People are voting emotionally.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

"Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" or "The Edukators" is a German 2-hour film from over 10 years ago written and directed by Hans Weingartner. The core cast here includes Daniel Brühl and Julia Jentsch (2 of Germany's biggest stars back then, Brühl still today) plus Stipe Erceg and Burghart Klaussner, who won a German Film Award for his supporting performance here. The movie itself also finished in second place behind " Alles auf Zucker!". It is somewhat a mix of "Funny Games" and "The Dreamers", so basically a kidnapping film that is not a thriller though and not about who lives and who dies, but about the protagonists' approach to life and society. And as much as this may apply to the young trio, for me, it was all about Klaussner's character here, a man at the age of 50 who sees himself in the idea of his captors before life took him into a completely different connection, one that went basically against everything that he believed in as a young man, the ideals of his youth.Another crucial aspect is the harmony in this film. Yes there are struggles when Erceg realizes the other two are in love, but at the end he can not only accept it because love is all that matters, but it also won't severely damage his friendship, especially to Brühl's character. And still, even if this film can not be called a thriller at any point, it is still a fairly tense watch. The scenes during which they break into the houses are pretty thrilling to watch and the moment we see Klaußner's character appear and catch them in the act is one of the best of the entire film. Also the scenes in the countryside with the characters' interactions were captivating to watch.Finally, you cannot really do anything wrong with the inclusion of "Hallelujah", even if the version used in here does not come from the master himself, Leonard Cohen. This was a truly nice way to end the film. I must say as strong as the direction here is, the heart and soul of the film is (except Klaussner's performance) the script. The comments about life happening and slowly turning you into somebody else in order to be able to care for a family for example was something that really stays in the mind. The film runs a couple minutes longer than 2 hours, so pretty long, but I must say it never dragged at all and I personally always like it when the cast of a film is very small, very essential and all the main characters are elaborated on properly. The only negative note I can think of is that the only one from the trio who still gives convincing performances in my opinion is Klaussner, which is really sad as the 3 young actors certainly looked very promising here. Brühl occasionally has a pretty solid performance like "Rush", but as a whole he basically always plays the same character. Back to this film here, though, I highly recommend watching it. Interesting political messages and a wonderful character study. Don't miss out.

This awful movie gives us the picture of the making of some wannabe-world-changers. After breaking in a house, they only change the decoration and the places of the furniture. People who are persuaded by this wonderful acts, raise your hands.A kidnapped businessman begins to love their work and it seems like he wants to join this everything but intelligent group. Jan and Peter represent critical rebellions, who just can't cope with money and richness.This attack on earning money and working in general, is so naive a child of 3 years wouldn't believe it. By adding a good-looking girl (Julia Jentsch is one of the worst actresses ever) the director tried to have some proponents. Too bad, Hans Weingartner

Germany, Jan (Daniel Brühl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg) are best friends and also the secret activists known as the "Edukators". They break into homes of the rich and instead of robbing them they rearrange the furniture to make a statement that the owners have too much money and to scare them into knowing someone has been in their house. Whilst Peter is vacating in Spain, his girlfriend Jule (Julia Jentsch) and Jan have to paint her apartment before handing the keys back to the landlord, during this paint session Jan and Jule swap confidence stories and Jule becomes part of the Edukators. The first target is the home of Hardenberg (Burghart Klaußner), the man that Jule has been involved in a car accident with. Things do not go according to plan, and as Peter returns he finds his girl in the Edukators, an education raid out of control and a friendship badly strained.Firstly the camera work and acting here is first rate, particularly from the boys of the piece, the photography is fabulous with the Tirol location sublime in its gorgeous texture. The first half of the picture is also highly impressive, scenarios and fleshing of motives are molded together to create an uneasy and interesting picture. Sadly the second half of the film plays out as some sort of socialist, political viewpoint that blurs the lines of ethical friendships!. I hope you get my point, The Edukators loses its focus and drifts of to a crusade to make its point, the edginess disappears and in its place is art-house leanings cloaked in a supposed deep political machination, whilst the end appears to reward many on this site, i personally feel it cops out and should have been far far more braver.Sorry, but i'm just not buying into this being close to a Euro classic 5/10

A more intelligent and poignant critique of our Western 'capitalist dictatorship' (the words of our three anti-heroes!), you would not find, not even on the pages of my Brighton anarchist friends' 'The Schnews' (ah, ah!). And this is also a very intelligent, humane and absorbing thriller (for want of a better word, we all express ourselves by clichés, like Peter or Jan would say!) because Hans Weingartner is a consummate and devilishly clever storyteller and after the first few sequences you will forget where you are, and you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen! A must see for old radical firebrands like myself and 'capitalist slaves' (only kidding!) alike!