User Reviews

"Kaiserschmarrndrama" is a German movie from 2021, so really new and fresh, and this is of course the (as of now) newest installment to the Eberhofer crime series. If I am not mistaken, this is the seventh movie based on the novels by writer Rita Falk and it all started back in 2013, so we will see if they can make it to ten years or maybe even ten movies. I'd say the series is still going strong from what I saw today. By the way, Falk, for the first time, will soon have another work turned into a film, one without police officer Eberhofer. But today we focus on this one here. At apparently 96 minutes (according to imdb), it is a bit longer I think than they usually are, but not too much. As for the rest, they are going with the successful formulas from previous installments. Director is Ed herog again and he is also one of the writers and his co-writer here is Stefan Betz who was also part of the previous films. All three of them are in their 50s now, so surely young enough for several other films to follow this one here. All three also originate from the south of Germany. Also no surprise at all if you take a look at where this film is set. Or all these films are. Crime comedies with certain focus on particular German regions have been a thing for a long time now and this one here is basically on top of these. Really telling that all these films have been theatrical releases while usually they are made for the small screen. And also apparently the audience numbers are high enough for one new film getting released every single year basically. I am a bit critical with German comedy films, especially when it comes to projects that includes involvement from ARD Degeto or the fairly dubious Constantin Film GmbH, but I cannot be too harsh on this one here or the others. I keep having a good time when watching.

As for the cast, no major changes this time. This may be set in Germany still, but you also find several Austrian actors here. The key cast are all back, which is always nice, but also the recurring supporting players show up here briefly again and you will recognize most of them from previous films. The thing all these films have in common that you can guess a little bit who did it until the final revelation happens. Or revelations in this case. And you will laugh a lot. I mean these are crime movies, but the actual crime story feels almost secondary. There is so much more going on. Look at one character's affair and his connection with a biker gang. Look at the story involving the protagonist's dog. Look at the construction plot in here and all the characters attached to it, like the Polish construction workers doing more eating than constructing really. Take one character's health issues after a car accident. And so on. By the way, the health issues I just mentioned are also the very beginning of the movie. We have Simon Schwarz (not Johann von Bülow) or I should say his character (the one on the right of the imdb poster) being notoriously unbearable with the nurses at the hospital and even a bit of pee is flying around. This also results in a little flashback that was admittedly not the film's best moment (maybe the weakest) when they showed us how the accident/injury happened. But there's also good, in the sense of comic relief, that stems from all this like it was funny for example how we see Schwarz's character being rushed with flashing blue lights from the ambulance to the main character's home. They really wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible because of how grumpy he was. I really cannot mention all the funny moments here.

In any case, it depends on you and your subjective liking what you find the funniest about this movie. For example I also liked the way(s) in which Eberhofer dealt with the design choices presented to him by his girlfriend. The (almost) final scene in which the building collapses (and why) was also fairly fine with how much over the top it was. This is something that probably happened like this too in the book, so I am glad the action here is based on these books because frequently German comedies are really too scared to go all in like that. But these films are not thank God. Scenes that I did not like too much I already mentioned the flashback, but also for example the comedy from Schwarz's character's scene with the Terminator reference did almost nothing for me. Same for his excessive laughter before that when they confront the second killer, even if you could wonder there if it was really the husband who killed the second victim. Or the item that pretty much saved Eberhofer's life. A bit too unrealistic and also not really new there. But as I stated, this is mostly subjective. And the good news is that there were many other good scenes and inclusions and small funny moments that worked really, really well for me. Not gonna list them all, go watch the film yourself. Most likely you won't regret it and this is also not a film where you have to see everything that happened before. Or have read the books. I mean it's cool and doesn't hurt if you are familiar with the characters already, but absolutely not a necessity. The stories are kinda individual and start from scratch.

The ending was also telling like how the couple is back at their original home again after what happened with the new house. Ah yes, the rushed-in birth and the two brothers making up again on that occasion and how the kid was named was also a bit over the top for me, but the reference to the girl's name and what Eberhofer says after the hug was kinda funny again I will admit. A constant back-and-forth I would say. Then there is the story with the dog, one of the really serious inclusions here. Still it never felt like really dramatically relevant to be honest. They made sure there as well that the full focus stayed on comedy altogether. You see the dog on the poster here on imdb too by the way and thats not the case with the other films. A photo of him as a younger dog and also very early on, there is a brief tribute that seemed sweet to me. Somehow I thought they would get in a new dog in the end, but no and you could always wonder if there really was a miracle cure for the dog somehow, simply because it's a comedy. As for the crime story, it's interesting to see how when they interrogated the first victim's brother and his wife early on, you could think that the brother was faking his anger and that the wife is just considerate and calm because she is such a person. The truth is the opposite as we find out in the end with how they literally have to drag her away with all this screaming and fighting. Another positive inclusion I could mention here is the main character's father. I have to admit I did not find him too funny in some of the other films, but here he (and the actor too) won me over a bit. I also did not think anymore that maybe he is too young. But lead actor Bezzel also looks much younger than his real age and I am still baffled he is really 50 now.

While I liked the father, I once again cannot say the same about Flötzing, but honestly this could also have to do with me finding the character so utterly unlikable, even if I think that is not intended and he is supposed to be seen as a nerdy likable womanizer character, which I totally cannot classify him as. No matter if we are talking about his libido or the scene with the young police officer. But at least he got his fair share somehow with the huge tattoo and in the end, the woman leaves him even, so I don't know maybe we actually can be glad all this happens to him and he is indeed not meant to be likable. Perhaps it's also handled differently than in the books. I also could have done without his connection to the first murder victim which felt very random. Samme is true about the inclusion of the buther there and the latter is somehow seen as a bit of a suspect even, although there were many, many other people on the list apparently. So yeah, this is where the film had weaknesses. Alright, that is it then overall. No hesitation for me in giving this film a thumbs-up as a whole and I surely recommend checking it. It is probably among the weaker, if not weakest, Eberhofer films, but that does not mean it is a weak film. Just that the other ones came a bit closer to greatness even and this one here s just a good film from beginning to end. It's also definitely more of a worthy recommendation if you are in for comedy and not if you are in for crime. But if the former is indeed true, then this is one you don't wwanna miss out on.