A clear 8 star comedy, but any dubbed or subtitled version will not work. The film is a social satire based mainly on exaggerated slang and German teenage stereotypes. Its success is not linked to its plot. It does not want to send any message.
28 Reviews
Better than expected
Ehrgeiz10 January 2014
In Germany this was the "hot" autumn movie that everybody liked, the critics as well as the audience. When I watched it, I did not expect much, thought by the trailers it was stupid, but I have a knack for shitty teenager/school movies. Its the story of Zeki Müller, a convict who was just released of jail. While looking for the loot of his last robbery, he gets confused as replacement teacher - a great opportunity to take time and slowly dig out his treasure, who is hidden under the schools gym. He soon gets appointed to the worst class and gets along with a "Dont bother me at all"-attitude; for what he clashes soon with Lisi, a young idealistic teacher and former class mate of his (ad sure, the potential love interest of the movie). I expected a run-off-the-mill rom com, but, well, it was little kind of better. Especially the first half is original since they show Zeki as a kind of guy, who not only does not care for the pupils, but is not afraid to look bad as often in this kind of movies. Elyas M'barek, Germanys upcoming young male movie star, does a nice and convincing job here, while I did not like him in his former roles. It is also nice, that while education is a big subject in Germany these years, producing heated political debates and book bestsellers, they do not take the schooling aspect too seriously and keep it easy. Its not a really great movie too, because the second half follows the formula totally and leads to the obvious happy end and has the "everybodys' got talent"-message mostly of the movies with troubled teenagers have. But if you like those type of movies, its worth a look.
pretty much the only German film of the 2010s worth watching
Radu_A3 December 2014
If you've seen almost any German film in the past five years during a film festival that wasn't genre specific, you may have asked yourself: 'Geez, are Germans really THAT boring?' Well, be my guest if you did. And if you've seen a domestic German film in cinemas, you may have wondered: 'Geez, why are German actors so unfunny and stiff?' The answer to question No. 1 is: The German film industry runs on public funding and collaborations with public broadcasting stations, and the decisions there are made by politically affiliated men (and very few women) in their 60s. The answer to question No. 2 is: Acting schools are also usually public, teach drama courses geared for the stage, have a curriculum reduced to 18th century dramas and the occasional existentialist play which was hip in the 60s. Hence the gender stereotypes, old-fashioned themes and language, and - frequently - lack of coherence. Until 'Fack ju Göthe', that is (and apart from a few films by Faith Akın).
For this topic-wise not really interesting school comedy, following pretty much a well-trodden formula, not only became the commercially most successful German film of the decade - it's actually funny. The leads are actually hot. The acting's actually geared to the camera and not an imaginary stage. No matter how rampant the stereotypes may be, they do work with the story. No matter how silly the youth slang comes along at times, it is real urban speech. No matter how predictable the underlying social message may be - migrants, believe in yourselves, then you won't end up in jail -, it's not heavy-handed and doesn't kill the jokes.
That's because the writers, producers and the director are migrants themselves, and made this movie for an actual audience and not a public funding board. So not only is the enormous success of 'Fack ju Göthe' well deserved - it feels like a warm shower in an otherwise dreary, pseudo-intellectual German cultural atmosphere. If you want to watch a contemporary German film to see how people there tick, there isn't any alternative right now. Just don't expect anything super original or clever, just pretty solid entertainment - if the subtitles get the jokes right, or - better yet - you understand a teensy bit of German.
For this topic-wise not really interesting school comedy, following pretty much a well-trodden formula, not only became the commercially most successful German film of the decade - it's actually funny. The leads are actually hot. The acting's actually geared to the camera and not an imaginary stage. No matter how rampant the stereotypes may be, they do work with the story. No matter how silly the youth slang comes along at times, it is real urban speech. No matter how predictable the underlying social message may be - migrants, believe in yourselves, then you won't end up in jail -, it's not heavy-handed and doesn't kill the jokes.
That's because the writers, producers and the director are migrants themselves, and made this movie for an actual audience and not a public funding board. So not only is the enormous success of 'Fack ju Göthe' well deserved - it feels like a warm shower in an otherwise dreary, pseudo-intellectual German cultural atmosphere. If you want to watch a contemporary German film to see how people there tick, there isn't any alternative right now. Just don't expect anything super original or clever, just pretty solid entertainment - if the subtitles get the jokes right, or - better yet - you understand a teensy bit of German.
