Free Rainer

This movie is what it claims to be! It does not claim to be realistic, it claims to be a funny revenge story on somewhat, what really needs to be revenged. This movie is not education, it's only a very small part and a wet revenge dream against the other part on the scale pan, we see everyday: The awful TV program, which became our religion. And on the other side, where it should be in balance, but is not - it's like that: Total Trash. Incredibly stupid game shows, which try to force people to call and to give money for nothing, like for example: "Yes now you can win even more, tell me when do you have birthday!... 21. of August?! Oh i am so sorry, you would have won if it were the 31. of June." Or somewhat - the next superstar model casting shows. - Like it's so good to get money for doing nothing. TV became our religion, so that we reconstruct our world from, what we see and believe to be real a few people tell us so (not very normal people, who have much free time to do so). And the problem is, that we partly have to believe that it is real, so i just don't get the critique of some people "Weingartner used trash to bury trash"... The problem is - our world is slowly becoming trashier everyday. So what. Hit it with it. It's just a nice and funny movie, which unfolds to show a bit how it could be and that supposed clarification is never total. This movie has the claim, what i would call, to have a nicotine patch effect on the media world. It's not as good as a cigarette (which is trash) but it tries to help against the pain. And i think this effect is the reason for bad comments. Not for me - Because of the message - i like it and give it a ten plus.

Hans Weingartner's third movie is a harsh but highly legitimate comment on today's television program.

Unlike in "Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei" you could find many things to criticize here - while the comparison to that last movie can hardly be avoided. Much of "Free Rainer" has obviously been inspired by the same concepts, which could make you question how much inspiration there was behind this movie at all. You will find many points that leave a rather ambivalent impression concerning realism - the ending has to be called "fantasy like". At few points does the movie really convince with its' optimistic idea of how the characters and the whole scenario develops.

So what makes "Free Rainer" worth watching? Simple as often: It's the message behind all of this - which can only be understood as a comment on today's world of television. And as for this comment: There has since long not been said anything more important in a movie! Weingartner's portrait of a sick and sickening life standard drawn by the TV world is very close to reality. The rather negative way in which the TV executives appear might even be called too optimistic - while in the movie they seem just to be immoral and very well knowing what they do, reality might look somewhat worse: Most of the people in charge are probably acting in accordance to their very own moral principles.

One critic wrote "Weingartner's movie is a crude comment on an even cruder television". Very right!

A nice stab at what we get on our TVs. Apart from the commercials (and the fact that they cut movies in Germany to show them) it's the main reason I don't watch any TV anymore. "Reality" TV shows and other stuff have taken over. So the movie is still and will be relevant. Shouldn't it have impacted a lot more though and make people think about what they watch?

I don't think so and I don't really agree with where the movie goes towards the end. It takes the edge of a bit for me. Of course this only being a movie and only wanting to entertain is one thing. But I would have liked if it stayed as cynical as it started off. There are some phrases thrown in, that could spark discussions though (what was there first: bad programming or the viewers?). But again I don't agree with the answers the movie provides.

This film created quite some controversy. It really depends on how you see it. You shouldn't take it as a drama, that's for sure.

I just loved it! It has a great sense of humor. Many really dark humored scenes that made me laugh out aloud, just like the rest of the audience in the cinema I was in.

Some bourgeois critics didn't like it, but that for me is only a sign of the narrow mindedness of todays film critics. The film just doesn't follow any of today's rules of art-house cinema. Which is what made it such an refreshing experience to watch for me.

A crazy, wild piece of cinema with a strong political message. I liked it much more than "The Edukators", because it's more honest in a sense that it doesn't camouflage it's intent, and also because it's much more satirical.

Definitely fun to watch, positively a must-see.

We saw this film in a screening down at the film society. Loved it. This film is an excellent comment on the sick media world. Quite dramatic and brutal in the first part, warm and funny in the second. Full of mad ideas. A prankster movie and at the same time a political statement on the brainwash. Is it comedy? Drama? I don't know. Does it matter?

Definitely worth seeing. I also really loved it, because it's so different from the standard European art-house flicks. More fun, more diverse, crazier. A raw film. Moritz Bleibtreu, the male lead, seems to be one of Germany's finest. Camera is doc style, hand-held, but never nauseating.