Wow! Such a good movie.

A Masterpiece!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Outside Turkey, Germany is the home for the largest Turkish community in the world with several millions of people of Turkish heritage living in the country. Naturally, Turkish-German film directors have also started leaving their mark on the country's long cinematic tradition, the most important such filmmaker being F a t i h Akin who is known for movies like Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007). Another director who has examined the relations of Turks and native Germans in his work is Züli Aladag whose 2006 TV movie Rage raised some controversy upon its initial release in Germany.Among the protagonists of the movie is Felix Laub (Robert Höller), the teenage son of a wealthy university professor of literature Simon Laub (August Zirner). When Felix is repeatedly bullied and robbed by a Turkish gang led by the ruthless thug Can (Oktay Özdemir), the moderately liberal Simon and his wife Christa (Corinna Harfouch) try various methods to sort out the problems between Felix and Can but only seem to make things worse. Ultimately peaceful methods cease to be the only ones considered by Simon and a dramatic showdown is inevitable.Rage works interestingly on both general and personal levels and avoids giving easy answers to the problems portrayed. In the core of the story is the conflicting relationship of Felix and Can: the former keeps coming back to the latter despite the mistreat, but at times they get along pretty well. By hanging out with Can's gang Felix is probably rebelling against his mild-mannered father who is indeed accused of being aloof even by his wife. Under their successful surface Felix's parents are far from perfect but Can is not free of familial troubles either, although he has caused his situation himself by clinging to his self-applied tough guy image despite his inner insecurity – he is by no means a mere victim of circumstances.Besides the grassroot level changes in the characters' attitudes, there is an underlying theme of the whole country's stance on problems related to immigration. Demands for tougher laws regarding the matter easily evoke unpleasant connotations to Germany's Nazi past, so the issue is even more sensitive there than in many other countries. During Rage's Funny Games-style finale the suspense thickens pretty excitingly and the viewer becomes anxious to find out how the situation is resolved since it would be tempting to interpret the ending as the movie's message or stance on the issue: who (if anyone) gets killed and is the act portrayed as heroic or cowardly? Without spoiling anything, the story and the mood are rather pessimistic about there being a neat little solution that would satisfy both parties.Visually the movie is nothing very absorbing and the ending feels slightly rushed, but all in all I think Rage is worth seeing among its peers, i.e. films portraying conflict between ethnic groups. The German protagonists feel realistic enough and the gap-toothed Oktay Özdemir is a great choice for the role of the aggressive Can. I have admittedly not seen many examples of Turkish-German cinema but based on Rage and F a t i h Akin's The Edge of Heaven, there appear to be quality films to be found there.

So,so, after the U.S. on-screen garbage that 'Alpha Dog' was, now comes its German update, with which it shares striking similarities: in the first case, we have this coward degenerate sub-human sissy of 'Johnny Truelove'(what a ridiculous name, is it supposed to be funny?) with his bunch of scumbags, in the second case, we have the coward pusher degenerate sub-human sissy 'Chan' (which is supposed to mean 'soul', oh, what poetry, I'm impressed....)with his own bunch of equally degenerate scumbags. The first one kidnaps and decides to kill in cold blood a 15 year-old boy, because he hasn't got the balls to face kidnapping charges and to face jail, the second one terrorizes another 15 year-old or something beyond exhaustion, and then takes on his family, because he equally has no balls at all to face jail life: it is much easier to take on a harmless kid, especially with your band, than to face men who got, for instance, the balls to rob a bank and face armed cops, isn't it? But the most important point that these Z-graded flicks share, and which is, I think, the most nauseating, is that 'Wut', exactly the same way as 'Alpha Dog', glorifies and describes with a very disgusting complacency, the behaviour of the harasser and his followers, take for instance the numerous scenes (staightforward 'Alpha Dog'ripoff) where the director wants to give the impression that the victim has the 'time of his life' with his torturer, and therefore clearly tries to arouse sympathy for this scumbag of Chan, and suggests that this is an excuse for all the evil he spreads around him. Oh, and on top of that, the stupidity here reaches a peak at the end of the movie, when, after the 'hero' or rather the CRIMINAL, because that's what he (or should I say it) is, has finally gotten what he deserved, we hear this sad music as the credits rolls, which, is I suppose, intended to make us feel sorry to what happened to him? No, I do not buy it, this is totally ludicrous. In short, these two 'filmmakers' are a real shame to cinema because of their one-sided and disgusting position on that subject matter.By the way, I suggest they should team up to direct, let's say 'Johnny Truelove meets Chan'. Oh, sorry, I forgot Chan is dead and Johnny Truelove will probably also be, so it would be difficult, unless they make them meet in the after life...

"Wut" ("Rage", "Fury", "Anger") is essentially three films, each one hopelessly mixed up with the other and therefor no film at all. If these made for TV film is anything at all, it does mostly resemble a screenwriter's idea badly in need of some additional thought.The first film is the most interesting aspect of this project. It deals with a young man, who has been born into a foreign country, a country that stays foreign to his parents but not to him. A country nonetheless that chooses to treat this young man as a foreigner. That's what fuels the protagonist's rage against the "system" and those who represent it. Can's tragedy is that he has become a German, whether he likes it or not, whether Germany likes it or not. I'm sure - though I can't proof it - that's the film (take not of the working title) director Aladag wanted to make in the first place.The second film deals with a totally inefficient, incompetent and in its core dysfunctional German family. Well bred, well taught, well to do losers. The son is stupid enough to join ranks with the young turks again and again, humiliation after humiliation. The father, a professor, may know his ways around books and lecturing halls, but has no idea about real life. The mother is not a written role at all but just there because there has to be a mother. It's Corinna Harfouch's achievement to let this nonety appear as something substantial. If "Wut" is discriminating against anybody or anything, it's discriminating against this German family, whose members act stupid because the script needs them to act stupid - otherwise the whole movie would simply implode into the void. "Wut" suffers from the same problem as did Hark Bohm's "Yasemin" almost twenty years ago. The Germans have to act stupid in order to set the much needed dramatic events in motion. No stupid Germans, no film.The third film is the most dispisible one. In allowing the young Turk to be the aggressor, the heavy it trumpets almost all the time: Taboo-breaking! Taboo-breaking! See here, we're not politically correct. Therefor we tell the truth. Rubbish! There are young Turks who are victims of the migration process their parents have thrown them into, and there are young Turks who made themselves a success story and there are young turks who are criminals. End of story. "Wut" isn't even the first film to cast its immigrants as the baddies. And it's no more true or false than the next film. What's best about it is the acting, the script is the worst part and the direction bounces from one extreme to the other.

shocking taboo-breaker! Can, a young German pusher / drug dealer of Turkish immigrant's background, terrorizes the entire family of a university teacher until the very end, beginning with son Felix (a perfect victim). I see specially the professor's woman's part within the conflict as an extremely fatal and unhelpful one, since pseudo-powerful and pseudo-emancipated. Are our liberal (over-?) civilized democracies still able to stop such destructive aggressive human beings like Can? ...Or Achmadineschad? Why could this film not been shown in the early evening (8.15 pm) as announced first? It's subject will be specially important for younger people! However, a subject overdue to deal with!