User Reviews

"Video Kings" is a German German-language film from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year. These roughly 1.5 hours were written and directed by Daniel Acht and Ali Eckert and for both, it is probably their most known career effort so far. This does not really say anything too positive though as I found the outcome underwhelming at all. Busch in the lead did not impress me and Möhring also did not have the material to be as memorable as his character's physical looks. We basically find out about the personal struggles (romance) and the professional struggles with his boss and his badly-paid video store employment for the character named Flo. Maybe German film buffs will also recognize other actors like Thorwarth or Bela B. And even Til Schweiger had a little cameo here, which did come surprising. He appears towards the end next to the comedy duo Badesalz. Overall, I must sadly say that the comedy all in all was not working well enough to make this film memorable to me whatsoever. A great deal of mediocrity in here. The ending also feels fairly forced in terms of how happy it was and how things took a turn for the right for the protagonist. And as comedy is really the only genre where this one tries to succeed and has any ambition to make an impact, the success there, or I maybe should say "lack of success", is crucial for the overall outcome and perception. And finally I want to talk about all the film references in here because this was really annoying me how the writers here wanted so desperately make sure that we see the protagonist as a huge film nerd, maybe to make a connection with him as we are fellow film nerds too. But honestly the way he was talking about films all the time felt truly unauthentic and scripted and it hurt the realism component a lot as many references felt absurd and in a way "an den Haaren herbeigezogen" as we say here in Germany. It also made the entire project more annoying and kept the audience from at least finding the central character somewhat likable. So yes this was a mediocre film for the most part and sometimes even pretty bad. I hope that the duo managed to step things up in the last decade. Their combined effort here is not worth watching. Skip it.