The trouble is the movie never really seems to go anywhere. Too many scenes have a feeling of irresolution; they just sort of go on for a while, then disappear.
Comment
12/22/06
The Good German (2006)
32
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:145
Fresh:47
Rotten:98
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Though Steven Soderbergh succeeds in emulating the glossy look of 1940s noirs, The Good German ultimately ends up as a self-conscious exercise in style that forgets to develop compelling characters.
Theatrical Release:09-03-2007
Synopsis: One of mainstream cinema's most tirelessly inventive directors, Steven Soderbergh delivers another big-budget stylistic experiment with THE GOOD GERMAN. This time around, Soderbergh's target is... [More]
Starring: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Beau Bridges, Tobey Maguire
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Reviews for The Good German
Interesting to watch, up to a point. The Good German gets lost amidst its references; it doesn't stand by itself but is held up by the films that inspired it.
12/22/06
Stick with the videos of the real thing, and wait for "Ocean's 13."
12/22/06
A history-based, murder-mystery war-yarn that goes round and round in circles.
12/22/06
Soderbergh's attempt to re-create a 40s film noir might not be for all tastes but Paul Attanasio's script keeps the story engaging long enough.
12/22/06
Everything about The Good German seems a few degrees off, as if the new map of Europe has somehow altered the latitudes along with attitudes.
12/22/06
The Good German is a mechanical movie, pushing forth in a way it believes appropriate rather than finding a natural flow.
12/22/06
If it weren't for a singular, gripping performance by Cate Blanchett, The Good German might as well have been titled The Incredibly Boring German.
12/22/06
The Good German suggests that they can still make 'em like they used to, but also reminds us that there's more to a good movie than good looks.
12/22/06
Still-relevant political observation...[and] a nifty mystery that's a bit too self-conscious for its own good.
12/22/06
There's nothing going for the movie, really, except its ambition -- its heavily marred, totally unrealized ambition.
12/21/06
Much like a horror movie clone, The Good German looks like Casablanca, but seems to be missing something fundamental underneath it all, that will eventually lead to its horrible destruction.
12/21/06
It should have been wonderful -- a delicious tribute to classic Hollywood -- but it simply doesn't come off.
12/21/06
Of The Good German, it can be said that the operation was a brilliant success, even if the patient is not merely dead but most sincerely dead.
12/21/06
The Good German plays like Soderbergh's doctoral thesis for film school. But look past the honkingly loud geek factor, and it still works.
12/21/06
The Good German is a self-serving act of fetishistic virtual embalming, with all the liveliness that description implies.
12/21/06
The Good German cannibalizes the cool, cynical look of those great old movies, but it's too spiritually vacant to duplicate their soul.
12/21/06
A most peculiar and unsatisfying film.
12/21/06
Soderbergh wants us to see post-War Berlin as, in its way, another Chinatown a la Roman Polanski.
12/21/06
Soderbergh is out to dispel the phrase, 'They don't make 'em like they used to,' and he mostly succeeds.
12/21/06
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