User Reviews

"Die Donau ist tief. Ein Krimi aus Passau" is a German television film from 2020, actually really new and fresh as this one had its premiere today, well television premiere as it has been online for a feww days already. Strange state of things by the way when films are online for half a week before they are shown on the small screen, even during prime time on national television. Also this film is a sequel to a movie that premiered just one week earlier and has a similar title. The second half is identical. The first is not. In English, this one here means "The Danube is deep. A crime movie from Passau". So this one is set in Bavaria, which at least to Germans should be obvious with this title. The Danube is deep indeed, but this film here is not. Not one bit. It is shallow and uninspired, but I'll get to that later. The cast are mostly the same people like in the film that aired very early in October. I would not say the list is too great. Also it is still a bit mixed-up. The ones with the most screen time are not the ones credited first here on imdb. Instead, they took the alphabetical route. I will also not go much into detail about the cast members. If you wanna know about them, check out my review from a week ago where I say a few words about Leuenberger and the rest. Quickly, on the director: Maurice Hübner has worked on short films and series for a decade already, but this is his first full feature film. Or actually his first two full feature films. Not sure if this can be classified as a miniseries. So yeah, he worked on a lot already before making his crucial step and honestly, with his experience I would have expected a better outcome here. Then again, he was not responsiible for the screenplay and this one is more key than anything else for me in determining if I like a movie or not. The one in charge (i.e. to blame) there is Michael Vershinin. According to imdb, he has been active since 2016, also mostly on series, and worked on one movie so far before this project we have here. So also okay experience, even if not extremely prolific. Yeah, taking that into account, the outcome is just a massive flop. I already did not like the first film at all, mostly because that one was very much in your face, very unrealistic with some extreme twists happening, like the scene with the killer and how he dies, but also the story with the rich boy who wants the girl dead. It is all jjust too much really.

This one here sucks too, but for slightly other reasons. I thought it was really bland and boring most of the time. But nonetheless unrealistic and unauthentic. So the duology turns into massive failure and we can only hope that they never come up with a third movie. One thing I kinda like, almost the only thing, is that the action here moves a bit away from Leuenberger's character and instead focuses on the private eye from the first film and he is the center of the story now. There is also a jump in time compared to the end of the first movie. Several months. But the film has barely started and already it goes all in. People are dying left and right here or are at least in danger of dying. This time, the male protagonists ex-girlfriend is a victim and the man is a suspect. The prime suspect in fact. So yeah, this is something that happens to 1 out of 1000, probably fewer, once in a lifetime that a girlfriend is murdered, but here we just have to swallow it and take it for granted. Let's keep in mind: He is the man who killed the assassin in the previous film. Luckily (for him) he still knows about the witness protection woman's true identity and basically enlists her. Also with another challenge as the guy he killed in the first film and put him to the ground could potentially be discovered as there are these skeletons of old Romans down in the ground. Yeah, those you meet all day right? And the city oor so wants to find them, which means they would find the fresh corpse too. This idea of making the corpse disappear eventually turns into the key plot and when they throw the body into the water eventually, the film (i.e. miniseries) ends and it seems he gets away safely. I mean he only killed the man to save his own life anyway in an act of self-defense, so not sure why he is so worried and why police would even think it was him who killed him. But I should stop that. Thinking about how logical this film here is is definitely not the best idea. It's another Degeto production. Enough said. Those who have never heard about Degeto must know it is a German production company mostly in charge of ARD television films for decades really and they made hundreds of terrible films. Most of the time, these films are anti-male romance trash, but here it is a completely different story, namely a crime thriller although I don't like to use the word "thriller" here at all because there is nothing inspiring about the overall outcome, absolutely nothing that will have you on the edge of your seat. I almost feel a bit bad about the cast members, but then again I shouldn't because it was their free decision to appear in this mess. Same for the director who launched his career the worst way imaginable. He's not old, so I hope he can step things up a bit in the future as he will surely keep making films. or at least television projects. It's not just the key stories that suck here. It is also the small moment, the minor plots, like how we (and the female protagonist) find out about the old lady's death and it is really ridiculous how said female protagonist immediately knows something is wrong and how the actress overacts so heavily in this scene. Sometimes less is more. And don't tell me she knew because she is smart or because she is a cop or because she is paranoid or anything. It's just nonsense. There are many other moments at which one can only shake his head because how bad it all is. I will not list them in detail, but you will recognize them immediately. This is also not a film unfortunately that is so bad that it is unintentionally funny. It is ust plain bad and also ridiculous how they took themselves so seriously as if they were making a quality crime thriller here. Disgraceful. Your GEZ money at work. Keep financing travesties like these or stand up. Massive thumbs-down here, but I do not really need to give out a recommendation here because if you consider watching this one, then you probably have seen the equally bad first film and can decide for yourself. If you have not though, I highly recommend to stay far far away from these two films. Every production value here is terrible and yes, this also includes Leuenberger's acting. Skip at all cost!