"Drei Herren", which means basically "Three Gentlemen" is an Austrian 1.5-hour film from 1998, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year. It is an early, but not very early, career effort by director Nikolaus Leytner and he also was the man in charge of the script here. he worked with the late BAFTA-nominee Max Linder on this one. The first-billed cast member here is Karl Merkatz (reminded me of Didi Hallervorden on more than one occasion) and people outside Austria may wonder who that is, but even if he never really became well-known abroad, not even here in Germany, he is a huge star in Austria, even until this day and he turns 87 this year already. But his co-lead Karl Markovics is more known to most. This is because this film here was made briefly after his trademark role as Stockinger on Kommissar Rex, but then there was also stuff like the Oscar-winning "Die Fälscher" where he plays the main character. And last but not least, we have Ottfried Fischer, the only non-Austrian from the trio and perhaps this is also why he is probably the best-known here in Germany, even if his popularity has been sinking for a long time as well as he is not really anymore in prestigious projects. But he is memorable enough for his big physicality alone.
Now these three made me kinda curious about the film, but while I liked their performances to an extent, I must say I was quite disappointed with the rest of it. There is an entertaining (maybe even funny) scene here and there, but I felt for a 90-minute movie the quality comedy wasn't enough either. And the more dramatic/emotional moments like the big fire towards the end added almost nothing for me. It's really all about the comedy in here. The film is perhaps struggling because it tries to stick to old patterns for way too long. The scenes with the struggling driver are somewhat funny, but at some point the constant coughing really stops being entertaining and just gets repetitive. Same goes for everything involving Fischer's character. Merkatz' character's story line feels all over the place and Markovics' may be more focuses, but is also only slightly better. Really sucks because the actors easily could have carried a real quality movie here. But this is no such thing. I have to give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Now these three made me kinda curious about the film, but while I liked their performances to an extent, I must say I was quite disappointed with the rest of it. There is an entertaining (maybe even funny) scene here and there, but I felt for a 90-minute movie the quality comedy wasn't enough either. And the more dramatic/emotional moments like the big fire towards the end added almost nothing for me. It's really all about the comedy in here. The film is perhaps struggling because it tries to stick to old patterns for way too long. The scenes with the struggling driver are somewhat funny, but at some point the constant coughing really stops being entertaining and just gets repetitive. Same goes for everything involving Fischer's character. Merkatz' character's story line feels all over the place and Markovics' may be more focuses, but is also only slightly better. Really sucks because the actors easily could have carried a real quality movie here. But this is no such thing. I have to give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.