Arschkalt (2011) Reviews

• Strong Knaup is not enough

  Horst_In_Translation2016-04-20

  "Arschkalt", which means roughly translated "Cold as ****", is a German movie from 5 years ago. The writer and director is André Erkau and this was his second full feature film. I already mentioned him in the title, the lead actor is Herbert Knaup and his face is fairly famous here in Germany, even if his name maybe isn't. He has been in the movie industry for a long time ("Lola rennt" for example) and his experience clearly shows in this film here. He is almost the only positive aspect and as I like him I may even be a bit biased saying this. I thought co-lead Johannes Allmayer, who was mostly included for comedic purposes here, did not manage the portrayal of the mix between drama and comedy very well and was possibly the weakest factor. Elke Winkens is the female with the most screen time and she is okay with what she is given, but suffers from how badly her character was written. The romance part never felt authentic or interesting I must say. The best part in this one was certainly the drama. I liked the story about the protagonist and his dad. But the comedy almost never worked and the drama also did not work on all occasions. I have seen some of Erkau's later work and I must say at least he improved afterward. Then again, I have only seen "Das Leben ist nichts für Feiglinge" and this one is far from perfect too, just better than "Arschkalt". There were some good moments and some bad, but overall the bad is more frequent and I feel kinda sorry for Knaup here. He was pretty good with his character and with a better supporting cast and especially a better script, this could have been a really good watch. But the way it actually turned out, it was extremely forgettable. This film left me cold for the most part and I give it a thumbs-down. Luckily, it barely makes it past the 80-minute mark.