Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Voll normaaal" is a German movie from 1994 and it features Tom Gerhardt playing the main character. Gerhardt is an actor who was certainly much more famous in the 1990s and early 2000s here in Germany than he is today. And honestly, looking at what he did her, as writer and lead actor, his fading popularity is probably a good thing. This film runs for approximately 90 minutes and features a handful of actors that are still fairly famous today, almost a quarter of a century later. These would be Hilmi Sözer, Veronica Ferres, Uwe Fellensiek, Katja Flint and Rolf Zacher. But if you know a bit about German film, you will also recognize immediately that these people are not known because of their great range, but because of their charisma and recognition value instead. There are no strong actors in here. Then again, this is a film that has a script with which it is impossible to give great (or even good) performances at all.It is the story of a likable (not really), but pretty dumb mechanic who gets involved innocently with criminal (and very unlikable) forces, but thanks to his friend, his humor and his general approach to life he masters one difficult situation after the next and the director Ralf Huettner ("Vincent will Meer") clearly wants us to cheer for Gerhardt's character. But why would you? Maybe only if you are intellectually on the same level as the protagonist. In any case, Hoettner has done better on several occasions in his career and this one here is definitely a contender for worst work of his body of work. i wish I could say the same about Gerhardt, but his character here is so over-used and unfunny that it is almost painful to watch. And lets be honest, his shtick is almost always the same. The saddest thing about this film, however, is that two sequels followed and maybe there will even be more as the third entry to this garbage franchise was done only five years ago. I hope not. This film is evidence that klamauk comedies did not only exist in the 1970s (Carrell, Richter, Roberts) or 1980s (Gottschalk, Krüger), but that they also existed in the 1990s. A questionable achievement and there is really no reason for Gerhardt to be proud of it. Major thumbs down from me. Stay far far away from this one. It is as loud as it is annoying and unfunny.
