The Polar Bear (1998)

The film is a real light one - but I found it very funny. You get to see a bunch of well - known German actors that tell a story that is foreseeable, but the good thing of the film isn't the story, it's how it's told. The quality of the actors that take part in this movie was only possible because they are friends in real life and didn't see the movie as a commercial product in the first place. They did it for fun, and so get to see an uncomplicated movie played by actors you usually wouldn't see in such a movie - and in such a concentration.Gangsters that threaten gangsters, policeman chase all the gangsters, some want money, some want vengeance, some just want to have fun.The acting is very convincing, and the behavior of the characters is sometimes funny, sometimes tragic. Furthermore, the type of the characters is very different and sometimes quite extreme.I like the movie very much. It may not be perfect, but after all I always like to watch the film when it's shown in TV every few years.

I've just "Der Eisbär" and do not quite understand why so many people dislike this movie. Due to that I did not have any high expectations it is true that this movie tries a little too hard to become a cult classic and that some jokes do not really work out (as the phone ringing a couple of times when the hit-man is just about to kill some fellow) but on the other hand there are some brilliant scenes. The burger robbery for an example is one of the moments in which the movie's concept really works out. Schwaiger's performance is not over the edge but he does a good Job. Ralf Richter is brilliant as always. The story has some weaknesses but somehow one does not really care as it is not the aim of the movie to tell the backgrounds of the story. I reckon it's quite a good movie and if you don't go to see this with the expectation of watching another "Bang Boom Bang" you won't be disappointed.

Quentin Tarantino is a talented director who occasionally acts, although it's clearly not his forte. Till Schweiger on the other hand is a, well, decent and very popular German actor who, for this movie, pretended to also be a director. Unfortunately, the whole shtick didn't work out as well as hoped, and "Der Eisbär" turns out to be a glossy but ultimately pointless, and occasionally annoying, flick. It comes laden with Schweiger's actor buddies and is well filmed and "easy on the eye" (nice camerawork, good locations, coherent costumes, etc.), but the story is paper thin and has been done a hundred times before, and better. What really turned me off was the fact that Schweiger seems to think that simply having him on the screen for extended periods would make great cinema, and that copying Tarantino's style with a large brush would make him a great director, as if Tarantino's work was unseen of in this country. The movie is practically Schweiger's cinematic ego trip, and I did not find it was worth watching.

Til Schweiger in one of his best roles. Nearly forgotten german music gives the proper sound providing the amusing plot of the film directed by Til himself. All in all it is worth seeing it more than just one time so enjoy the atmosphere which will catch you in any case.