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welpe
Reviews
FinalCut.com (2001)
OK director, what do you want to tell me?
! ! ! Watch out! Spoilers! ! !
There are two sorts of German amateur movies. The gory "funny" ones, and the ones who want to tell something, who are critical of society.
"Suicide", I guess, also wants to tell something. But unfortunately it mumbles in that way.. you don't understand the message.
The film starts interesting, a couple follows a guy with a camera. The guy wants to jump off a building but can't do it in the end. He starts crying and runs away from the camera.. Since his life is really at the end he slips and falls off... I guess he didn't have the right shoes.
The rest of the film we see alternately the couple driving in their car to the next "death session" while they talk about it, and the killings of many people in different variations. We've got a junk with an overdose, a guy who stabs himself (DON'T watch the "acting" here or you start crying!), a shooting guy, a heart attack and angst girls who swallow pills. As a "plot turn" the neutral camera man starts killing one guy... anyway it doesn't have any effect to the story.
Sounds interesting so far? Then you like my description but not that film! The end "joke" is a real/faked killing. The girl (of the couple) drives her neutral camera man to death (she tells him she fakes it, so he can be official dead, cause he killed somebody..).
The plot, well, the idea is sort of nice although the joke of the documentary-style is kind of strained. We see people talking to the camera how shitty the world is and they want to end it and more then one time after they tried to kill themselves they regret it. One or two times this can be nice, but not for feature length! We see characters and we (and in that point the film is very realistic) just don't care about them, cause they're losers from the street. Everyday faces without a background. This leads to a numb feeling and after 2 kills the viewer's only interest is the kind of the next killing.
The actors, ha, OK it is an amateur production and nobody can expect high acting skills, but here it seems that the neighbor boys and girls helped out. Unfortunately this is not enough to make the film believable.
"Suicide" could have been a great short film! I'm pro amateur production with a good idea and motivated makers. But to stretch a good idea to feature length can it make boring. It's a pity for "Suicide".
Mr. Ice Cream Man (1996)
flat, boring.. but great
Mr. Ice Cream Man is probably one of the biggest failures in the history of psycho thrillers. Yeah, it pretends to be a thriller with psycho stuff.... but unfortunately it doesn't work. Hail and Mills are not capable of creating an exciting story or tension. The film lacks of its long shots, ridiculous scenes (Mr. Ice Cream and a pupil somewhere in the grass???) and horrible acting. Worst thing are the children. While the main actor Joey is quite okay all other children are just annoying and overacting. No direction at all...
Well, but I have to say, I had fun with this film. I'm a big fan of Mack Hail and like his acting way. It's a good film if you don't expect anything and you've got other things to do at the same time. But don't waste your energy on it!