Zeiten ändern Dich (2010) Reviews

• The problem of this movie is Bushido...

  xanten-edmund2010-02-08

  It's easy to understand the dilemma of this movie. Although it was produced and written by German veteran Bernd Eichinger and directed by Uli Edel, who brought us 'Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo', the fact that it is with and about German rapper Bushido kills off their momentum. In fact, I assume, that all efforts of making an 8-mile-like biopic about Bushido are simply money-related. This movie and the upcoming Bushido album are supposed to create a synergy, that equals a cash printing license. This alone would be business, but the problem is, as I mentioned, Bushido himself. To make a biopic about someone, that someone needs to have an interesting story. And quite frankly: Bushido, or Anis, does not. The overall ark about his father problems is way too thin to hold all of it together and where Eminem was living in a real sh*t hole in 8 Mile, Bushido had a caring mother, a relatively stable youth and no real back story, why he became what he is today. To link 9/11 with his initial decision to begin with rap, is in case it is just storytelling very dumb. If it is actually true, it proves my point, that his story is not worth making a movie about. Given the basics of Bushidos relatively uninspired life, the script can't be good - Eichinger tried as hard as he could to give the film some structure, but it doesn't work out. That leads to uninspired performances by all German veteran actors in Zeiten ändern dich, like Hannelore Elsner and Moritz Bleibtreu. And than there is Bushidos own acting. The final scene with his father that is supposed to show some sense of forgiveness is a perfect example for it: He just doesn't deliver. It should have been the most important bit of the movie, but it lacks emotion and... yes, acting abilities. 1/10 is my vote for this one. Not because it is a real 1/10, maybe it would be up to 2 or 3. It's because it has a crew and cast, who could have easily delivered a really good film - one that had a real story to tell. Eichinger produced the Oscar-nominated Downfall and now it comes to this... a all time low in his career.

• What i liked about the movie...

  bodo132010-02-07

  ...nothing. There is so much bad acting of the main character, it is just funny (even if not intended). I do not write this often, but this is probably the worst movie ever. Even in P*en Movies there is better acting, better looking actors and even more meaningful dialogs. The Story is that there is no story. The Gangsta-Rapper pretends to be a tough boy and shows the world how he can sell drugs and keep talking nicely to his mom. Don't waste your time watching this!

• A total ...

  theraptor-22010-03-25

  ... train wreck. Dunno where to start, really. Avoid at all costs. I have to add ten lines of text, so I'll say that producer Bernd Eichinger and director Uli Edel probably wanted to print money quickly on the relative popularity of vulgar talk singer Anis Ferchichi, aka "Bushido". However, "Bushido's" star seems to be sinking, maybe because it's hard to keep streetcred with mostly immigrant youth when the cultural and political elite is kissing your behind. And the ruling party, the "Christian-Democratic-Union" invites you to join its ranks. Add to that 13 cases of proved (and costly) plagiarism and maybe the film came out a few moths late for making money. Despite its seeming to have been hastily produced. Meh, this time stealer will soon be forgotten like its subject.

• In one word: Pathetic

  t_atzmueller2014-11-16

  People who are interested in French movies might recall the 1995 movie „La Haine", about the everyday life of a group of „social misfits" in the seedier part of Paris Don't let the word "gangsta" fool you. "Gangsta" stands for social ghettos in the big cities, where the immigrant youth lives in relative (financial- and social-security-wise) comfort and have nothing better to do than to imagine the run-down neighborhoods to be real ghettos like they have them in the States. This includes mimicking (if not to say "aping") American Rap- and Hip-Hop-culture, which to them implies loitering in the streets, trying to look tough (the "crime-scenes" are generally limited to stealing bikes and selling marijuana) and producing an embarrassing imitation of Hip Hop music. In other words: these kids wouldn't last 24 hours in a real ghetto, be it in Britain or the slums surrounding Paris, let alone the "real deal" in the US. As to the music: I'm not the biggest fan of Hip Hop but understand the appeal it has to the audience and find myself intrigued by the often poetic lyrical content. What is megalomaniacal labelled "Deutsch-Rap" is an embarrassing stutter, accompanied by loose wiggling of fingers in an attempt to ape gang-signs and the "provocation" of the lyrics is limited to adding as many profanities as you can. Anis Ferchichi (whose "street-name" Bushido would normally put a chuckle on your face, if it wouldn't continue to appear in the tabloids und so-called "Unterschichten-TV" now and again) tries to come across as some kind of Enimem-Rapper, but fails at all levels, be it acting, rapping or conveying any sense of charisma. It's a performance that can only defined by the word "embarrassing", whether you like his music or not. The real tragedy is the participation of people like Hannelore Elsner, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ulli Edel (hard to believe that this is the same director who gave us "Christiane F: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) and Bernd Eichinger (this being one of his final productions), who are otherwise accomplished players in the German film-industry and should have known better than to associate themselves with tripe like this. But I guess it's kind of telling where the money ranks in the overall scheme. In other words: it's right "up there" with films like the Justin Bieber vehicle "Never Say Never" or Ulli Lommels "Daniel der Zauberer" (which, if memory serves, are all rightfully united in the IMDb Bottom-100-List). 1/10

• "Zeiten ändern dich", but the movie doesn't

  miakaw2010-02-08

  First of all I have to admit the movie was somehow entertaining, otherwise I probably would not have watched it until the end. I appreciate most of the movies by Bernd Eichinger. And since I've been interested in the beginning of Bushidos rap career, also his personal backgrounds, I were pretty curious about this film. Unfortunately i had to observe that the movie regardlessly skips several important events and persons which contributed a lot to pave the way for Bushido's success. And these are not the only aspects which Bushido obviously liked to cut out. The whole movie seems to be like a commercial for Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi. But the problem about commercials is their missing story. The film consists of a succession of petty scenes which are unrelated to the title and the purposed intension. The only thing that changed over time is the relation between the protagonist and his father and I strongly doubt this is worth making a movie about it. The extremely poor acting by Bushido and his colleagues even affects the performances of other the other actors which are usually very good. Most of the scenes are totally affected and superfluous.. as for instance the one in which some random guy is looking for his fiancée which is gang-banged in a tour bus. The major problem about 'Zeiten ändern dich' is that the movie is clearly a fairy tale, although it's not meant to be one. Even though I'd assume every scene really happened as shown, most of them are simply insignificant and not relevant for the story. Bushido want's to tell a story, but all that remains are phrases like 'Respekt war schon immer eine Sache, die wichtig war für mich.' He wants to tell how he finally grew up but leaves us with a feeling that he still didn't.