"Das total verrückte Wochenende", which means "A totally crazy weekend", is a German television film from spring 2009, so this one is already easily over a decade old. The director of these approximately 1.5 hours is Ariane Zeller and she started her career with the famous German soap opera GZSZ, but managed the almost impossible to still go down a lot quality-wise as her career went on. There seems to be not a single project of quality in her body of work. Shocking stuff, almost as shocking as the fact that she is still getting picked to direct films nowadays despite all the trash in her filmography. Some of it applies to the ARD Degeto stuff she did, but not exclusively. For example, "Die rote Meile" is Sat1 and so is this film here. But this does not make it any better than all the horrible crap ARD degeto has come up with. This is of course also "thanks to" writer Christof Ritter and looking at his horrible screenplay here, it is definitely a good thing that he was not nearly as prolific as Zeller. Sadly, he is also still finding work these days. People must be blind. If I had a project upcoming, then I'd certainly rather cancel the entire thing than have the likes of Zeller or Ritter be in charge in any department. Of course, the cast is not doing them any favors either. Jörg Schüttauf is an okay actor overall I'd say, but his performance here is among the worst I have seen from him. Still, he looks like Al Pacino next to Tina Ruland. She has always been without talent, range and versatility and same is true for her in this movie, although admittedly I have seen worse from her already. Shows you how bad she is if that one here is already a better performance from her. As for the rest of the cast, not gonna elaborate too much. None of them have the material to make an impact. Tscharre is not unknown, Bongard maybe German film buffs have also come across in other films and Austrian actor Bloéb has at least okay recognition value. But neither can save this film from becoming the travesty that it quickly turns into. Probably not even the greatest actors on the planet could have with this screenplay.
I will mention a few scenes and moments where the movie sucked the most and the screen writer's lack of talent became 100% visible. First of all, for basic understanding: This is a story of a daughter who goes on a trip to berlin with her male friend / boyfriend. The father is not happy about it at all because he always wants to be in control of his daughter because he is always worried about her. So what does he do? He simply follows her again trying his best to not be noticed. And the mother joins him. Which already makes no sense for her to be a part of this because she is not so strict and trusts her daugghter that everything will be fine. The explanation that the mother simply wants to go on a good trip with her man is absolutely not sufficient to justify her coming with him. They just wanted Ruland to be a crucial part of this film, that's all. But the mess starts before that already when we find out that the father got in the way of a camping trip years earlier for the same reasons and everybody was just camping in the family's garden. Absolute nonsense. Later on, there is a similar mention when he thought his daughter caught some fatal illness when abroad, but it was totally harmless. This is the film's idea of comedy. Utterly cringe. There are many more examples of that. Just take the idea that of course there is a fair going on in Berlin and an important political visit and that is why they won't get a hotel room anymore. I am from Berlin. Let me assure you, this has nothing to do with reality. This stuff does not take place here all the time. What else? Oh yeah, of course Ruland's character finds a former friend/boyfriend all out of nowhere in a totally new city that has millions of people living there. Really realistic. And of course, they also have to show their tickets the one time they are in a train. And don't even get me started on everything else that happens in the train there, i.e. mostly the smoke and how they set a strangger's coat on fire. What the hell? Were they really thinkingg they could get away with this nonsense? The filmmakers I mean, not the characters. Such a travesty. I was almost about to say early on that this is ligghter than ARD Deggeto and does not include crucial dramatic or emotional statements, but this is also only partially true because the whole idea about the two parents finding love again on the trip is so pseudo and fake that it makes me cringe, especially the moment when Ruland's character starts rambling up there above the water how she maybe wants to break up because she wants more from life. So out of nowhere. So unauthentic. Unreal. The jump into the water is not much better, but hey, in a large city like Berlin of course when they swim a bit to safety, guess where they happen to appear finally. That's right: At the party where her daughter is at. Totally makes sense. Berlin village. Only one lake/river. Only one party. And so on. There are probably at least a dozen other inclusions I could list here that did not feel realistic at all, but 100% for the sake of it, but I'd rather forget this film and you get the message anyway. Oh wait, no I have one more, namely even twice when the daughter is driving in a car she runs into her parents speeding past her. I guess there is also only one street. Oh yeah, the hotel room prostitution scene is of course as "funny" as the scene when they burgle the place to get the credit card to get their car back. Sigh. Pretty weak song selection by the way too. I actually do like the Katy Perry song "Firework", but how they used it here was as shallow as it gets. This film is a desaster from beginning to end. It never should have been made. It never should have been released and certainly it should not be shown on television anymore such a long time after its production. What are they thinking. Can I say anything positive? Well, how the daughter finds the photo at the very end was mildly funny somehow. But this mediocre moment being a highlight shows you how horrible everything before that must have been. Fat thumbs-down.
