Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Beste Gegend" is a German film from 2008, so this one will have its 10th anniversary next year. This is the second of so far three films from the series and the time gap between films 1 and 2 is tiny compared to the one between 2 and 3. Marcus H. Rosenmüller returns as director of course and the script is by Karin Michalke again. Like the first, it runs for roughly 1.5 hours, slightly over actually. Anna Maria Sturm and Rosalie Thomass play the two young women again that are in the center of the story. In the first film, the focus was almost entirely on Sturm's character, but in this one here it is fairly equal. Maybe they realized already that Thomass had more potential if we are looking at where the two are today in terms of popularity. Or the reason could also have been that they saw that Sturm has hardly any talent or range and looking at how limited of an actress Thomass is, it's really painful to see how they managed to get a co-lead for this franchise that is even worse. The contents in here are about (failed) A-Levels, illness of family members, a planned trip abroad and about conflict rising and the two girls also having an argument while everything in the first 90 minutes was peaceful and harmony. Needless to say that these scenes here feel just rushed in, unauthentic and for the sake of it. With what happens to the grandpa, you'd expect them to stick together now more than ever, but that would have been boring and not worth telling however, so lets just have them hate each other now and for the sake of a forced and unrealistic ending that will satisfy the simple masses have them reunite quickly again as if nothing happened, but of course so much happened actually, so their friendship is even stronger now. Truly cringeworthy stuff just like everything about the male characters in the female characters' lives, especially the football references. Again the only quality aspect here that stays is probably the beautiful countryside of Bavaria. Everything else is either forgettable or garbage, such as the highly pretentious quotes by Thomass' character when she is on the plane at the very end. I was incredibly close to a */***** rating here. Lets hope the long gap before film 3 helped them in actually finally inserting some quality in this "Beste" series. This one here is much closer to "Schlechteste". Highly not recommended.
stef-123
I think the movie is really amazing. The beautiful scenery combined with the lots and lots of metamorphoses in the movie and all the questions about growing up makes it to one that never will (or at least never should) be out of time.It was a pleasure to see the making of video and see with how much passion this movie was created. People who like the movie, should really get the DVD and watch the extras.It's a true tribute to movies that will remain on topic and interesting forever.Stef
