User Reviews

This one we got here is a new German kids movie (2017) that was made by Theede and Ahner and even if these two are fairly experiences, then you will still find more than just a few films in their bodies of work that were garb.. ummm.. forgettable. And this one here is still a definite contender for being the worst for everybody who worked on it. The child actors are truly limited, their characters are fairly annoying and the story is just a gigantic mess plus at least one scene out of three is a major failure because it's entirely unrealistic and stupid or because it has kids acting and talking in a way they never would in real life. One example would be the first scene with the kid who joins the gang and starts talking like some poet. No comment either on the IT equipment in the kids' headquarter or the skills of the boy with the glasses. It just didn't make any sense at all. Police are depicted like idiots from the very first scene when they arrest two older teenagers who did absolutely nothing from a criminal perspective, but hey the annoying kids won by gaining time, so it's all good. The fire scene is a complete joke. Who cares if the girl almost dies because she has to save a horse and I say that as somebody who loves Shetland Ponies. The scene with the young sister hiding from the bad guys is another joke. He does not realize somebody started the application for a long time despite it being in the center of the room. The scene with all the security guys near the end who look like complete idiots. And there is much more. The cook character, a bit of a Boo Radley equivalent. And there were also several factual errors like for example the second time they are in the cave the tape says "ihr" instead of "du" because there are several kids. Explain that by motion activation too? You gotta be kidding me. So yes this was a really really bad film and there was cringe every 2 minutes maybe. If you decide to see these 95 minutes and you really shouldn't, then you will know what I mean. Luckily I forgot most of it too. Oh yeah the Wackernagel plot. Mother spontaneously decides to join a teacher on a class trip and starts making out with him regardless of the two being surrounded by all these kids. What the hell? Also the drama surrounding this "romance" story was cringeworthy. The kids romance part was hardly any better. Sounstrack was horrible too, the way it really tried to add Mission Impossible level to any of these scenes. As if there was any way to take it seriously as a drama. Or the way those kids are walking around arrogantly posing like they were cool or bad-ass. God I cannot eat as much as I want to vomit. Now I have not seen the television show, long-running actually, this film is based on, but from what I saw here there's no way I will anytime soon. Kinda sad to see talented actors like Striesow or von Borsody attached to this project, not too surprised about Wackernagel or Luca though as it fits in nicely with some other horrible stuff they have done. Still Borsody is maybe the best thing overall about this one here and her quote about how a bunch of kids could never take on a global enterprise is the closest thing to truth you will find in these 1.5 hours. Too bad the filmmakers behind it don't understand a thing about that. There are many many good German kids films from recent years, but this one here is the opposite, the exception that proves the rule perhaps. Stay far far away and I hope they won't make a sequel here. Then again, it's close to impossible for it to be even worse. Even the title reference about that black king may sound good, but the way it was handled and included in this movie... Just no words. Needless to say that shades in the characters are also completely non-existent. They are either all good or all bad, nothing in between. Such an uninspired failure of a film. Highly not recommended.