Zeiten ändern Dich (2010)

People who are interested in French movies might recall the 1995 movie „La Haine", about the everyday life of a group of „social misfits" in the seedier part of Paris Don't let the word "gangsta" fool you. "Gangsta" stands for social ghettos in the big cities, where the immigrant youth lives in relative (financial- and social-security-wise) comfort and have nothing better to do than to imagine the run-down neighborhoods to be real ghettos like they have them in the States. This includes mimicking (if not to say "aping") American Rap- and Hip-Hop-culture, which to them implies loitering in the streets, trying to look tough (the "crime-scenes" are generally limited to stealing bikes and selling marijuana) and producing an embarrassing imitation of Hip Hop music. In other words: these kids wouldn't last 24 hours in a real ghetto, be it in Britain or the slums surrounding Paris, let alone the "real deal" in the US.

As to the music: I'm not the biggest fan of Hip Hop but understand the appeal it has to the audience and find myself intrigued by the often poetic lyrical content. What is megalomaniacal labelled "Deutsch-Rap" is an embarrassing stutter, accompanied by loose wiggling of fingers in an attempt to ape gang-signs and the "provocation" of the lyrics is limited to adding as many profanities as you can.

Anis Ferchichi (whose "street-name" Bushido would normally put a chuckle on your face, if it wouldn't continue to appear in the tabloids und so-called "Unterschichten-TV" now and again) tries to come across as some kind of Enimem-Rapper, but fails at all levels, be it acting, rapping or conveying any sense of charisma. It's a performance that can only defined by the word "embarrassing", whether you like his music or not.

The real tragedy is the participation of people like Hannelore Elsner, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ulli Edel (hard to believe that this is the same director who gave us "Christiane F: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) and Bernd Eichinger (this being one of his final productions), who are otherwise accomplished players in the German film-industry and should have known better than to associate themselves with tripe like this. But I guess it's kind of telling where the money ranks in the overall scheme. In other words: it's right "up there" with films like the Justin Bieber vehicle "Never Say Never" or Ulli Lommels "Daniel der Zauberer" (which, if memory serves, are all rightfully united in the IMDb Bottom-100-List).

1/10