Liebling, lass die Hühner frei (TV Movie 2017) Poster

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2/10
Let them go and don't let them return, so there won't be a fourth film
Horst_In_Translation3 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
"Liebling, lass die Hühner frei" is the third and most likely final film from the Liebling/Hühner (darling/chicken) film series. This one was released in November 2017, so it is almost 2.5 years old now already. Not too much. The director here is Oliver Schmitz and actually looking at his experience and his body of work, I am a bit surprised to see him as the director of this film where it was clear from the beginning this is not going to be a great watch. By the way, each of the films had a different director. And the writing staff also changed, even if Rainer Kaufmann was on board every time. This is a bit special because the trilogy already started in 2002, which means 15 years before this third installment. And a lot changed since then. For example the late Barbara Rudnik played the female central character from the grown-ups and they had to replace her with Katja Flint in films 2 and 3. The only truly steady factor from the cast was Axel Milberg. The kids changed as well. This is a bit of a pity in my opinion. It could have been nice if they had taken the Boyhood approach and cast the same actors (especially child actresses) for every movie. So we could have seen them grow up over the years. But each film has new child actors unfortunately. This probably also has to do with the fact that in the movie it wasn't 15 years between the first and third installment. The characters have aged less, which is especially visible for the children. I think it is a bit of a pity. Anyway, I have seen the second film a few months ago and the third now. The first I haven't come across yet on German television, maybe because it is soon 20 years old and they are showing it only really rarely now. I wonder what the quality is in that one with which it all started. I think the second was already fairly weak, but at least it had the likes of Liv Lisa Fries (a fairly big star now) and a much better story. This most recent installment is just a mess.

Like the others it runs for 1.5 hours, slightly under. There are many issues in here. The family doing what they can to help their hometown. Unwanted pregnancy. A character who stopped his studies to become a horror filmmaker. A big wedding anniversary. A script that should (not) be turned into a book. And so on. Definitely too much for 90 minutes or let's say it would have required a really big challenge and massive talent to turn it into a credible movie. This kind of talent is certainly not present, especially in terms of the ways in which the story was written here. It did not surprise me though. I still remember I kinda liked the child actresses in the second film. Here they are mostly bland as well. The acting is sometimes over the top too, like in that scene when one character confesses to her mother that she is pregnant. Millberg, however, is cool as always. It almost feels as if he is just chilling and relaxing in the background and as if he knows that this is not going to be a good movie, so why put any effort in. Reality, however, is that the character was just written that way and there as not too much left for him. This felt pretty true for almost everybody else though too, but they were trying and it stayed an unsuccessful attempt. The title of my review already implies that this is certainly an example of a series that peaked (way) before this movie and maybe already the second film was one too many. Or maybe the first even who knows. But this third film here absolutely should never have been made and those who who had the power to decide and gave the writers and director green light should be fired from their jobs. In its better moments, this film here is still weak and uninteresting, in its worse moments it feels completely fake and unrealistic. Shameful German television stations force us to pay roughly 10 bucks each month for garbage movies like this. A true scandal. It's not an issue for the cast and crew here as they will always find new jobs. The real losers here, those who have to pay (in the literary sense as well), are the audience. Highly not recommended. Oh yeah, the chicken reference here is also barely existent. One character says that she wants these cute cluffy tiny yellow ones and that's it. And the parents constantly talking about how they should not get too much involved with their kids' lives and then still getting involved (especially the mother) is just really cringeworthy. Same is true when we see the horror splatter movie (which wasn't even splatter) from the son's perspective. He is the director. And with the forced happy ending we are supposed to believe he even has talent, which we earlier see is definitely not the case. Okay, enough now. I guess you get the point. This is a film with which you want to make sure 100% that you keep your distance. Do not watch under any circumstance, probably not even if you liked the previous installments. This one here is still a step down on the quality ladder.
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