t_atzmueller
Stefan (Gregorowicz) and Kai (Bleibtreu) are best buddies who run a rundown little Pizzeria named "Lammbock". However, rather than Italian delicacies, the customers tend to order their home-grown Marihuana, which is hidden under a leaf of salami. While Kai is your typical Stoner, content to smoke until the end of his life, Stefan comes from a more rigid, upper-class background and tends to worry about his examinations to become a lawyer (and getting caught smoking by his stern father (Wepper). Other than that, the duo is concerned only with their marijuana-plantation in the woods, getting stoned, playing video-games, getting stoned, talking trash, partying with their friends-slash-customers and, well, getting more stoned. Trouble arrives when. Trouble arrives when their plants are infected with parasites and they seek aid from smooth-talking Achim (Weigend), who just happens to be a young, ambitious underground-cop.Let me say first of all: I'm not the biggest fans of many of the actors in "Lammbock". Especially Bleibtreu, who for a while was hyped as movie-star and Wotan Wilke Möhring, later hyped as protagonists in crime- and action-films have a rather limited acting-range, examples that almost anybody can learn how to function a piano but many will never become master-musicians. However, for their roles in "Lammbock" they fit like fists in gloves.The movie often has a very witty dialog and incredibly funny scenes, that makes it sorta a German mix between "Dazed and Confused" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". To mention a few highlights would be Möhrings performance as stoner suffering from Tourette's syndrome (making ever second word from his mouth an unintentional obscenity), a scene where Gregorowicz is forced to swallow some highly potent hashish and then attend a formal dinner with his father's colleagues or a policeman (himself a pothead) who lectures future underground-cops.There are some uneven, even unnecessary subplots and plot lines, especially those involving Stefans little sister Laura (Zielcke), her Aids-test, a potential liaison with Kai and of course the infamous "unintentional incest"-scene, which go nowhere and add nothing to the movie but time. But those moments are few and far between and take nothing from the overall quality. What separates "Lammbock" from many similar-themed films – say, for example, the Jay & Silent Bob or Cheech and Chong flicks – is, that "Lammbock" is rarely over the top or some overblown parody and shows the protagonist as people easily can relate to, be they friends of this kind of horticulture or not. It's not like in the mentioned Cheech / Chong films, where you simply know that the duo will escape while smoking the largest joint since Bob Marleys last birthday party, but rather, it keeps the viewer rooting for our "heroes", even fevering along with them (especially in the last quarter of the movie).Word of warning though: some of the dialogs will make little sense if you're not familiar with the German background in which the topics take place and if you've never been out with your buddies, smoking the "hooch", well, you might not get the point in the first place.Other than that, I'd call it one of the best (if not the best) stoner-comedies produced in Germany (where possession generally carries a hefty fine, possibly jail, social discrimination, etc, etc).7/10
Karl Self
I have to admit, guiltily, that I quite liked Lammbock, even though it manages to serve up cinematic gaffes faster than McDonald's soggy hamburgers: plenty of silly dope-induced jokes aimed at a very immature audience, cheap rip-offs from Kevin Smith, Roger Avery and Quentin Tarantino (... etc.) 's oeuvres, totally improbable subplots that lead nowhere fast, pointless and -- even worse -- unentertaining violence, underdeveloped characters; in short, a movie that doesn't quite gel. Still, the director Christian Zübert seems to know how to handle actors and consequently there are some great performances (notably from Lukas Gregorowicz, Marie Zielcke, Julian Weigend, the ever- dependable Moritz Bleibtreu, and the underrated Elmar Wepper) despite the somewhat deficient script. Heck, there are some great, memorable scenes as well, only they are outweighed by others that that are born dead. I would suspect that the film's problems are mainly due to the directors lack of experience, which in turn would have required an experienced producer, who should have known when to step in and call the shots.I will be on the lookout for Christian Zübert's next film, and overall I enjoyed watching his film -- on the telly. Had I seen it in the theatres I probably would have been disappointed.
Christian_alternakid
I don't think it is justified to diss Lammbock because of a) "toilet humour" or b) low moral standards. It's a funny movie, which demonstrates the problems of growing up instead of making a pure comedy out of it. There may be some harsh scenes, but in no way are they dominating the film. instead the movie treats its characters with honesty and doesn't sell them for a cheap joke, which you can see in so much "growing-up"-comedies: it has a certain warmth at his heart. It is indeed a german attempt to make an "earnest Tarantino-style" -movie but Lammbock doesn't even try to hide these facts - it is in some way a homage to Tarantino-style dialogues.
Gargarin
Lammbock is one of these - new modern german movies, made by "hot young" directors - bullshit. The movie is supid from the first minute on. The six minute starting dialogue about Pamela Andersons Breasts is a sign of that, what follows. Boring quotes, humor about incest, puking and drugs. But there is nothing new in it. It seems, that the director has made a summary of every urban teeny legend he ever has heard in his high school time. No Joke was bad enough for him to fit his 110 pages Screenplay. There is only one word with wich i could describe this movie - cheap! A black chapter in the career of Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie Zielcke and Sönke Wortmann.