Hotdog (4 Stars)

When I moved to Germany 18 months ago I thought I would be watching a lot of German films in the cinema. Even though I'm watching more than I did while I was in England it's not as many as I expected. More than 100 films are made in Germany every year, of which most are shown in the cinemas, so I could theoretically watch 50 to 70 German films every year. As it was, I watched exactly 12 German films in the cinema last year. I suppose one a month isn't bad.

"Hotdog" is my third German film this year, so let's see if I can keep up the pace. It's a comedy starring the two top German actors Til Schweiger and Matthias Schweighöfer, with Heino Ferch in a smaller role. German comedies are always a hit or miss affair, but this is a well made film that kept the audience in stitches.

Luke and Theo both work for a fictional elite German police squad in Berlin. Luke (Til Schweiger) is a determined hard cop who never fails in a mission, however many bad guys he has to shoot in the process. Theo (Matthias Schweighöfer) is a nerd with a photographic memory who joined the police to impress his father, but he has none of the skills needed to be a uniformed offer, so he's kept indoors in charge of the station's weapons.

Luke is disciplined after he saves hostages from a museum, but clumsily destroys millions of Euros worth of artefacts in the process. He's put on guard duty at the Bellevue Palace, the home of the German President. Theo has been begging for outside duty for months, so he's also stationed as a guard. It's a boring job, because nothing ever happens. At least, nothing usually happens. On their first day the President of Moldavia is visiting with his family, and a terrorist group kidnaps his daughter. Luke and Theo are suspended because of their failure to stop the terrorists.

Being suspended doesn't stop a determined cop like Luke from doing what's right. He sees it as his moral duty to find the president's daughter, and Theo teams up with him. With the assistance of a computer hacker they go into action.

The situation comedy is hilarious. Most of the humour is in the clash of the two buddy cops. Luke considers Theo inexperienced and incompetent, while Theo considers Luke to be a reckless rule breaker. They're both right.

German critics have slammed this film for being "too American". Why is that a problem? That's probably the reason why it's so funny. I can verify that the cinema audience loved it.