550th Review - Fun Comedy, Seen Far Worse
intelearts1 November 2014
I can honestly say I have never watched a German comedy before (Excepting Goodbye Lenin), but this was way better than expected. It's everything Bad Teacher could have been and more.
Firstly, it's genuinely funny - petty criminal becomes substitute teacher sounds weak but here the relationships and the script have a lot of zing and deliver.
Even though the arc is fairly by the numbers, the plot detailing is excellent, with fresh siutations and a strong romantic subplot. The cast are all on point and very likable, particularly the stars. All in all we liked it a lot - it's fun, consistently funny, has heart, and is definitely one of the better comedies of 2014.
Firstly, it's genuinely funny - petty criminal becomes substitute teacher sounds weak but here the relationships and the script have a lot of zing and deliver.
Even though the arc is fairly by the numbers, the plot detailing is excellent, with fresh siutations and a strong romantic subplot. The cast are all on point and very likable, particularly the stars. All in all we liked it a lot - it's fun, consistently funny, has heart, and is definitely one of the better comedies of 2014.
Lighthearted comedy to be enjoyed as such.
cs_chaka_20065 February 2019
This movie is a lighthearted, unpretentious comedy to be enjoyed as such. I don't understand why people come on this site and write pretentious criticisms as if this movie were made with winning an Oscar in mind. I liked the movie for what it is.
Also, it's recommended to have relatively good command of the German language, as some of the humor in this movie is pure speech humor which, some of it, can't be translated (for example the way Chantal speaks).
You have to understand German
funny7727 December 2018
The film is one of my absolute favourite films, but as some of you have already written here, you have to understand German. Subtitles just don't work, because the movie mostly uses vulgar expressions and a certain pronunciation that simply can't be translated.
Better than most american comedies these days
alansabljakovic-3904414 November 2018
Surprising funny school movie
Luigi Di Pilla16 November 2014
I watched this on recommendation of my twelve year son. First I had some doubts. I didn't watch the trailer before and I thought this could be a boring movie. I was wrong and I am surprised how cool and funny the school scenes were. Especially the young main actor did an outstanding job here. I am sure that we will hear and see great successes from him in future.
I agree with other negative critics here that they show some garbage moments. But it's only a film that wants just to entertain the young and adults. I think they reached this objective. See it, you will laugh very much and not forget for long time. 9/10.
I agree with other negative critics here that they show some garbage moments. But it's only a film that wants just to entertain the young and adults. I think they reached this objective. See it, you will laugh very much and not forget for long time. 9/10.
Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank revisited
Karl Self17 November 2013
Handsome rascal Zeki Müller has just been released after serving 13 months on the inside, but now everything seems to be going his way: All he has to do is dig up his loot so that he and his stripper friend can elope on an endless holiday of snorting coke and getting breast implants (her, not him). Unfortunately, the squalid containers of Goethe Comprehensive School now stands where he once buried his stash. Yadda yadda, and the old reprobate ends up as a sub teacher in the dysfunctional school with square-but-cute (her nerd glasses barely conceal that she's a smouldering sexual vulcano) colleague Lisi Schnabelstedt, trying to come to grips with his dysfunctional pupils. In the end, bad boy gets girl, discovers his heart of gold, and becomes teacher with an edge. Never mind the plot, though, because it's just a vessel for a lot of zany teacher-student-scenes and the übercampy love story. And since many of the scenes and dialogues with the students are fast and witty, I can benignly pardon the fact that the love affair plot is far more reactionary and clearly less quirky than in the writer-director's previous smash hit "Türkisch für Anfäger" (at one point, Lisi's sassy girlfriend advises her to lose the glasses or she'll never get laid).
I ususally don't like Katja Riemann, but she really delivers an outstanding performance here (compared to the lukewarm efforts of M'Barek and Herfurth) as the cynical principal, and Uschi Glass reprises her "Lümmel von der ersten Bank" days as a worn-out teacher.
