Tim: Til Schweiger	Hotte: Martin Feifel
Maik: Sebastian Blomberg	Nele: Nadja Uhl
Terror: Matthias Matchke	Flo: Doris Schretzmayer
Manowsky: Klaus Lowitsch	Henkel: Devid Striesow
Directed by: Gregor Schnitzel

30 Second Bottom Line: Fifteen years have flown by since six anti-establishment activists lived together in the New Berlin, raising hell and living for an ideal. Long since disbanded, the group is forced to meet again when an old homemade bomb they planted in 1987 explodes in a Grunewald mansion. With their old nemesis police detective Manowsky on the case, this now disparate sextet must cover their tracks before their youthful crime is discovered.

Story Line: West Berlin in the 1980's grappled with thousands of vacant buildings taken over by restless young people, sick of government and the threat of nuclear war. As this film opens, with a pulsating hard rock cacophony, an angry mob of kids are fighting back a police battalion trying to oust them from their illegal ghetto. Quick shots of the movie's principal players confirm their radical leanings. This is West Berlin but it could easily be the late 60's in the United States.

Fast-forward fifteen years and as a realtor shows a neglected mansion to a prospective buyer, she forces the heavy door open and a long-forgotten amateur bomb explodes. Though the duo is unharmed, police detective Manowsky recognizes the handiwork of a decades old anarchist group and sets out to find them.

Of course, much of the group has long ago abandoned their demonstration days and mainstreamed into capitalist society. Only the charismatic Tim and his roomie, the wheelchair-bound Hotte, still reside in the dilapidated building and regularly skirmish with the authorities. Maik is the director of a successful ad agency; Nele is the single mom of two; Flo is about to be married; and Terror-a far cry from his nickname-is, ironically, a public prosecutor.

Obviously these guys have not kept in touch. With their past on the brink of exposure with the unexpected bomb eruption, their reunion becomes a reality and the group is forced to come up with a plan to divert the police investigation.

A crucial videotape locked in police headquarters becomes the target and they worm their way into headquarters pretending to be a news camera crew. Along the way, Flo and Tim rekindle their lost love and the others come to terms with their very different identities. And, oddly enough, Manowsky is ultimately replaced by the ambitious new chief and gets his revenge by having a hand in the motley crew's escape. Inexplicably, this veteran suddenly finds more in common with these former rabble-rousers than his boss…go figure.

Tell Me More About It: There is something squeamish about giving bomb-toting young adults the Marx Brothers treatment in this post 9/11 era. Though the film quickly points out that the realtor and her client were unharmed, that explanation feels like a politically correct

addendum to placate our current anti-terrorist stance. When one ponders the group's successful bombings, any sympathy for them rapidly evaporates.

And not much makes sense in this feeble attempt to "Big Chill" aging 80's German radicals. Without a press kit, the whole explanation for the activists' motivation is muddled. All we are given is screaming kids and armed police. For a few chuckles, the script has Hotte serving up the "Home Alone" treatment to his evictors.

After that it's an exercise in the unbelievable: amazing that the front door to the mansion had not been opened in 15 years. Incredibly stupid that the police would allow a TV news crew into an evidence room. Even more bizarre that Manowsky would do an about- face at the eleventh hour. The shenanigans of this group are meant to seem hip and clever; their real effect is annoying and contrived.

More intriguing are the questions left unanswered in the gaping holes of this script. What caused this tight group to disband those many years ago, especially the lovebirds Tim and Flo? What drew Maik to the high-pressure world of advertising? How did Nele end up with those kids? What happened to their father? And-what the heck convinced Terror to fight on the enemy's side? Now that would have been a movie to see.

Til Schweiger: "Driven"	Martin Feifel: "Feuerreiter"
Sebastian Blomberg: "Anatomie"	Nadja Uhl: "Die Stille..Schuss"
Matthias Matschke: "LiebesLuder"	Doris Schretzmayer: "Ternitz, Tennessee"
Klaus Lowitsch: "The Odessa File"	Devid Striesow:"Kalt ist Abendhauch"
Gregor Schnitzler: "Finnlandia"