SYNOPSICS
Was tun, wenn's brennt? (2001) is a German movie. Gregor Schnitzler has directed this movie. Klaus Löwitsch,Til Schweiger,Martin Feifel,Sebastian Blomberg are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2001. Was tun, wenn's brennt? (2001) is considered one of the best Action,Comedy,Drama,Romance,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
What To Do In Case of Fire? tells the humorous and touching story of six former creative anarchists who lived as house squatters in Berlin during its heyday in the 80s when Berlin was still an island in the middle of the former eastern Germany. At the end of the 80s they went their separate ways with the exception of Tim and Hotte, who have remained true to their ideals and continue to fight the issues they did as a group. In 2000, with Berlin as Germany's new capital, an event happens forcing the group out of existential reason to reunite and, ultimately, come to grips with the reason they separated 12 years ago.
Was tun, wenn's brennt? (2001) Trailers
Was tun, wenn's brennt? (2001) Reviews
Entertaining movie. Histoically inaccurate.
OK. I just watched this film and, while it was an exciting action picture, it was horribly inaccurate. So bad in fact it was inexcusable. Had Hollywood turned out this crock, I could have forgiven them, but this was a German production and I expected a lot more from them. I lived in Berlin for most of the Eighties. Part of that time was spent in Kreutzberg, among the Anarchists. I knew many of them and even took part in some of their demos. I could write volumes on how these people think and act and, believe me, it was nothing like this movie depicted. In the movie, the characters were too clean and smart. Also they were all straight and the girls were pretty. And they were quite capable of launching a James Bond style breaking to a top security police fortress. In reality they were dirty, burnt-out looking, as often as not gay/lesbian and didn't mind flirting it. Many were drug users, came from broken homes, were sexually abused as kids, and had the organizing skills of Beavis and Butthead. If the girls were half way decent looking, they were probably prostituting themselves or working in strip shows to make a living. Nearly all of them were on welfare. Not to mention the frequent riots and vandalism that came with the lifestyle. Certainly nothing like the happy-go-lucky characters the movie depicts. I never ever heard of any Anarchists moving out and becoming Yuppies. Not even in the Nineties. Usually they just stayed in place until they were forced out of their squats and into concrete block neighborhoods in East Berlin. Also the police are not that stupid. Nobody ever broke into Tempelhof and stole the riot trucks or blew up the archives. Get real! This stuff never happened and should not be depicted as though it did. The worst part of it for me is that back then, the media depicted the Anarchists as the lowest trash who should be locked up immediately or disposed of by any means necessary. Now they are cashing in on them by making action movies with sexy Anarchist good guys. It's as if, 10 years from now, Hollywood made an action movie featuring Osama Bin Laden and his Mujahadeen as the good guys and put Michelle Yeoh in as the female lead. That bad! Enjoy this movie but History it ain't!
Annoying die-hard "revolutionaries"
During the early 80s, squatters in Berlin have been mostly students on an adventure holiday, some years later they were mostly full time bums on a permanent "Do you have a Mark to spare"-quest. They had their fair amount of street fighting activities, their weapon of choice was the cobble, and sometimes they threw it through the glass of a bank building. But they were no terrorists. Maybe wannabe revolutionaries, in their dreams. Nobody took them really serious. Now some of them seem to have made this movie. Just let me tell you what happens during the first 15 minutes. A group of Berlin squatters decides to blow up an empty old villa. Must be a very evil villa, because basically squatting was about saving empty buildings from neglect. They do an amateur movie about this heroic deed, maybe they think there is a market for Building-Snuff-Videos. Their bomb doesn't explode. They don't care, they just forget about the whole thing. Even though the entrance they took was very obvious and easy to detect, the next 13 years nobody enters the villa. Not even the real estate agent who in 2000 wants to show it to a client. Why should she make sure that there are no unpleasant surprises waiting inside, like squatters, homeless, garbage, animals, broken mains, collapsing floors ... ? The main door will not open, so the client uses some force to open it, and the old bomb, that had been waiting patiently behind it, finally explodes. He and the real estate newbie get slightly hurt. The client has been a government big shot. Hell breaks loose, police raids start. Of course, amongst their prime suspects are two veteran squatters, who still stay at a formerly occupied tenement-house. The police confiscates .... all of their super-8-films. Believe me, they really do, I'm not making this up, it's even the main part of the plot: The Berlin police in the year 2000, looking for some bomb-building terrorists confiscates the 80s super-8-films of some broken down bums. Please don't ask why. But imagine how the authors and producers had to get people interested in such a story. And they succeeded, which is even more unlikely. The two die-hard squatters will try to get the band together again and rescue what contained once proud memories of their glory days and now fatal evidence of their stupidity from the well guarded chambers of the police. By now you will know that you are not watching a movie, but are instead trapped inside the dream of some pathetic drunken 80s squatters, "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes". Frightening? No, just a strange and boring childish mind-scape. I realize that there really IS a market for stuff like this, the infamous lovers of dilettantish and inane films. Here they'll find a lot for their liking. This is a very, VERY bad movie, and by all means, they should check it out.
