her husband in hiding, a former German officer involved in the rocket program the Russian and American sectors desperately both want.
There is nobody you like or care about in this film. Its all paint-by-numbers and been seen before. McGuire comes off delivering his lines as if he was a first time actor in a high school play. I don't know if this was a rushed job for him as he might have been filming "Spiderman 3" at the time, but it sure looks it. Clooney and Blanchette have no chemistry on the screen. They lack the magnetism Bogart and Bergman had in "Casablanca."
One scene that didn't make any sense is when Maguire, with a broken arm, forcibly tries to deliver Blanchette's character to a Russian colonel and Clooney intervenes trying to stop him. Maguire beats the crap out of Clooney with a pipe and drives off with Blanchette. First, if a private ever did that to an officer, the MP's would be on his ass so fast he'd be meat. Second, Clooney outweighs this guy and never fights back. As a matter-of-fact, Clooney gets beat up all through this movie and he only gets one punch in the entire film with the help of a brick.
Another scene is where a dubious American army lieutenant is trying to kill Clooney and Blanchette with his .45 automatic that jams. Twice. First, this guy's a lieutenant. A butter bar. He'd have that gun so well oiled and cleaned because he'd always be caught off guard in a snap inspection by some high ranking officer that would just love to give him a crap detail.
Soderbergh incorporates documentary film into the movie that misses. The use of rear screen projection in several of the driving scenes tries to convey an image that this film could have been made in the late forties or fifties. The set pieces are just that and the audience can see it plainly. The fourth wall illusion is easily broken with the viewer. Especially the moment at the end at the Berlin airport. A direct rip-off of the Ford Tri-Motor scene with Bogart and Bergman if every I saw. The entire back row in the theater I saw it in groaned at that one. You're waiting for Clooney to say, "We'll always have Berlin." Homage, my ass.
I wanted to like this film, but just couldn't.
Uncapie
Based upon the book of the same name, the movie borrows heavily from "Foreign Affair," "The Third Man" and "Casablanca." Set in post World War II Berlin during the Potsdam conference, George Clooney portrays a former reporter and American captain that accidentally stumbles upon his German ex-girlfriend, Cate Blanchette, who is desperately trying to escape her past. Clooney is assigned, a driver in the motor pool, Tobey Maguire, who runs a black market scheme on the side that uses Blanchette's character as a prostitute while he tries to secure a visa for her and her husband in hiding, a former German officer involved in the rocket program the Russian and American sectors desperately both want.
There is nobody you like or care about in this film. Its all paint-by-numbers and been seen before. McGuire comes off delivering his lines as if he was a first time actor in a high school play. I don't know if this was a rushed job for him as he might have been filming "Spiderman 3" at the time, but it sure looks it. Clooney and Blanchette have no chemistry on the screen. They lack the magnetism Bogart and Bergman had in "Casablanca."
One scene that didn't make any sense is when Maguire, with a broken arm, forcibly tries to deliver Blanchette's character to a Russian colonel and Clooney intervenes trying to stop him. Maguire beats the crap out of Clooney with a pipe and drives off with Blanchette. First, if a private ever did that to an officer, the MP's would be on his ass so fast he'd be meat. Second, Clooney outweighs this guy and never fights back. As a matter-of-fact, Clooney gets beat up all through this movie and he only gets one punch in the entire film with the help of a brick.
Another scene is where a dubious American army lieutenant is trying to kill Clooney and Blanchette with his .45 automatic that jams. Twice. First, this guy's a lieutenant. A butter bar. He'd have that gun so well oiled and cleaned because he'd always be caught off guard in a snap inspection by some high ranking officer that would just love to give him a crap detail.
Soderbergh incorporates documentary film into the movie that misses. The use of rear screen projection in several of the driving scenes tries to convey an image that this film could have been made in the late forties or fifties. The set pieces are just that and the audience can see it plainly. The fourth wall illusion is easily broken with the viewer. Especially the moment at the end at the Berlin airport. A direct rip-off of the Ford Tri-Motor scene with Bogart and Bergman if every I saw. The entire back row in the theater I saw it in groaned at that one. You're waiting for Clooney to say, "We'll always have Berlin." Homage, my ass.
I wanted to like this film, but just couldn't.
Uncapie
She rocks.
t:
LOL,I was hoping no one would go back and see that.
Mainly running my own website... and the SHH admins don't like when I post links to that site. 
If you ever need thoughts on anything, just ask... I've seen it all, every last movie as of recent. 
