Clown, Der (2005)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Sebastian Vigg

Writer:

Timo Berndt (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 March 2005 (Germany)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Bundeswehr | Clown | Transportpanzer Fuchs | Gold Theft

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Sven Martinek	...	Max Hecker
Eva Habermann	...	Leah Diehl
Thomas Anzenhofer	...	Tobias 'Dobbs' Steiger
Götz Otto	...	Zorbek
Dirk Heinrichs	...	Marten
Óscar O. Sánchez	...	Kameramann
Martin Brambach	...	Kähler
Xaver Hutter	...	Salbach
Diana Frank	...	Claudia Diehl
Xenia Seeberg	...	Mona
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Christian Beuter	...	Polizist
Thomas Born	...	Tom
Patrice Bouédibéla	...	Daib
Stefan Gebelhoff	...	Wolff
Bernhard Hoëcker	...	Erdoan
Dave Mallow	...	Tobias 'Dobbs' Steiger (voice: English version)
Claudia Mehnert	...	Antonia
Pat Murphy	...	Polizist
Stefan Richter	...	Soldier
Andreas Schmidt-Schaller	...	Führmann
Frank-Leo Schröder	...	Leah´s Boss
Stefan Weinert	...	Martin schneider
Crisjan Zöllner	...	Soldat

Also Known As:

The Clown: Payday (UK) (TV title)

Runtime:

Germany:104 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-15 (VHS rating) (2006) | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

Action Concept Cinema & Company

Trivia:

Holds a record for the most expensive German movie screenplay. During development, producers demanded constant rewrites from the original authors -- who had to be paid for every single draft. Then, after the production had already spent around 250.000 Euro on the script, it was finally rejected and writer Timo Berndt started from scratch to write the script that ended up being used.

Goofs:

Continuity: Eva Habermann has through the whole movie some cream boots except in the scenes where she sprang out of the helicopter on the roof of the building. There she had some terrain flat shoes in same color.

Movie Connections:

Follows "Clown, Der" (1998)

Destruction without sense

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.