I never leave a movie before it finishes, but if I did, I may have done it here and I'd have missed a rise in quality. Thankfully the writer's intentions of relying completely on vulgar humor and stupid pranks to carry the movie quickly changed for the better. "Fack ju Göhte" is by the most commercially successful German movie of the year. So that means, we'll probably get a sequel no later than 2016, even if Elyas M'Barek, who reunited with director Bora Dagtekin from their movie and TV series Türkisch für Anfänger, just stated he's kinda sick of making films. The only real question open to be answered is if it can beat "Django Unchained" as the most-seen movie in German cinemas 2013. The question I have, however, is: Why? Why? Why? "Fack Ju Göhte" is by no means a terrible film (although you could probably say that for the first 30-45 minutes which was one of the worst I've seen all year and I've seen many), but it's not even close to the best German films from 2013. I wonder if a controversial title these days is enough to get people in millions into theaters. It's not even that the movie stays equally controversial from start to finish. Neither the parts of the lead character's emotional growing up, nor the funny parts, nor the romance parts were something that I would even consider even remotely great.
I saw another user compare it to the German classic "Die Lümmel von der ersten bank", but I personally rather thought of "Keinohrhasen". Not only does Alwara Höfels, who did nothing for me here except drooling and letting everybody in the audience know what a stud M'Barek's character is, play a slightly crasser version of her character in that movie, but the story is essentially the same. Ruthless guy with no manners meets nerdy kindergärtner/teacher (ugly duckling who slowly turns into beautiful swan), grows closer with her always in danger of falling back into old schemes. I certainly preferred "Keinohrhasen" though. The lead performances, writing and attention to detail felt simply more credible to me. Maybe I'd consider the supporting players from "Fack ju Göhte" almost equal to Kavanian, Rohde, Schweighöfer and Vogel as Jella Haase and Katja Riemann did a fine job with what they were given. Haase's performance and also the "Romeo&Juliet" play made the development of the problem class the most interesting part of the film for me, more than the romance or Zeki's character development. With that scene where he fired early on out of the window, I immediately had to think of Fiennes' balcony scene from "Schindler's List". Not sure if that was intended though.
Anyway, all in all it's an okay movie and even if I'm baffled by its audience numbers, it can make for a good watch if you don't expect something substantial, but just pointless fun.
I saw another user compare it to the German classic "Die Lümmel von der ersten bank", but I personally rather thought of "Keinohrhasen". Not only does Alwara Höfels, who did nothing for me here except drooling and letting everybody in the audience know what a stud M'Barek's character is, play a slightly crasser version of her character in that movie, but the story is essentially the same. Ruthless guy with no manners meets nerdy kindergärtner/teacher (ugly duckling who slowly turns into beautiful swan), grows closer with her always in danger of falling back into old schemes. I certainly preferred "Keinohrhasen" though. The lead performances, writing and attention to detail felt simply more credible to me. Maybe I'd consider the supporting players from "Fack ju Göhte" almost equal to Kavanian, Rohde, Schweighöfer and Vogel as Jella Haase and Katja Riemann did a fine job with what they were given. Haase's performance and also the "Romeo&Juliet" play made the development of the problem class the most interesting part of the film for me, more than the romance or Zeki's character development. With that scene where he fired early on out of the window, I immediately had to think of Fiennes' balcony scene from "Schindler's List". Not sure if that was intended though.
Anyway, all in all it's an okay movie and even if I'm baffled by its audience numbers, it can make for a good watch if you don't expect something substantial, but just pointless fun.