With this description, I am referring to the 3.6 rating here on IMDb. It is accurate. "Tschiller: Off Duty" is a German movie from earlier this year. The director is Christian Alvart and writer is Christoph Darnstädt. Maybe the two names are already enough for audiences to make a connection to the successful German "Tatort" series. And if not, then the name Tschiller should help as well as he is the character played by Til Schweiger in the Tatort franchise. This film here is sometimes also called a "kinotatort" as he reprises the role for the big screen. I personally don't like the Tatort series at all. In my opinion, the level is very weak most of the time in these small screen production and the long tradition of "Tatort" just won't cut the cake anymore. There are many superior crime film productions from Germany these days, for small screen and big screen. Is this one here one of these? Not really, unfortunately. Tschiller is of to Turkey in order to find his daughter who wants to kill a crime-lord in a plan that includes personal revenge. But obviously things don't go as planned at all and Tschiller has to save the day.
The direction this film takes is the same from the Schweiger "Tatort" films. It relies very much on action sequences, explosions, shootings etc. But this of course is not enough. A good film needs a good story and not just shallow spectacular sequences. Character development and writing are very weak in here sadly. It's a mix of Bond, Bourne, maybe Mission: Impossible too and the plot about saving your daughter from crime organizations abroad reminded me a lot of "Taken". But Schweiger is no Neeson. Schweiger is an okay actor when it comes to comedies with some romance and also some emotional depth, but every time he aims for drama (without comedy entirely), things go pretty wrong. There are two or three very cringeworthy scenes when it comes to his line delivery, but in his defense, you cannot blame him alone. The screenplay is probably even worse than Schweiger's performance. The scene with "turning 18" at the very end is the best example. You can see the filmmakers' ambition to make it an emotional highlight, but the talent just isn't there and that's why it becomes fairly embarrassing. There are more scenes like that and given the fact that this movie runs for way over 2 hours, there is no denying that it drags a lot while moving from one spectacular action sequence to the next. Don't watch.
The direction this film takes is the same from the Schweiger "Tatort" films. It relies very much on action sequences, explosions, shootings etc. But this of course is not enough. A good film needs a good story and not just shallow spectacular sequences. Character development and writing are very weak in here sadly. It's a mix of Bond, Bourne, maybe Mission: Impossible too and the plot about saving your daughter from crime organizations abroad reminded me a lot of "Taken". But Schweiger is no Neeson. Schweiger is an okay actor when it comes to comedies with some romance and also some emotional depth, but every time he aims for drama (without comedy entirely), things go pretty wrong. There are two or three very cringeworthy scenes when it comes to his line delivery, but in his defense, you cannot blame him alone. The screenplay is probably even worse than Schweiger's performance. The scene with "turning 18" at the very end is the best example. You can see the filmmakers' ambition to make it an emotional highlight, but the talent just isn't there and that's why it becomes fairly embarrassing. There are more scenes like that and given the fact that this movie runs for way over 2 hours, there is no denying that it drags a lot while moving from one spectacular action sequence to the next. Don't watch.