I ususally don't like Katja Riemann, but she really delivers an outstanding performance here (compared to the lukewarm efforts of M'Barek and Herfurth) as the cynical principal, and Uschi Glass reprises her "Lümmel von der ersten Bank" days as a worn-out teacher.
Overly cringe with a few laughs
JurijFedorov15 November 2021
Pretty bad B movie overall, but did have some funny scenes.
The acting is terrible. It's basically a collection of ridiculous scenes with flat characters. So the handsome disgusting gangster, the cute kind teacher, the rebel kids, the sex fixated female roommate/teacher, the gullible principal. It's the kind of flat characters you'd recognize from over the top 80's and 90's teen comedies so unless you think those "nerd teens go to cool party" movies were amazing comedies this may not be for you. Yeah, some of these gag scenes are funny in the first 30 minutes of the movie before it drops off a cliff and becomes terrible. Maybe one every 15 scenes is good the rest fall completely flat with bad acting, terrible cringe comedy and cheap cinematography. When someone falls in love for example we see them overact extreme interest in every single scene. There is no variety or real personality. There is no charm or slow development of anything. We just see characters act silly and never change unless they have to according to the plot. So the romance is extremely cringe, just unwatchable.
The movie itself is a cheap movie with flat camera work. The other main issue, besides it being overly cringe, is that the lead is a disgusting gangster. We see him piss, puke, eat like a pig, constant nose-picking, belching, weird nasty gags. And many other characters act the same way. The lead is trying to get a job at the school to dig up a heist buried under a school building, as we see in the very start, yet he is never clever or secretive about anything. It's all played up for gags as we see scene after scene with loose plot connections and these characters acting over the top stupid. The main plot never becomes significant.
The tunnel stuff is actually a super cool idea. It's just that we barely see it. Just like we never see much tricking in relation to getting to the buried heist. Instead we focus on the "influence rebel kids" scenes. And you know EXACTLY how this stuff goes as 90% of the plot is just stolen directly from those old B-tier Hollywood movies. So you can take the 10 funny scenes and laugh at them while the movie overall is a miss and not worth watching unless you have a huge cringe tolerance. Maybe if you are a teen and see these scenes and plot points for the first time you won't feel it's as predictable and lame. You could take the idea and make it work, but it just doesn't here.
Oh yeah, the music is god awful too. Just 2000's lame teen music playing over many scenes which again shows how cheap and predictable the movie is. Lazy moviemaking.
The acting is terrible. It's basically a collection of ridiculous scenes with flat characters. So the handsome disgusting gangster, the cute kind teacher, the rebel kids, the sex fixated female roommate/teacher, the gullible principal. It's the kind of flat characters you'd recognize from over the top 80's and 90's teen comedies so unless you think those "nerd teens go to cool party" movies were amazing comedies this may not be for you. Yeah, some of these gag scenes are funny in the first 30 minutes of the movie before it drops off a cliff and becomes terrible. Maybe one every 15 scenes is good the rest fall completely flat with bad acting, terrible cringe comedy and cheap cinematography. When someone falls in love for example we see them overact extreme interest in every single scene. There is no variety or real personality. There is no charm or slow development of anything. We just see characters act silly and never change unless they have to according to the plot. So the romance is extremely cringe, just unwatchable.
The movie itself is a cheap movie with flat camera work. The other main issue, besides it being overly cringe, is that the lead is a disgusting gangster. We see him piss, puke, eat like a pig, constant nose-picking, belching, weird nasty gags. And many other characters act the same way. The lead is trying to get a job at the school to dig up a heist buried under a school building, as we see in the very start, yet he is never clever or secretive about anything. It's all played up for gags as we see scene after scene with loose plot connections and these characters acting over the top stupid. The main plot never becomes significant.
The tunnel stuff is actually a super cool idea. It's just that we barely see it. Just like we never see much tricking in relation to getting to the buried heist. Instead we focus on the "influence rebel kids" scenes. And you know EXACTLY how this stuff goes as 90% of the plot is just stolen directly from those old B-tier Hollywood movies. So you can take the 10 funny scenes and laugh at them while the movie overall is a miss and not worth watching unless you have a huge cringe tolerance. Maybe if you are a teen and see these scenes and plot points for the first time you won't feel it's as predictable and lame. You could take the idea and make it work, but it just doesn't here.
