Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

abisio A powerful man kills a young guy; but his young orphan girlfriend witness everything. The witness must be kill. An ex-soldier protects the girl. Looks like a typical action movie but it is not exact;u that.There very violent shootouts scenes and body count in the hundreds; but also overlong dramatic scenes with others probably oversweet for its own good; but however the movie works. Even when 10 to 15 trimming will make it almost perfect; you cannot stop watching it.Til Schweiger (who also directs and produce) is more a tormented man than a killer machine. He can carry the movie easily; but Moritz Bleibtreu is who really steal the movie even in a very short part.Luna Schweiger (Til's real life daughter ) is quite credible as the girl; but we never see her as a truly rebel as originally depicted.In brief; it is not a great movie; but not a "macho" movie either. You can see with your wife and she will enjoyed too.

kosmasp Another reviewer wrote that Til S. knows what he's doing. And I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about the fact, that he's casting his daughter in every movie he's in (German movie that is), the last couple of years. Will Smith seems to be doing the same thing in America, so you can't blame him for that. You also should consider the sound effects and the way the action scenes are shot. He knows how to copy Hollywood and make it believable in a German setting (movie wise that is, not that this is close to any reality in Germany).But when it comes to story and character, this is as weak as they come. Casting Moritz Bleibtreu in this seems almost unnecessary. Not casting actual action performers from Germany is a real omission (Mathis Landwehr to name one!)! Acting also doesn't help, especially Schweigers daughter is off (but if you've seen the other movies you knew that). That won't change the fact, that anything Schweiger touches turns into gold (or at least German box office gold)

katka-klimo If I didn't have to travel an hour across a border to see this film and then another hour back, I'd go and see it a second time. I really liked it - and there were not many films I went to see twice in a cinema. The only one I recall was one I've seen 11 years ago. Despite a fairly predictable story and a load of stereotypical stuff you'll see in every other made-in-US movie, it still has o lot to offer and will keep your attention every second of it's length. Realistic characters with nicely presented relationships make the film very emotional, so that some people will even cry. The characters are very likable, their feelings are moving, it recognizes other psychological problems for ex-soldiers than just drinking alcohol. The film is not overloaded with breathtaking CGI, explosions and non-stop brainless action, yet it doesn't get boring at any point. Schweiger invested considerable time and effort in training with weapons under the supervision of professionals, firing thousands of shots. Because of this, you will not see any ridiculous stunts, magazines are reloaded as they should be and there are no stupid dialogs about who is about to die and how. The are also no fill-ins in form of uselessly repeated scenes typical for some low-cost films. The film flows at a more or less constant speed, action scenes changing with non-action dialogs in smaller portions and delivers good value entertainment. Also, luckily, the typically German personality apparently went on vacation. Maybe it was intentional - to make it more likable in the rest of the world, or because the story was partially written by non-German authors. Whatever. I mean - let's face it: who'd want to watch a 135 minute film loaded with poker-faced old know-better geezers. I thought it deserves a 6, but I so long to see it again, that I guess it should have a 7 for that ...or perhaps an 8?

zuriel First of all, you have to give Till Schweiger some credit for trying to film a decent action movie that takes place in a German environment. The film almost worked out okay, it is a good try. What is very strange about "Schutzengel", is that Schweiger just copied and transferred classic US-action-movie-virtues totally unfiltered into his film: First, you have all kinds of smart hollywoodesque patterns dropped by different characters. Problem is, that those kind of lines really don't come out cool when a stiff German says them. German is just not the language for that kind of talk. It made me only feel embarrassed for the actors. Then the choices of characters are very "American": You have the tough ex-soldier, the tough righteous woman lawyer, the immoral bad guy's lawyer, the purely evil bad guy, a dirty politician and a crazy crippled ex-comrade. Most of the characters are shallow and you couldn't care less about them, by the way. However, some of the dialog works but for instance the repartee between the lawyers is over the top and would be appropriate for maybe a "Michael Clayton" but certainly not for this environment. For no reason at all, the bad guy sometimes even switches into English („What the fu.k?"). Then there are these corny moments that everyone knows from almost every action movie: a cop on his last day tells somebody how much he is looking forward to go on a trip with his beloved wife just before getting shot by some bad guy etc. I don't want to put spoilers in here so I'll just give away that there is a moment like this in the film - awkwardly staged and very, very obvious. You don't know and thus really don't care about the character before he gets killed, so Schweiger tries to use his klutzy fist to punch some empathy right into your stomach. This try, off course, is in vain and so bad, that it cost the film at least two stars. You are actually glad the guy dies for Schweiger used him to spice up his film with some pubertal fart jokes. And last but certainly not least, Schweiger uses the Bundeswehr, the German army, as background for his main character and his best buddy that helps him and the girl during the movie. Heroic soldiers, that proudly served their country… This is naturally very appropriate in US-films- it comes with the culture. If you do such a thing in a German production, though, it just seems weird, out of place and improperly propagandistic. Giving a character a war- backstory wound is not such a bad idea, especially when traumatized ex-soldiers are still a pretty new thing in Germany. But the way it's presented here is just superficial and has nothing to do with anything in the film. At some point someone says about the main character, "He always was a soldier, he always will be…he's a warrior". I think it is safe to say that in Germany there isn't anybody who is a "true" soldier for life and a real warrior. This again has to do with our understanding of this countries past and would rather fit to an US-soldier. I also found the cinematography during dialogues is way too close-up. If it was a TV-movie I'd understand due to the limitation of the smaller screens. But on the big screen I felt a little annoyed having to be way too close to the characters. All these close-ups also bare the problem, that during dialogues, the cutting from one character away to the other and back, is really hard to follow: One face would fill out the right side of the screen and the other would fill the left side, which forces the audience to turn their heads as fast as when watching a tennis match. Also, the editor must have had a hard time editing the dialogues due to mistakes or so, since he cuts away between the talking instantly without any obvious). In addition the editing of the action sequences where just confusing and made no sense at all: People were shooting in different directions and a lot of times you had to wonder what they are shooting at. I guess, they tried a "Quantum of Solace"-thing, where the editing was crazy fast. But it didn't work out for them in "Schutzengel". However, all in all, I am convinced that the script was written to be shot in the US. I am sure the script was written in English originally taking place in an US-environment. That would explain the scene in the American-style dinner, the American cars and some of the props they used in the main character's best buddies house which looked like it was in the Midwest and not Brandenburg anyway. They probably couldn't get a green light in Hollywood so they just translated the script and changed the setting to Germany. Eventually, after having good revenues over here, they will remake "Schutzengel" over there, I am sure. As I always say, you have to respect Schweiger for what he is trying to do. In the end he usually succeeds. At least, it was an interesting Try – kind of.