I will mention a few scenes and moments where the movie sucked the most and the screen writer's lack of talent became 100% visible. First of all, for basic understanding: This is a story of a daughter who goes on a trip to berlin with her male friend / boyfriend. The father is not happy about it at all because he always wants to be in control of his daughter because he is always worried about her. So what does he do? He simply follows her again trying his best to not be noticed. And the mother joins him. Which already makes no sense for her to be a part of this because she is not so strict and trusts her daugghter that everything will be fine. The explanation that the mother simply wants to go on a good trip with her man is absolutely not sufficient to justify her coming with him. They just wanted Ruland to be a crucial part of this film, that's all. But the mess starts before that already when we find out that the father got in the way of a camping trip years earlier for the same reasons and everybody was just camping in the family's garden. Absolute nonsense. Later on, there is a similar mention when he thought his daughter caught some fatal illness when abroad, but it was totally harmless. This is the film's idea of comedy. Utterly cringe. There are many more examples of that. Just take the idea that of course there is a fair going on in Berlin and an important political visit and that is why they won't get a hotel room anymore. I am from Berlin. Let me assure you, this has nothing to do with reality. This stuff does not take place here all the time. What else? Oh yeah, of course Ruland's character finds a former friend/boyfriend all out of nowhere in a totally new city that has millions of people living there. Really realistic. And of course, they also have to show their tickets the one time they are in a train. And don't even get me started on everything else that happens in the train there, i.e. mostly the smoke and how they set a strangger's coat on fire. What the hell? Were they really thinkingg they could get away with this nonsense? The filmmakers I mean, not the characters. Such a travesty. I was almost about to say early on that this is ligghter than ARD Deggeto and does not include crucial dramatic or emotional statements, but this is also only partially true because the whole idea about the two parents finding love again on the trip is so pseudo and fake that it makes me cringe, especially the moment when Ruland's character starts rambling up there above the water how she maybe wants to break up because she wants more from life. So out of nowhere. So unauthentic. Unreal. The jump into the water is not much better, but hey, in a large city like Berlin of course when they swim a bit to safety, guess where they happen to appear finally. That's right: At the party where her daughter is at. Totally makes sense. Berlin village. Only one lake/river. Only one party. And so on. There are probably at least a dozen other inclusions I could list here that did not feel realistic at all, but 100% for the sake of it, but I'd rather forget this film and you get the message anyway. Oh wait, no I have one more, namely even twice when the daughter is driving in a car she runs into her parents speeding past her. I guess there is also only one street. Oh yeah, the hotel room prostitution scene is of course as "funny" as the scene when they burgle the place to get the credit card to get their car back. Sigh. Pretty weak song selection by the way too. I actually do like the Katy Perry song "Firework", but how they used it here was as shallow as it gets. This film is a desaster from beginning to end. It never should have been made. It never should have been released and certainly it should not be shown on television anymore such a long time after its production. What are they thinking. Can I say anything positive? Well, how the daughter finds the photo at the very end was mildly funny somehow. But this mediocre moment being a highlight shows you how horrible everything before that must have been. Fat thumbs-down.