Oh yeah, the music is god awful too. Just 2000's lame teen music playing over many scenes which again shows how cheap and predictable the movie is. Lazy moviemaking.
Really surprisingly funny and well done!
katrin-luebbers30 November 2013
This is a brilliant written and act-out movie. Didn't expect that. I don't want to spoil and for that I wont do it. I can tell that this piece is sarcastic, funny and tragic, all at once. No stalling tactics and I'm very thankful for that. All of the chars were exaggerated pictures of somebody you actually know and that is what makes it so lovely. If you want a very well-conceived German comedy or missed something like that, this is for you movie! I'm aware that the ending isn't near the reality, but I appreciated it, because most of the German productions seem to try to be very accurate to the law etc. and miss the point of entertaining (sometimes). In this case, they found the balance between unrealistic and plausible.
Starts very weak, but gains steam
Horst_In_Translation15 December 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I never leave a movie before it finishes, but if I did, I may have done it here and I'd have missed a rise in quality. Thankfully the writer's intentions of relying completely on vulgar humor and stupid pranks to carry the movie quickly changed for the better. "Fack ju Göhte" is by the most commercially successful German movie of the year. So that means, we'll probably get a sequel no later than 2016, even if Elyas M'Barek, who reunited with director Bora Dagtekin from their movie and TV series Türkisch für Anfänger, just stated he's kinda sick of making films. The only real question open to be answered is if it can beat "Django Unchained" as the most-seen movie in German cinemas 2013. The question I have, however, is: Why? Why? Why? "Fack Ju Göhte" is by no means a terrible film (although you could probably say that for the first 30-45 minutes which was one of the worst I've seen all year and I've seen many), but it's not even close to the best German films from 2013. I wonder if a controversial title these days is enough to get people in millions into theaters. It's not even that the movie stays equally controversial from start to finish. Neither the parts of the lead character's emotional growing up, nor the funny parts, nor the romance parts were something that I would even consider even remotely great.
I saw another user compare it to the German classic "Die Lümmel von der ersten bank", but I personally rather thought of "Keinohrhasen". Not only does Alwara Höfels, who did nothing for me here except drooling and letting everybody in the audience know what a stud M'Barek's character is, play a slightly crasser version of her character in that movie, but the story is essentially the same. Ruthless guy with no manners meets nerdy kindergärtner/teacher (ugly duckling who slowly turns into beautiful swan), grows closer with her always in danger of falling back into old schemes. I certainly preferred "Keinohrhasen" though. The lead performances, writing and attention to detail felt simply more credible to me. Maybe I'd consider the supporting players from "Fack ju Göhte" almost equal to Kavanian, Rohde, Schweighöfer and Vogel as Jella Haase and Katja Riemann did a fine job with what they were given. Haase's performance and also the "Romeo&Juliet" play made the development of the problem class the most interesting part of the film for me, more than the romance or Zeki's character development. With that scene where he fired early on out of the window, I immediately had to think of Fiennes' balcony scene from "Schindler's List". Not sure if that was intended though.
Anyway, all in all it's an okay movie and even if I'm baffled by its audience numbers, it can make for a good watch if you don't expect something substantial, but just pointless fun.
I saw another user compare it to the German classic "Die Lümmel von der ersten bank", but I personally rather thought of "Keinohrhasen". Not only does Alwara Höfels, who did nothing for me here except drooling and letting everybody in the audience know what a stud M'Barek's character is, play a slightly crasser version of her character in that movie, but the story is essentially the same. Ruthless guy with no manners meets nerdy kindergärtner/teacher (ugly duckling who slowly turns into beautiful swan), grows closer with her always in danger of falling back into old schemes. I certainly preferred "Keinohrhasen" though. The lead performances, writing and attention to detail felt simply more credible to me. Maybe I'd consider the supporting players from "Fack ju Göhte" almost equal to Kavanian, Rohde, Schweighöfer and Vogel as Jella Haase and Katja Riemann did a fine job with what they were given. Haase's performance and also the "Romeo&Juliet" play made the development of the problem class the most interesting part of the film for me, more than the romance or Zeki's character development. With that scene where he fired early on out of the window, I immediately had to think of Fiennes' balcony scene from "Schindler's List". Not sure if that was intended though.
