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A Major Disappointment

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The novel-based "Die Katze" or "The Cat" is a German crime thriller from almost 30 years ago. It stars Götz George and Gudrun Landgrebe, who both received German Film Award nominations for their performances, as well as Ralf Richter and Heinz Hoenig. Filmmaker Dominik Graf won a German Film Award for his direction. And having seen some of his other works, such as the very underwhelming "Die geliebten Schwestern", I must say this one here does not change my opinion on Graf a bit. It is pretty ridiculous that he is among Germany's most appreciated movie makers at this point. This one here runs for over 110 minutes and tells us the story of a bank heist with two bank robbers inside the building and the man who coordinates the crime outside. In the meantime, police are trying to solve the situation without any of the hostages dying while constantly searching for the mastermind outside the bank.The only convincing performance here is unsurprisingly George, who is easily the finest from the cast in terms of range. The others only score through charisma, if at all. The police and the actors who play them are really very uninteresting here and the action inside the bank also could have needed a lot more pep. It is never edge-of-seat material and that is quite an achievement in the negative sense for a bank heist movie. You could definitely call this "Dog Day Afternoon" gone very bad. Apart from these factors, the actions of Landgrebe's character hardly make any sense at all and it seems she was just written the most controversial as possible without having any relation to realism anymore. The embarrassing title of the film isn't helping either. All in all, this was pretty much a disappointment and shows that (after the really strong 1970s) German films in the 1980s were far from their best. Don't watch.

Bank robbery movie from Germany is hailed by some as the best of the genre, while I wouldn't go that far I would have to say its a damn good film worth your time and popcorn.The basic plot is simple, two guys rob a bank, however it quickly turns into something much more complicated as the police show up and the real brains behind the robbery proves to be outside the bank controlling events.The film begins and I was struck by the sense that this was going to be a piece of Euro-sleaze, however it wasn't long before the film had grabbed me and pulled me into its web of tension. You're never really sure where this thing is going or what the ultimate plan or outcome is going to be. Its nice to see a movie that completely surprises you from start to finish.This is a small missed placed gem to try and find(FYI: The print I saw was titled: Lives of a Cat and was dubbed in to English and had Japanese subtitles)

Seeing Dominik Graf's recent works makes me wish for the "Good Times", when he made great cinema like in this masterpiece. This is one of the best Bank Robbery / Hostage movies ever made. Great realism combined with a perfect genre thriller - almost impossible to achieve. Dominik Graf prefers to shoot on video nowadays. He claims, that he likes the quick way of shooting, and loathes the time you have to wait to get a big movie for the screen financed in Germany. He's got a point there, but all this fast made movies for TV are forgotten as fast. I will never forget DIE KATZE - for it's great performances, great story, great mood.

... having good times". And a good time you'll have when you see this brilliant thriller which features the Eric Burdon song very prominently. Along with "Dog Day Afternoon" this is my favourite bank heist movie, but "Die Katze" has the advantage of (dare I say it ?) better actors (especially Heinz Hönig and Ralf Richter are great), a more complex and clever plot and a tougher attitude.The ending is one of the best in any movie: When Ehser cheerfully answers "Good." to the question "How are you?" it's the truth and the biggest lie at the same time. And then Eric Burdon starts to sing again...Mr. Graf, I beg you, please don't waste your time on TV. "Die Katze" and "Die Sieger" are your best films and you just must return to the big screen. Please!