The Good German

[J.R. Hudson]

I just started watching this film.

I'm kind of digging the storyline so far and the approach to the film; the old Academy Aspect Ratio and the use of rear screen projection when in automobiles.

But something has stood out; Tobey Macguire's performace. Horrible. I've never been a huge fan of his; he seems competent enough in his SM films, but so far in, his role in this is just bad.

Maybe it's the contrast between Blanchett and the usually smug Clooney; although I think he overestimates his own ability at times....

I can't get over how bad Tobey is doing so far.

 

[DeSica]

So that would make him 1 for 2 in black and white films (or films that were largely black and white).....

 

[David Jimerson]

I can't get over how bad Tobey is doing so far.

Maybe he was just giving Soberbergh what he wanted.

 

[Jim Brennan]

Could be. It's hard to estimate performance ability from a single film, since the influence of the director is present.

But I'm with Hudson on this. Tobey's an okay actor, but I've never seen him do anything that wowed me. I have a hard time with the SM movies for a variety of reasons, but Tobey doesn't look bad as actor next to Kirsten Dusnt...but with Cate Blanchett on the screen, I suspect he's in over his head.

I'm lookiing forward to seeing this though. It's in my queue

 

[J.R. Hudson]

SPOILERS

Maybe he was just giving Soberbergh what he wanted.

LOL. If he wanted crap he got it. The best part was when his character is found murdered so we don't have to sit there and listen to him be out of place. I felt like I was watching his Spiderman performance in a WW2 40's film. Bad, bad, bad.

Could be. It's hard to estimate performance ability from a single film, since the influence of the director is present.

But I'm with Hudson on this. Tobey's an okay actor, but I've never seen him do anything that wowed me. I have a hard time with the SM movies for a variety of reasons, but Tobey doesn't look bad as actor next to Kirsten Dusnt...but with Cate Blanchett on the screen, I suspect he's in over his head.

I'm lookiing forward to seeing this though. It's in my queue

Especially next to Cate; she is excellent.

Overall, the film lost a lot of steam for me. The idea was nice, an obvious homage to the old school noir war films of the 40's. I enjoyed it in that respect, but the strory and execution overall fell flat.

Soderberg has done one good film for me; Erin Brochovich. He is possibly the most overhyped filmmaker ever. I do not get it.

Clooney plays a journalist disguised as a Captain sent to to Berlin after the occupation begins by Russian and Allied forces. The war is over and he wants to find Lena, his old flame.

But she is now a prostitute just trying to survive amongst the Russian occupation. She has dark secrets that by the time they're revealed, aren't so shocking. She plays a Jewess, married to an SS Officer who worked on the V2 rocket program and keeps this guy hidden in some sewer.

Clooney starts investigating the murder of Tobey's character as well as the wherabouts of the always missing Lena (Cate); but there never is any discovery; he ask's and someone tells him. There was no mystery nor discovery; he literally would go ask someone and they would simply tell him the answer. It got almost ridiculous.

The movie ends with a thud and makes no real sense as to whom is killing who or why.

It started off looking interestng and going somewhere and just falls apart entirely after the first 30 minutes

The film looks great in mimicking the old school style and the score is a fun throwback to the overdramatic keys, but that's about the only bright spot.


My IMDB Rating on it was a 5.

 

[Jim Brennan]

That's too bad. I love films like the Third Man, and this seemed like it was in that vein.

As for Soderbergh, I like him with Clooney some of the time. Ocean's 11 was fun, and Out of Sight is one of my favorite Elmore Leonard adaptations.

But he is overhyped and like most 'auteurs' can be too self-absorbed in his vision. Aside from Erin Brockovich and the others I mentioned, there isn't anything of his I can think of that I really like that much. But IMHO the most overhyped filmmaker title rests with a former video store clerk. But this is no place for a street fight :evil:

 

[Mark Harris]

Soderberg has done one good film for me; Erin Brochovich. He is possibly the most overhyped filmmaker ever. I do not get it.

He's definitely spotty, but I think that comes more from his desire to experiment than incompetence. I have not seen the Good German, but he's done some flat out amazing films:

The Limey-One of the best Noirs ever made.

Out of Sight-a great and super fun caper movie. Stylish, VERY sexy, and he both uses Clooney for what Clooney is best at, and gets J-Lo to actually act. Not to mention a funny cameo from Keaton as the same FBI guy he plays in Jackie Brown .

Full Frontal-one of his experiments but the performances alone make it worth the watch. Stunning stuff from Keener especially.