Anyway, all in all it's an okay movie and even if I'm baffled by its audience numbers, it can make for a good watch if you don't expect something substantial, but just pointless fun.
Starts out an edgy comedy, ends up a bland hoax
CherryBlossomBoy5 September 2015
If there ever was a film that made me feel it was geared for being sold up for a Hollywood remake - this was it, what with pseudo-hip-hop slang and American pop-numbers in the soundtrack. It's okay enough in its own right (just like the main character is okay at being a teacher), but it does look like it's planning on scoring big-time (again, just like the main character).
Whether I'm right or wrong about that, we're looking at a German flick that wants to be as edgy as is demanded from European films, but ends up bogged down by cookie-cutter cop-outs, in true American style. It's at its edgiest in the title itself, then in some scenes that involve teacher-student relations and then in the very premise that the best suited person for being a teacher nowadays is - an ex-con.
The ex-con, the central character, gets out of prison and finds out that the money from the robbery he was jailed for ended up buried on the school ground. He applies for a vacated teacher's spot in a bid to extract the loot, but finds out that teaching rowdy teenagers is slightly more than he bargained for. Not a new formula for the plot, but it works very efficiently. The character of Mr. Miller is written as a rude, no-nonsense guy, and many successful jokes stem from that fact. Also, the dialog is sometimes witty, quite unexpected of them Germans.
Bad, unfortunately, outweighs the good just enough to give the effort a mere middle mark. The actor in the main role, while being very handsome and having a striking on-screen appeal, gives an unbalanced performance. Many times he acts out instead of just acting and other times he merely recites the lines. The rest of the cast is also as mediocre, but in their case that isn't such a problem since their characters are written as predictable clichés anyway and don't have to carry the film.
The story itself doesn't squeeze enough out of the premise and goes for clichéd resolutions way too often. Subplots are underwritten (such as ex-con's relation to his former mates), forced (the love story) or thrown in out of the blue (the theatre play), while one crucial possibility, that the police might also be snooping around trying to recover the loot, is completely forgotten.
Clocking at 110 minutes, this is by no means a light feature. Some scenes drag on unnecessarily, especially attempts at slapstick that never really come out right. Instead of trimming down the fat, the director tried to cover up the lack of pace by - choppy editing. This is the single most outstanding technical problem in "Fack ju, Göhte" - the cuts are often so fast and abrupt they get in the way of the flow and the plot. Because of that, many scenes never have the time to really sink in, not even the draggy ones, and the comedic potential is thus lost.
Also standing out as really bad is ending the story with a typical politically correct "feelgood" closure, where an interesting societal outcast is turned into a castrated and "useful" member of the community. It makes me regard this film as one big predictable hoax and it makes me hope for a Hollywood remake, seeing how it will actually be an improvement for once.
Whether I'm right or wrong about that, we're looking at a German flick that wants to be as edgy as is demanded from European films, but ends up bogged down by cookie-cutter cop-outs, in true American style. It's at its edgiest in the title itself, then in some scenes that involve teacher-student relations and then in the very premise that the best suited person for being a teacher nowadays is - an ex-con.
The ex-con, the central character, gets out of prison and finds out that the money from the robbery he was jailed for ended up buried on the school ground. He applies for a vacated teacher's spot in a bid to extract the loot, but finds out that teaching rowdy teenagers is slightly more than he bargained for. Not a new formula for the plot, but it works very efficiently. The character of Mr. Miller is written as a rude, no-nonsense guy, and many successful jokes stem from that fact. Also, the dialog is sometimes witty, quite unexpected of them Germans.
Bad, unfortunately, outweighs the good just enough to give the effort a mere middle mark. The actor in the main role, while being very handsome and having a striking on-screen appeal, gives an unbalanced performance. Many times he acts out instead of just acting and other times he merely recites the lines. The rest of the cast is also as mediocre, but in their case that isn't such a problem since their characters are written as predictable clichés anyway and don't have to carry the film.
The story itself doesn't squeeze enough out of the premise and goes for clichéd resolutions way too often. Subplots are underwritten (such as ex-con's relation to his former mates), forced (the love story) or thrown in out of the blue (the theatre play), while one crucial possibility, that the police might also be snooping around trying to recover the loot, is completely forgotten.
Clocking at 110 minutes, this is by no means a light feature. Some scenes drag on unnecessarily, especially attempts at slapstick that never really come out right. Instead of trimming down the fat, the director tried to cover up the lack of pace by - choppy editing. This is the single most outstanding technical problem in "Fack ju, Göhte" - the cuts are often so fast and abrupt they get in the way of the flow and the plot. Because of that, many scenes never have the time to really sink in, not even the draggy ones, and the comedic potential is thus lost.
Also standing out as really bad is ending the story with a typical politically correct "feelgood" closure, where an interesting societal outcast is turned into a castrated and "useful" member of the community. It makes me regard this film as one big predictable hoax and it makes me hope for a Hollywood remake, seeing how it will actually be an improvement for once.
German comedy by the numbers
kosmasp6 June 2014
But only if those numbers include swearing and nudity. Not much of it, but you should be aware that Germans (or its censorship) have less issues with skin than they have with violence. The movie and its rating would not come out the same in America. And although it was really successful, I don't see any US remake in the future.
What I did see though, is a movie that touches a nerve with the youth (in Germany). For better or worse that is the way they interact with each other. Apart from that, we also have the old cliché that women fall for the bad guy. A guy who treats women like garbage. Opposites attract, but movies do go at a length to make this really clear.
Still the movie is funny and if you are not too uptight about those things you will be able to enjoy it, flaws aside obviously
What I did see though, is a movie that touches a nerve with the youth (in Germany). For better or worse that is the way they interact with each other. Apart from that, we also have the old cliché that women fall for the bad guy. A guy who treats women like garbage. Opposites attract, but movies do go at a length to make this really clear.
Still the movie is funny and if you are not too uptight about those things you will be able to enjoy it, flaws aside obviously
funny German movie for teens & adults with Ghetto slang
Chris_Ego18 June 2023
Must be quite fun for German teenagers, scholars and parents. The slang contains explicit language. The story is quite cute. It's about a gangster (Elyas M'Barek) at crossroads, a love affair (Karoline Herfurth) and most of all, the education of youngsters. The mischief that gangster "Herr Müller" (Zeki Müller) brings in is quite notorious. He has a very unusual way of teaching kids with delinquent habits about life. He has a brutal and relentless way in his behaviour and his language. Nevertheless he is very successful with his methods.
Shooting with the cast must have been quite hilarious as seen in the making of. Give it a shot, no matter your age.
Shooting with the cast must have been quite hilarious as seen in the making of. Give it a shot, no matter your age.
Loved it
Louloulemon1 January 2018
I am German but I usually don't watch German movies. However, I really love Fack ju Göthe. It's a clever and funny movie about how German teenagers of the lower social classes are often perceived by Germans. It plays with all the stereotypes we Germans have about teenagers whose parents are immigrants, on welfare, alcoholics etc. Not only the language used but also the names of the characters portray this very well - both are a reflection of German reality, not made-up for entertainment. I laughed tears throughout the whole movie but I also cried, and then I laughed and cried at the same time. Would watch it over and over again. 10/10
Not surprising this made millions in German cinema.
brsger14 January 2024
Herfurth is great, though over the top. But that's most likely wanted by producers.
M'Barek is surprisingly solid with what he's given.
The plot follows everything you're taught when writing comedies. The most generic structure and flow you could imagine. But it works.
What doesn't work, is the script.
Too un-subtle, too edgy, too little translation from the page to the screen.
They obviously tried to go with hundreds of one-liners they could fit into promotional material, sadly only 10% of them work.
While some German flicks are too politically-correct, this might be one that suffers from too much vulgarity.
It just doesn't properly work.
Haase is promising, although her character is annoying.
Riemann is fun.
Klenke is quite good!
With a better script and more emotional depth, this could have been a great comed.
The foundation is solid, though. Therefore a 6/10.
M'Barek is surprisingly solid with what he's given.
The plot follows everything you're taught when writing comedies. The most generic structure and flow you could imagine. But it works.
What doesn't work, is the script.
Too un-subtle, too edgy, too little translation from the page to the screen.
They obviously tried to go with hundreds of one-liners they could fit into promotional material, sadly only 10% of them work.
While some German flicks are too politically-correct, this might be one that suffers from too much vulgarity.
It just doesn't properly work.
Haase is promising, although her character is annoying.
Riemann is fun.
Klenke is quite good!
With a better script and more emotional depth, this could have been a great comed.
The foundation is solid, though. Therefore a 6/10.
Hilarious and fast paced
MovieSonic25 January 2015
This film has some of the most conflicting reviews I've ever read! Comedies will always polarise opinions but this one seems to have gone to the extreme, although in fairness, there are only around 11 reviews at the time of writing mine so perhaps if more people contributed their opinions, we would get a better indication of the overall success of the film.
First, I'll discuss the story and how engaging it is: I really liked the leads and the supporting characters were interesting. It's a fairly predictable plot so I knew what to expect but I always like it when character development and changes in people are done subtly and believably. No one suddenly makes any huge leaps to become a better person and in fact, people don't do a complete 180 and suddenly change every aspect of their personalities which adds to the realism.
This is a very fast-paced, slapstick-style film which injects enough sarcasm and biting one-liners that the 'silly humour' aspect of the direction is easily overlooked. It helps that the editing is superb; no joke is ever drawn out and the film moves frantically from one scene to the next. I would say that the style of the film is similar to that of Clueless (1995) in that people use over-the-top facial expressions and crazy 'goofball' things happen like setting booby traps but the script is extremely witty so it complements the action really well.
I imagine that Fack ju Göhte would have been entertaining enough as a straightforward film without any humour however, it is a comedy and in terms of 'how' funny the film is, it would have been useful to me if reviewers had provided some examples of comedies they found funny so that I could compare. Here are a few comedies or films I found funny:
Overt comedies:
American Pie, Horrible Bosses, Step Brothers (get past the first ten or fifteen minutes and this one is genius), The Other Guys, 21 Jump Street, Hot Tub Time Machine, Someone Marry Barry, Pineapple Express, Ted, Bad Words, everything Jim Carrey...
Films with humour I like:
Back to the Future(s), Groundhog Day, The Truman Show, Borat, Meet the Fockers, Juno, The Guard (2011) - The Guard is a must-watch!
So those are some examples of films I found funny. That's not to say I found every joke hilarious but these are films I'd recommend to someone who was looking for a funny film to watch.
At this point, I will highlight that I watched the original German film with German subtitles. I'm not sure how successful comedies are when translated into other languages so it's worth noting this.
In my opinion, the fact that Fack ju Göhte is one of the most successful German films in years, speaks for itself. I really enjoyed the story and it had me laughing out loud every five or ten minutes.
9/10
First, I'll discuss the story and how engaging it is: I really liked the leads and the supporting characters were interesting. It's a fairly predictable plot so I knew what to expect but I always like it when character development and changes in people are done subtly and believably. No one suddenly makes any huge leaps to become a better person and in fact, people don't do a complete 180 and suddenly change every aspect of their personalities which adds to the realism.
This is a very fast-paced, slapstick-style film which injects enough sarcasm and biting one-liners that the 'silly humour' aspect of the direction is easily overlooked. It helps that the editing is superb; no joke is ever drawn out and the film moves frantically from one scene to the next. I would say that the style of the film is similar to that of Clueless (1995) in that people use over-the-top facial expressions and crazy 'goofball' things happen like setting booby traps but the script is extremely witty so it complements the action really well.
I imagine that Fack ju Göhte would have been entertaining enough as a straightforward film without any humour however, it is a comedy and in terms of 'how' funny the film is, it would have been useful to me if reviewers had provided some examples of comedies they found funny so that I could compare. Here are a few comedies or films I found funny:
Overt comedies:
American Pie, Horrible Bosses, Step Brothers (get past the first ten or fifteen minutes and this one is genius), The Other Guys, 21 Jump Street, Hot Tub Time Machine, Someone Marry Barry, Pineapple Express, Ted, Bad Words, everything Jim Carrey...
Films with humour I like:
Back to the Future(s), Groundhog Day, The Truman Show, Borat, Meet the Fockers, Juno, The Guard (2011) - The Guard is a must-watch!
