The Good German 4K 2006 Ultra HD 2160p

The action unfolds in post-war Berlin, turned into ruins by World War II. American war correspondent Jake Geismar finds himself drawn into political games by his former lover Lena Brandt, whose missing husband is being sought by both the American and Soviet armies. The situation escalates as Jake tries to find out what Lena is hiding, desperate to escape Berlin with her husband.

User Review

Keeping in my heart the trembling memories of “Casablanca”, I sat down to watch this movie, anticipating an intense love story against the backdrop of the horrors of war. Black-and-white frames, inky shadows, anxious, post-war Germany, hopelessness and danger of invading arbitrary rule, a man and a woman separated and finding each other again....

I got nothing. Nothing at all, although a blatant rip-off of “Casablanca” could be traced every ten minutes, including the simply insulting finale on the runway. All that was missing was, “Louie, perhaps this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.” Clooney, wooden, inarticulate, passive, got a mighty kick in the ass from Humphrey Bogart, and Bergman smirked sardonically at Cate Blanchett. I, in turn, experienced a major bout of rage and frustration.

The stylization of the 40s is impeccably done, but with a weak, frankly uninteresting plot, there was not the slightest point in admiring the scenery. A war journalist returns to Berlin and finds his former lover. She seeks to escape from Germany, and brazenly uses her current boyfriend. Soon he is removed from the scene, and she begins to brazenly use the hero Jordetz Clooney, again on the subject of going abroad. She has her reasons.

It's impossible to watch. The inexplicable green ennui is aggravated by the extremely inarticulate characters. By God, not people, but puppets. The movie itself is so inanimate and motionless that you can't help but wonder if the characters are alive. The patient is not breathing, the time of death... In the passivity of this “movie” one man is hundred times to blame, and his name is Tobey Maguire. After he explodes, releasing the “energy of a thousand stars”, and this happens at the very beginning of the 'movie', the reactor is knocked out, and Clooney and Blanchett, in total darkness and at the last breath, barely dragging their feet, dragged to the finish line. Zagrabastalasal himself all the energy, and took off, leaving behind a lifeless body - the brainchild of Soderbergh. And I don't care that the finale is over an hour away. Do what you want, I'm gone!

So it only makes sense to watch the movie for the first fifteen minutes. I rewatched those fifteen minutes twice. The second time I played it solely for Toby's sake, having returned from the third Spider movie, where he was much more convincing as a creep than as a kind and nice nerd. At the first viewing of “The Good German” I had nothing but burning, all-consuming hatred for Toby, because his character - a real bastard, the last bull, stupid and aggressive, but revisiting later, after conquering me Spiderman - frankly enjoyed his amazing game. Maguire is the only bright spot in this weak, tortured movie. He doesn't save the movie (it's impossible to save it), but he plays, I repeat, peerlessly.

After this role, I involuntarily began to suspect in sadism and bastardy and Maguire himself as a man, and all the characters played by him. Even the embodiment of goodness and nobility Homer Wells from “The Winemaker's Rules”. Hypocrite, he only pretends to be good, he's actually a villain! Damn, that's a hell of an act. Although, if Toby is like that by nature, and did not have to strain, but if not - the actor he is unrealistically gifted. Anyway, when the young and not at all “not a good German” in the person of Toby beat with his feet the character of George Clooney, admiring his game, I did not yell: “Kill! Kill! Kill!”. I didn't feel the least bit sorry for George, who was popish and bland. He and Blanchett did not arouse any emotions in me, and after the screenwriter, I blame them for the failure of the picture more than anyone else.

Bottom line: Tobey Maguire, even though he's a scumbag (still, it's impossible to play such a scumbag without being a scumbag) deserves a standing ovation. Everything else in this empty, unattractive picture is entitled to rotten eggs and rotten tomatoes in the face.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (64.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Info Audio

#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)

Info Subtitles

English SDH, Bulgarian, Chinese (Cantonese Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portuguese), Russian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian.