All the Queen's Men (2001)

Director:

Stefan Ruzowitzky

Writers (WGA):

Digby Wolfe (story) &
Joseph Manduke (story) ...

Release Date:

13 December 2001 (Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | War | Action | Drama

Plot:

A mismatched team of British Special Services agents led by an American must infiltrate, in disguise, a female-run Enigma factory in Berlin and bring back the decoding device that will end the war.

Plot Keywords:

Behind Enemy Lines | Wartime | Punctuation In Title | Man Dressed As Woman | Apostrophe In Title

Cast

Matt LeBlanc	...	O'Rourke
Eddie Izzard	...	Tony
James Cosmo	...	Archie
Nicolette Krebitz	...	Romy
David Birkin	...	Johnno
Edward Fox	...	Aitken
Udo Kier	...	General Landssdorf
Oliver Korittke	...	Franz
Karl Markovics	...	Hauptsturmführer
Sissi Perlinger	...	Paloma
Holger Speckhahn	...	Corporal / Truck
Pip Torrens	...	British Major
Maria Petz	...	Girl
Heinrich Herki	...	Librarian
Paul Williamson	...	McCinley

Also Known As:

All the Queen's Men (Austria)
Die Männer Ihrer Majestät (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language, violence and sexuality.

Runtime:

99 min | USA:105 min (Mill Valley Film Festival)

Country:

Germany | Austria | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Austria

Company:

Atlantic Streamline

Trivia:

In this film, comedian Eddie Izzard plays an English soldier who cross-dresses. Eddie is a transvestite himself, and one of his stand-up routines (concerning transvestites in the armed forces) goes, "The main element of attack is the element of surprise. So what could be more surprising than the first battalion transvestite brigade?" (See Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1999) (V)).

Quotes:

Secretary: He entered the Reichskanzlei and almost captured Goering. He almost got hold of the plans for the V2.
Aitken: Yes, I've heard him referred to as "Special Agent Almost".

Movie Connections:

References "Hogan's Heroes" (1965)

Not as bad as I feared

With Matt LeBlanc in the title role, I'm afraid that I feared the worst as there is certainly a compelling reason for him not appearing in many feature films; one can certainly point a camera at him, but I can't understand why someone would point a microphone at him.

However, his supporting cast certainly props him up well. Eddie Izzard in particular. And Nicolette Krebitz is certainly a delight to look at and someone who seems to be able to act.

In general, this film can't decide what it is. Comedy? Drama? Espionage? There's certainly not a lot of comedy outside of the guys wearing dresses. Then again, Berlin in the dying days of WW2 probably wasn't a whole lot of laughs.

The voice-over/explanation before the film even begins is worthless and should be deleted from all future prints. Yet while the producers seem to want to force this down our throats, they wouldn't spring for sub-titles during the German portions of the film.

The writing is nothing to salute and from people with less-than-noteworthy careers. The directing by Ruzowitzky is noteworthy only in it's lack of noteworthiness. Pretty static and boring.

Not a film to run screaming from, but I wouldn't recommend seeking it out, either.