Enjoyable, albeit a bit Hollywoodish
It's 1987 in Germany, and the social problems reach a point where there are constant riots and chaos. In the middle of this problems, a group of 6 radical anarchists created a bomb that never exploded... 12 years later the bomb explodes and all the clues point to them. Now they must reunite, and try to eliminate the proofs because now they have grown up, some have children, some have promising careers... and some got stunk in the past. "Was tun, wenn's brennt?" is a very good movie by promising director Gregg Schnitzler that tells the story of this band of former radicals after 12 years of changes, social and personal. The movie flows at good pace, with good humor and feel-good attitude. Add to the mix an attractive young cast and you get this light comedy. Probably, that is both its greatest attribute and its greatest flaw: the fact that it has a lot of potential for being a deep character study filled with dark humor, but instead chooses the way of being a light hearted comedy with an upbeat tone. The movie has very good camera-work, although it has that Hollywoodish feeling that may turn some people away. Those "Hollywood" moments are what probably hurt the film the most, with clichéd scenes that distract us from the point for the sake of getting emotions. Besides its light tone, the movie manages to deliver its message; past returns to burn you. While Tim (Til Schweiger) and Hotte (Martin Feifel) are still living in the past, the rest of the gang tries to forget it, and ultimately it returns to burn them. The acting was actually better than expected, with Matthias Matschke as Terror, the former punk turned lawyer (!) stealing every scene he is in. Also, it is worth mentioning the appearance of Klaus Löwitsch as an old cop who still remembers those days before the fall of the wall. Overall an enjoyable movie that despite its Hollywoodish tone (complete with feel-good ending), it manages to be fresh and more inventive that most Hollywood light comedies. It's definitely worth a rent. 7/10
Great great great
'What to do in case of fire' is an amazingly honest movie dealing with the anarchy past in Berlin pre reunification. A group of six ex-anarchists have a 'little' problem when a 12 year old bomb suddenly explodes in Berlin and they have to get a hold on a self-made movie showing evidence that they're responsible. While two of them are still active in demos and such, one is trying to hold on to her ideals while being a mother to two little children, the other three have completely turned away from their old ways and become 'respectable citizens'. This is the entertaining part, seeing these very different persons to come back together again and try to get their hide out of the situation without going to jail. But if you look deeper, this is a movie about the difference of people still living in the past and on the other hand people trying to forget their past, showing us that neither way will work. It is simple to sympathize with the group, for their reluctance to hurt people, their very normal lives and their wish to change something in a world they don't feel they can accept.
Terrific Characters
The films that I have seen out of Germany are limited I admit, but the ones I have been seeing are just wonderful. I have added to my list of German favorites which include RUN LOLA RUN and THE HARMONISTS, the charming an edgy dramedy WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF FIRE? The characters in this film simply crackle. The plot about a reunion of 80's anarchists zooms along to its conclusion. The film is both funny and real.