8/10
Creativity is overrated
29 December 2016
It should be good -- director Wolfgang Petersen has already directed the same movie exactly 40 years ago! I'm looking forward to seeing the original from 1976. The story, at least, is as fresh as ever. Three Average Joes lose all their hard-earned savings when their bank needs to find a reason to fire nerdy accountant Tobias. Initially, the three band together to avenge themselves. Then they decide to get even, to steal from the rich (the bank) and give to the poor (themselves), with Tobias as their inside man. The joke here is that four hasbeens stumble into their new careers as criminal masterminds.

I'm usually not a big fan of German movie heavyweights Til Schweiger and Matthias Schweighöfer, in fact I hate the sights of them, but here they are actually quite good. Schweiger can carry off the role of an ageing palooka who is used by ageing trophy wives as their bit on the side, whereas I hate the unironical superman roles he usually plays in his own movies. But I particularly liked Jan Josef Liefers as the semi-successful actor (he once had a popular TV series going, but that was ages ago) and Michael Herbig as the rain-man-type accountant.

As far as I care, the movie industry can rehash old formulas as long as they like, as long as enjoyable movies come out of it.
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