So those are some examples of films I found funny. That's not to say I found every joke hilarious but these are films I'd recommend to someone who was looking for a funny film to watch.
At this point, I will highlight that I watched the original German film with German subtitles. I'm not sure how successful comedies are when translated into other languages so it's worth noting this.
In my opinion, the fact that Fack ju Göhte is one of the most successful German films in years, speaks for itself. I really enjoyed the story and it had me laughing out loud every five or ten minutes.
9/10
one of the worst childish wannabe-cool movies i've seen
katusch2 July 2014
Like so often I ask myself how a bad movie can reach a good voting here and a good movie a bad voting. Of course tastes are different but this is exaggerated. This movie doesn't only have a bad story line, it has even worse acting actors. 90% of acting is done by ppl shouting around angry in a childish fake annoying way and behaving like everyone is uebercool. Especially the mainactor is awful. I've seen for sure over 1000 movies in my lifetime and I can say this one is in the top 10 of the worst. I prefer a ueberlow-budged movie which for sure can reach a better quality than this one. I hope this junk wasn't translated in other languages since there are a lot of other German movies which deserve to be translated first.
Awesome movie
prince_959920 July 2020
I didn't knew about this movie until i saw a clip of this movie randomly scrolling my facebook feed. Saw a clip where the teacher uses paint ball gun to teach students a leason so i though of giving it a try. I DONT UNDERSTAND GERMAN SO HAD TO LOOKUP FOR DUBBED OR SUBTITLE. NOW I ALSO VIEWED PART 2 OF THIS. GREAT MOVIE
German
robinek-5043519 November 2020
speaks up against the system...
datnguyen-980613 February 2021
Note: You need to understand German at at least B2 level to understand what they are saying. Also up to date knowledge of the German school system.
Otherwise, the movie is really well made. I think it is another opportunity to mix up German slangs, jokes etc. into a concoction of fun, sadness, satisfaction, and stress relief. Though 1 star deduction due to bad subtitles.
Not Just Funny, But Heart Touching Too
wesleybowd2 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
When I saw the title on TV, I thought 'Ok, this one's probably a bad one!' How far can that be from the truth? Instead we get a funny, yet heart touching movie about a criminal who starts to substitute teach a class that is off the tracks. By using his knowledge about the bad parts of the world, he manages to steer his class away from that side and shows them the inner skills and talents inside them.
However, he still has one bad student to deal with: himself. Through his love for his coworker, he changes and becomes the good role model we all knew he could be. This movie made me and my friends watching for the whole movie. 8/10
Criminal turn teacher
kanwarpals14 September 2021
Suck me shakespeer series :The story of school which is specially for unprivileged background children with economically weak background , orphans or living with guardian and they have history of pain so now they torture every teacher who came to make them mind there way towards a good human being but they don't understand then a criminal (thief) posed as teacher came with his motive but he change there life and make them do some most innovative things which change there prospective of life and they change for good.
Great women
supermaggie14 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I strongly disagree that this is one of the best German movies. There have always been really bad, boring German movies (often well-done and critical/educational, but boring) and very good entertaining, progressive ones from the early works of Murnau and Wiene, the feelgood movies with Heinz Erhardt, Conny Froboess, great satires by/with Loriot, Hape Kerkeling, Michael Bully Herbig, etc.etc., and like the director of FJGoethe (Suck me Shakespeare - what a dumb translation) pointed out: the genre of school movies/student pranks movies has been a longtime German genre, from films with the great Heinz Ruehmann, Hansi Kraus und Peter Alexander until now FJGoethe. And FJG is a bit of an impositon/ an attack at good taste, but it also has strong moments when showing and parodying the daily burden of teachers and the wrong belief of many people nowadays that it is cool not to know things, but the biggest strongsuit, the heart and glamour of the movie are the women. Of course the greatly talented fantastic Karoline Herfurth and Jella Haase, but also the smaller roles like the iconic Katja Riemann and also Jana Pallaske, Alwara Hoefels, Lena Klenke, Uschi Glas, Gizem Emre etc. - these women are the heart and soul of the movie, you connect/feel and hope with them and that's why you enjoy the movie and want to see more. Go women!
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