The novel-based "Die Katze" or "The Cat" is a German crime thriller from almost 30 years ago. It stars Götz George and Gudrun Landgrebe, who both received German Film Award nominations for their performances, as well as Ralf Richter and Heinz Hoenig. Filmmaker Dominik Graf won a German Film Award for his direction. And having seen some of his other works, such as the very underwhelming "Die geliebten Schwestern", I must say this one here does not change my opinion on Graf a bit. It is pretty ridiculous that he is among Germany's most appreciated movie makers at this point. This one here runs for over 110 minutes and tells us the story of a bank heist with two bank robbers inside the building and the man who coordinates the crime outside. In the meantime, police are trying to solve the situation without any of the hostages dying while constantly searching for the mastermind outside the bank.
The only convincing performance here is unsurprisingly George, who is easily the finest from the cast in terms of range. The others only score through charisma, if at all. The police and the actors who play them are really very uninteresting here and the action inside the bank also could have needed a lot more pep. It is never edge-of-seat material and that is quite an achievement in the negative sense for a bank heist movie. You could definitely call this "Dog Day Afternoon" gone very bad. Apart from these factors, the actions of Landgrebe's character hardly make any sense at all and it seems she was just written the most controversial as possible without having any relation to realism anymore. The embarrassing title of the film isn't helping either. All in all, this was pretty much a disappointment and shows that (after the really strong 1970s) German films in the 1980s were far from their best. Don't watch.
The only convincing performance here is unsurprisingly George, who is easily the finest from the cast in terms of range. The others only score through charisma, if at all. The police and the actors who play them are really very uninteresting here and the action inside the bank also could have needed a lot more pep. It is never edge-of-seat material and that is quite an achievement in the negative sense for a bank heist movie. You could definitely call this "Dog Day Afternoon" gone very bad. Apart from these factors, the actions of Landgrebe's character hardly make any sense at all and it seems she was just written the most controversial as possible without having any relation to realism anymore. The embarrassing title of the film isn't helping either. All in all, this was pretty much a disappointment and shows that (after the really strong 1970s) German films in the 1980s were far from their best. Don't watch.