Alki Alki (2015) User Reviews

no cheers

[fanbaz-549-872209 · 1/10 · 28 October 2017]

The WHO has warned that alcohol related deaths are on the increase. Alki Alki tells the story of a man who is part of this increase. Tobias is German architect and alcoholic. After a dozen scenes of heavy boozing in local bars Tobias is told that he is seriously ill and must stop drinking. He can't. In fact he drinks even more. And that is the story. All of it. Just that. A bloke who is trying to give up drink and can't. Wow! Interesting or what? Ninety per cent of the shots are of Tobias and his on screen alter ego pouring booze down their throats. The alter ego idea does not work. It confuses what little of the story there is. A wife is around. She sells glasses for a living. The glasses you read with, not drink from. She has a nice range of summer frocks and cute legs and there are dream scenes when the missus, Toby and his alter ego are all in bed together. Nothing happens. Toby is too drunk. And there is a scene when he is so drunk a teenage chum of his son urinates on his face. Why? Maybe it's sort of symbolic. You know, society's view of drunks. In any event, the film goes no where. If you like watching men drinking, this is for you. I needed a stiff drink after seeing it.

A comedy on alcoholism - somewhat

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 15 January 2019]

"Alki Alki" is a German 100-minute movie from 2015, so this one has its 5th anniversary soon and the director here is Axel Ranisch, also one of the writers and like several other times before that he collaborated with Heiko Pinkowski on the script here. The latter also plays one of the key characters and he really cannot be ignored with his memorable physique and he appeared in several other Ranisch films before. But I was not that that impressed by these and I am not that impressed by this one here. It is not a bad movie, let alone a failure, but it never truly makes an impact. It is also quite a challenge without a doubt to make a film about alcoholism work in the sense of a comedy, even if there are some slightly more dramatic moments too. But overall, it is about trying to make audiences laugh and smile. It is about a relationship between a man and woman and how the man's close alcohol-based friendship with his best buddy leaves a lasting negative impact on said relationship and also on everybody's life in general. Sounds pretty serious, doesn't it? Well, it is not. Not that much at least. You will find moments many times that are definitely a bit on the lighter side. The acting is so-so I would say, nobody blew me away really. As for Pinkowski, it really shows how close he is with Ranisch and maybe also how close this project is / these projects are to his heart as they got a lot of Pinkowski's family members in here. I am a bit surprised by how highly this film is rated here on imdb as in my opinion there were more than just a few moments where it did look amateurish. Some might say this added additional charm because the film really never tries to make a lasting difference from any perspective and I can see why people would say so, but I did not really feel it. Also the film gets rather weaker than better as it goes on and that said it also does not start too well, so yeah. It is not too necessary to watch it in my opinion. Nowhere near the best films of 2015 here in Germany and even the hardly non-existent awards recognition still feels too much. Watch something else instead. Cameos by Berben and the younger Gwisdek (even if I like the latter, the former not so much) are on the forgettable side too. Not recommended.