Der Eisbär (1998)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Directors:

Til Schweiger
Granz Henman (co-director)

Writer:

Granz Henman (writer)

Release Date:

12 November 1998 (Germany)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

Mild. Sanft im Geschmack.

Cast

Til Schweiger	...	Leo
Karina Krawczyk	...	Nico
Benno Fürmann	...	Fabian
Florian Lukas	...	Reza
Jürgen Tarrach	...	Manni
Vladimir Weigl	...	Thomas
Thierry van Werveke	...	Norbert
Robert Viktor Minich	...	Boris
Ralph Herforth	...	Zivilpolizist
Ralf Richter	...	Zivilpolizist
Leonard Lansink	...	Barkeeper Paul's Eck
Leander Haußmann	...	Stephan
August Schmölzer	...	Heinz
Willi Thomczyk	...	Alfred
Christof Wackernagel	...	Fritz

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 (w)

Filming Locations:

Belgium

Company:

Mr. Brown Entertainment

Trivia:

The car in which Leo and Nico finally escape has a license plate saying "E-NA 98", which is although a valid German plate also a reference to the production company and the year of release of the movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: The license plate of the silver Alfa Romeo driven by the cops.

Movie Connections:

References Pulp Fiction (1994)

A minor disappointment

Endlessly derivative, complexly plotted, predictable, clichéd, hardly original, if strikingly shot exercise in the hip-hop film noir style of one Tarantino marks Germany's biggest box-office draw Schweiger's directorial debut. The meant-to-be-hilarious, annoyingly overplotted tale of a hitman (Schweiger) who just screwed up his job and a crime babe (Krawczyk) whose car-with-a-bomb has been stolen by kids Fürmann and Lukas falling for each other in a bar and then facing some half a dozen other interest groups in a final shoot-out never quite works, but there are unexpected moments of movie magic, solid-as-usual Schweiger and ravishingly sexy Krawczyk have great on-screen-chemistry and there are some fine images. Still, there are too many characters in too many subplots no one cares about, and too many cases of extreme overacting, especially Lauterbach as crime lord. Some fine support by Haußmann, Thalbach and Tabatabai don't smooth over the silly, pretentious end. A disappointment.