Don't listen to the negative reviews

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I was living in St. Pauli, Hamburg at the end of 1998 when this movie came to a cinema on the Reeperbahn. Then, one evening, I met Faith Akin and the main characters of the movie on this very street, and I congratulated them. I told them I had watched the movie three times already, which was not true, since I had only seen it twice, but decided to go and watch it for a third time, which I did, even though I had little money. But I had to watch this movie over and over again, because I had not expected to ever see anything similar from a Germany-born director. The direct, vital, unpretentious acting and the authenticity of the settings and the language were something that I could't get enough of. Ralph Herforth has never been so convincing. It is one of these movies that reveal new details every time you watch them. At times, the movie seems to become very "turkish" and even over-sentimental, at other times, it is just world-class, as for an example in the post-office scene with Costa and his "awakening". To me, this is maybe THE best movie of Faith Akin so far.

One of the best German movies period! I grew up in Hamburg and went through similar things shown in this movie and I can relate to it better than to any other movie I've ever seen! This movie is a drama about the street life in Hamburg, about three friends making decisions that will change their life forever! One coming out of prison and trying to grow up and leave the criminal life behind him, while his two best friends don't let him, as they struggle themselves to find the right way in or out of the criminal lifestyle.If you like movies such as Mean Streets and La Haine, or if you are just interested to see the other side of Germany, then this movie is for you!

In the light of Faith Akin's 2004 'Gegen die Wand', 'Kurz und Schmerzlos' is relatively The most impressive point of the movie is the grim poverty which penetrates into the close friendship between Gabriel, Costa, and Bobby. Even though these three members of the Greco-Turkish-Serbian gang have sufficient amount of goodwill and mutual respect for, their inferiority complexes, combined with poverty, have detrimental effects on all of them.Bobby, hungry for more street respect, starts to work for an Albanian mafioso, and Costa joins his friend reluctantly as an experienced car thief. Gabriel, fresh from jail, tries to stop his two best buddies from joining the thugs. When Gabriel attempts this in his street-smart way, however, he further pushes his two buddies into the hands of the mafia.As Faith Akin recently reconfirmed with his 2004 movie 'Gegen die Wand', the Turco-German director applies his knowledge about marginal immigrant societies in Germany to his movies. The result is a fascinating, modestly grim, and interesting movies which continue to bring Akin worldwide acclaim and admiration.

Look,how this film is bewitched. The best character is played by Ralph Herforth as Muhamer: (Wenn dir deine Freundin dumm kommt, hau ihr eine rein. Und jetzt iss.) The film has a perfect music score.