Ken Folletts Eisfieber (2010)

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

"Eisfieber" is a German German-language film from 2010, so this one has its 7th anniversary this year. The director is Peter Keglevic and the script is actually by quite a few writers and this quantity makes it especially shocking how bland it all turned out. One of them is Ken Follett, maybe the most known name attached to this project, and I must say that I have not read the original novel, so no idea if the fault is already there. The dramatic moments almost all felt for the sake of it and it is certainly not helping either that this is really two films in one at a running time of three hours in total, which means it really did drag a lot. German big name actors Lauterbach and Schilling plus Brandt, maybe the most talented from the bunch, could not elevate the weak material and so the film was slowly dripping ahead in its everlasting mediocrity and insignificance. It never even comes close to achieving the thrill it was so desperately going for on many occasions. Even from the atmospheric side, it was a disappointment because it also was never beautiful to look at and the aura of suspense that may have helped the film was missing entirely. In my opinion, there is a great feeling of daytime television to how it looks and what it feels like, stuff like "Days of our Lives" and sorry, that's not a compliment in this context. The dubbing here wasn't a work of genius either. Overall, I must say that 4 stars out of 10 is really still on the generous side and I think the best decision is to skip it. It also doesn't get better in the second half. Yeah go for something else instead.

It took 13 years after "The Third Twin" to put another Follett Novel on the screen - okay a little TV screen. Whiteout is a fast paced real time thriller novel, which was somehow optioned by two German Companies. Network Movie & Constantin Television. (Two rival TV-Producer on the same film,I suppose they shared the film rights cost...)Anyways, the result is a 2 x 90 Min. TV feature of mediocre quality. Casting is Eurotrash, involving an Italian actress who is the love interest to a German actor. Boy those two must have hated each other - no chemistry whatsoever.Tempo, Speed, Rhythm in the first part - less than zero. What a painful experience. Although the settings are nice, the directing by award wining Peter Keglevic, can pass by the plain awful script. Sped picks up in the second part, but it is too late. Damage has been done. Do not waste your time on this, it is a shame, such a bloody shame...