The Coming Days (2010)

"Die kommenden Tage" or "The Coming Days" is a German-language movie from 6 years ago that stars some of the most respected actors from Germany. these include Daniel Brühl, Augus Diehl, Johanna Wokalek, Jürgen Vogel (in a very small role) and Bernadette Heerwagen, who managed a German Film Award nomination, but has not really stayed relevant unlike the others. The movie takes place in the year 2020 and gives us writer and director Lars Kraume's idea of a broken world packed with greed, terrorism and constant ruthless fighting for power. I guess we are lucky we do not live in the world how it is depicted in here. Oh wait... The movie is really long, makes it easily past the 2-hour mark, but even if the talent from the actors is undeniable I was fairly unimpressed by this movie. It would have been nice to see a bit more of the circumstances in which the people back then were living. Instead the movie loses itself in relationship struggles, doubtful fatherhood and it simply does not use the scenario in terms of delivering a quality movie. What did I like most about it? Probably the "Wir sind Helden" song at the end.I watched some of Kraume's more recent work such as "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer", which is an outstanding work, but it seems as if by 2010 he was not yet at his best, even if the German Film Awards thought otherwise. Diehl is fun to watch as always', even if he does not have the material here to show us something that he has not shown us in another film already. Brühl is almost completely forgettable and it is another example of how he really needs characters that perfectly suit him in order to make an impact. This is not the case here and this is also why I do not believe that he is one of Germany's best actors right now, even if he has given some impressive performances in the past. They tried all they could with making him more relevant with the eye patch here, but it just wasn't enough. Same thing applies to this movie. They definitely should have kept it at least half an hour shorter. It did drag on several occasions and there are many scenes in here that added very little in terms of the entire picture. Without these, with a more essential touch, it could have been at least a solid movie. But it is not. I do not recommend the watch.

or, "How One Passive Blond Bitch Caused the Complete Destruction of Everyone Around Her Without Barely Trying!" or, "Not a Bang, But a Whimper!" or, "How Maria Came Down from the Mountain, Had the Nuns Killed, Slit Her Employer's Throat, Sold the Captain's Children into Slavery, and Managed to Remain Her Singing Self" or, "How to Live with Much Less Than You Think You Need" or, "Where the War in the Middle East Will Eventually Get Us!" or, "I Started to Make a Film with a Conscience, But Then Realized Life Has No Meaning!" or, "The Modern Woman is Exactly the Same As Her Ancestors!" or, "How Pussy Overrules Sanity" or, "I Know He's Crazy, But He's Got a Big One and I Must Have It!" or, "The Rise and Fall of a Psycho/Sociopath and His Neurotic Passive Handmaidens"

By mere coincidence I just finished watching "The Kingdom" (2007) It left me thinking, then "Die kommenden Tage" (The coming Days) got my hopes high, but unfortunately the back stories where too much for the beginning, for the middle and the end. This movie missed the whole point of its own premises, is completely misleading and boring, the acting is OK, but the gets lost in translation, the writers and director probably got two different things in mind, the director wanted a convoluted, tragic love story and the writers wanted a political, futuristic statement. My recommendation: stay away from this movie, unless you need something to help you sleep.

I've just returned from the cinema and we watched "Die kommenden Tage" in an empty theatre. Sadly, that was the best part of it.The beginning is strong, interesting characters are introduced, the viewer gets a notion what will come in the following years. However, in the following two hours, you don't get a clue about political circumstances. You get to know a terror-group, schwarzer Sturm, which seemingly operates world-wide, but meetings are only held in one strangely artistic set-up room in Berlin. Not plausible.The weakest points of this movie are: No background information, solely concentrating on the 4 main characters, which are unfortunately boring as hell and show almost none development, no political plot, and therefore the story is not believable.After watching the trailer, we were lured in some expectation about a great film....which it simply wasn't at all.Bad ending, however good musical main-theme... which however, really gets boring after hearing it all over again during the movie.I really cannot recommend this movie. The basic idea was great, but they missed their chance by far. It has the quality of an Sat1 "Fernsehfilm der Woche". Don't waste your money. You will be disappointed.