User Reviews

"Tod einer Polizistin" ("Death of a female cop") or "Endspiel" ("Final game") is a German film from 2012, so this small screen release has its 5th anniversary now this year. The director is prolific filmmaker Matti Geschonneck, but I believe this is not one of his best works. But maybe the writers are more to blame than Geschonneck. Like most television films, it runs for slightly under 1.5 hours and the cast is actually really decent. The late Götz George plays a central character and Jürgen Vogel and Rosalie Thomass have belonged to Germany's most known from their age group for a while now. In addition, there is Uwe Kockisch and other cast members that German film buffs will perhaps recognize. This is the story of a convicted criminal who gets in trouble with the law once again. But a female cop takes a deeper look into the subject and may find out that things back then when he was convicted may not have been in accordance with a working legal system. Was he innocent? Then what about the recent outburst of violence from Vogel's character. I think that Vpgel is usually best when he plays criminals, really despicable characters as his physicality just fits them so nicely. So he was definitely one of the better aspects of the film. Of course, Götz George is good as always, even if the way his character was written was far from convincing and at times just felt like a poor recycled version of Schimanski. But that's what it is. In terms of Thomass, I have been fairly critical about her on other projects and while she wasn't really bad here, she never really made an impact either. I see no range in her and just cannot understand her popularity at all. Maybe that's just me. Aside from that, the supporting plots in here were fairly underwhelming. This also includes the one with Kockisch, but I am never sure with him if he is a good actor or not. His Donna Léon stuff sure isn't watchworthy, but I am amazed by how young he looks for his age. Overall, the film got worse and worse the longer it went. This also had to do with the lack of Vogel's character in scenes in the second half of the movie. A bit of a shame. I think there was the potential for a better work, but the strong final scene once again is not enough to make up for all the mediocrity before that. I thumbs-down from me. Not recommended.