The Worst Film Ever

Don't Believe the Hype

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

And the reason is probably that the Oscar nominated original movie is so much appreciated. This remake was made in 2008 (50 years later) for the German television station Pro Sieben and runs for roughly 100 minutes. The writer of the novel that this is based on is still alive, way into his 80s. The director and writer of the remake are as well, which is probably no surprise as this is only seven years old, but for both it was one of the latest projects of a very prolific career. The poster features Franka Potente, but she really has not that much screen time. Of course, they took the chance though to advertise their movie with the star of one of Germany's most famous films of all time. The film is all about the boys, especially about Francois Goeske's character. I have to say I do not really know Goeske. It's one difference compared to the original that this one focuses more on all the boys and this one here mostly on Goeske, also on his relationship with (the stunning) Paula Schramm's character. But that is not a criticism at all. it is actually really difficult to elaborate on a handful of characters in detail in under two hours running time.The cast is mostly unknown. It features a couple actors from the television series "Unter Uns". The plot is basically about a group of young Germans in the final days of World War II who get the task of defending a bridge, so the allied forces cannot conquer it. Many people die and the film is occasionally not easy to watch, but that is actually a pro as the execution is nicely done in my opinion. Also the music was nice and they succeeded in depicting the pointlessness (especially with regard to the ending) and insanity of war. I think they did a fine job in basically using the first half of the film for introductions and for us getting to know the characters and the second half for war action, which I probably preferred over the first half. Also you cannot criticize the makers behind this movie for being uncreative as this is just a remake. The original movie was an adaptation too. it was not written for screen and they actually changed some thing in this 2008 movie and did not make it worse this way in my opinion. Do not be fooled by the usual remake haters. This is a very watchable film and I recommend it.

The people who made this awful remake should hide and shame. As a German shortly born after the war I saw the original as a boy and that movie has made a lasting impact on me and I have never ever seen a war movie or shall we say a Anti war movie better than the ORIGINAL "Die Brücke". This remake should be burn and forgotten IT IS AWFUL nd waste of time. Look for the original instead. The remake does not even come close to the time it happens, the feeling is all wrong The love story it total out of place and out of context. Even the language is not the language or use of the language during that period of time. Have you ever seen the original "Die Brücke" you will laugh about this stupid remake.

... consider it an accident and look for the - really impressive - original! You will spare yourself quite a lousy piece of love story and war action rudely looted from the heritage of the 50's version by Bernhard Wicki. Even Hollywood barely could do worse twisting historical facts and life stories into some sort of spectacular fireworks performed by characters who don't really deserve this description. Good war movies (such as the original one!) should include the stories of the human beings involved, narrated in an empathic way thus helping the viewer to understand or at least imagine how it might have come to all the cruelty - and maybe even how it could be overcome. Otherwise there will be sown rather fascination than consternation. The next war will come too soon anyway. 2/10 just because of occasionally good acting (esp. by the soldier boys) and seemingly accurate requisites (uniforms, armory...).

First of all I want to say that I don't know the original movie, but I think thats not important at all. On the other hand I really hope the original movie is better. The story of 7 teenagers forced to fight in the last desperate days of nazi-germanys battle is a typical German war-film-story. Even thou it is not very impressive, it is still the best of the movie. Complains can be made about pretty much everything in the film, because everything in the film lacks sophistication. the look and the atmosphere of the movie are to clean and it feels to empty. even fighting scenes look boring and bad coordinated. the editing is terrible and features some bad continuity mistakes. the dialogs are flat and meaningless. Acting is behind the average. at no time you believe in the characters. Most characters lack a reasonable background story and side-stories that occur don't add to the characters deep at all. in general they are useless, because they don't add to the film except for the duration. the side-plots can be ignored. overall this film is unimportant, badly made and lacks in all important aspects of film-making. If you want to deal with the topic of youth in Nazi-Germany and how it suffered from the fanatical NS-education system, I recommend to see "Napola" instead. that would also spare you from some ridiculous fighting scenes...