"Bummm!" or "Feindliche Übernahme" or "Das wahre Leben" or "Life Actually" (really?) is a German 100-minute movie from 2006, so this one is already over a decade old and here we have the second full feature film by director Alain Gsponer. I personally prefer some of his more recent stuff. Anyway, this one here was written by Buresch und Pacht, who are right now more in the headlines for their work on "Jugend ohne Gott". But this one here from over 10 years ago includes many fairly famous German actors like Noethen, Riemann, Herzsprung, Bruch, Kühler, Feifel and others. For me personally, it may not have had the best approach to begin with as I think Herzsprung and Riemann are among Germany's most overrated actresses in my opinion. In the battle who would be worse here, Herzsprung clearly gets the edge. Riemann was fairly mediocre and forgettable, but she wasn't bad really. Herzsprung, however, had a really baity character at her disposal, but she went way over the top and missed all the right notes. But seems like cutting your hair really short is enough these days for a German Film Award plus a bit of sexual references like seducing a teenage boy. As for the title, the parallels between metaphoric explosions in the characters' lives and actual explosions mostly caused by the son felt a bit shoddy and never as impactful as it could/should have been. The ending is full drama again with tragedy about to happen and while the final shots were good, it did feel a but for the sake of it instead of really authentic story-telling. And this description also fits the film as a whole I'd say. It's not the problem that there aren't really any likable characters in here I guess, but that those who are in it never feel interesting and deep enough from the perspective of telling a memorable yet authentic story and this is clearly what the film tries, but there is just too much ob´ver-the-topness that sacrifice realism most of the time. It's not a failure though I guess, there are some okay moments, but it really isn't enough all in all and that's why I give the movie a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Review of Bummm!