Erin Brokovich is along the lines of Oceans 11 to me, and basically little more than exercise in getting Julia an Oscar. Competent, and well put together, but little or nothing there as a film.

Puttin Good German in queue.

 

[DeSica]

Soderberg has done one good film for me; Erin Brochovich. He is possibly the most overhyped filmmaker ever. I do not get it.

That's your pic as his one good film? The Limey was great, and Out Of Sight was also very good (and Mark is right...this is from the brief Lopez as legitimate actress era)...

Don't forget Sex,Lies and Videotape...it really made some indie waves, and helped boost some careers.

Oh, and almost forgot Traffic...

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Those two films were okay; I like them. But they're nothing to rave about it in an OMG way.

 

[Jim Brennan]

Damn, I forgot about the Limey. He somehow made scenes with Terence Stamp and Luis Guzman together WORK. For that he gets my respect. But Jesus, I know that getting Peter Fonda to actually act well is like scraping the sweat from my cornea...but that was one of the worst performances of his largely inconsequential acting career. Horrible. Probably why I didn't think of that film.

 

[DeSica]

Those two films were okay; I like them. But they're nothing to rave about it in an OMG way.

No, not like Erin Brockovich, which leaves one raving "OMG!, How could they give that woman the Oscar...?"

 

[J.R. Hudson]

JLO is an above average actress. Totally competent. People dig because she is hip/hop and her personal life is flamboyant.

-

I always felt Out of Sight was rehashing and preying upon what Tarantino and Sonnenfeld had already started with the Leonard novels and True Romance now that i think about it's style.

It was good, fun.

 

[J.R. Hudson]

No, not like Erin Brockovich, which leaves one raving "OMG!, How could they give that woman the Oscar...?"

In spite of Julia (Who I am no fan of) the film was good I thought. Personally I would have given Joan Allen or Ellen Burstyn the statue that year.

The Academy is werid somtimes; sometimes they get it right and often they screw it up with their agendas; like giving Gwyeth Paltrow an Oscar; what the **** is that **** ?

 

[jpeck]

like giving Gwyeth Paltrow an Oscar; what the poo poo is that shi* ?

I think she would even agree she didn't deserve that.

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Lmao !

 

[Jim Brennan]

But her acceptance was as oscar worthy performance.

 

[Mark Harris]

So I saw this last night. I kind of liked it, though I agree that Tobey was mis-cast. But I liked the story and Kate Blanchet is just...mmmmm. Yeah.

I kind of wished he would have played it straight though and done away with the "old movie" tropes and just made a movie. Even if still in BW, just made the film. It would have been much better I think.

 

[LyleGorch]

. . .rise. . .rise from the dead thread. . .

6 years give-or-take. Watched this last night for the first time. The story is "The third man" meets "Casablanca". I admit I was a little jarred at first by the 1:66 and then I began guessing whether he was going to stick to B&W or do a sneaky ease into some sort of desaturated color grade, but he stayed with the B&W and in the end I'm not sure that was the right choice. I'm not sure what this was shot with (early RED?) but it looks like he had his hands full trying to do a film noir treatment with big ratios on the daylight scenes, maybe it was just the copy I watched, it might have looked good projected.

The evil Tulley character wasn't played very well, and I found Lena thin and listless not only physically but in motivation and delivery, personally my favorite character by the time it was over was Hannelore the whore and she had one page at the most. In the final scene a twin engined aircraft idles on the ramp in the rain waiting for the two main characters to board. . .where have we seen this before? Ok, I guess it doesn't rain much in Morroco, but all we needed was "We will always have Berlin". I think there is actual historical basis for the the broader story, Nazi rocket scientists with a lot of skeletons in their closets whisked off to the U.S. in the chaotic months after VE day, it would have made a much more watchable documentary.

 

[David Jimerson]

I started watching this on Netflix, but there was no dialog track.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I think there is actual historical basis for the the broader story, Nazi rocket scientists with a lot of skeletons in their closets whisked off to the U.S. in the chaotic months after VE day, it would have made a much more watchable documentary.

Well... yeah....

Aurthur Rudolph led the development of the Saturn V rocket which boosted the Apollos to the Moon...
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The character of Franz Bettmann in the film The Good German, described as the chief production engineer of the V2, is in part based on Rudolph.
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In the 80's investigated and stripped of citizenship, returned to Germany. There is some belief that if von Braun had lived into the 80's he would have had the same fate.