Fack Ju Göhte 2 (2 Stars)

I praised "Fack Ju Göhte" as an example of a successful German comedy film. I'm afraid I can't say the same about the sequel. It's weaker because it doesn't have the romantic comedy element of the first film. The comedy relies on a series of slapstick scenes that are generally unrelated to one another.

In the first film the criminal Zeki Müller (Elyas M'Barak) accidentally becomes a high school teacher and wins the adoration of the rebellious class 10b as well as winning the heart of his fellow teacher Lisi Schnabelstedt (Karoline Herfurth). In the second film he's still working as a teacher and he's living with Lisi. He hides stolen diamonds in a stuffed animal, but this animal is donated to a school in Ban Mar, Thailand. To solve the problem he arranges a school trip to Thailand, and the chaos begins.

For some reason Karoline Herfurth's role in the film is reduced to a minimum. Lisi is supposed to travel to Thailand with the class, but someone puts a toy in her suitcase that looks like a hand grenade, so she's held up by airport security. We only see her in occasional Internet chats.

That's a shame. As a Karoline Herfurth fan I might have given the film an extra star if I'd seen her bikini body on the sunny Thailand beaches. No such luck.

Most of the humour is dull, but there's one short scene which made me laugh. Zeki says that he wants to quit as a teacher because he can't understand Goehte's "Faust", which he has to teach his class. It's a stupid book, too boring for him to read without falling asleep. The girls in his class help him by reading the book and writing a summary. He can use this summary to teach them about the book. That's cute.

I wish I could have rated this film higher, but I have to say it was a totally unnecessary sequel. The first film was perfect and should have been left alone. A third film has also been made, but I don't intend to watch it.

The film needed less Zeki...

and more Lisi!