Achtung, fertig, Charlie! (2003) Reviews

• A somehow failed comedy about the swiss military training

  a-3622007-01-31

  The fact that this movie has been entitled to the most successful movie in Switzerland's film history makes me shake my head! It's true, but pitiful at the same time. A flick about the Swiss army could be a good deal better. The story sounds interesting, at the beginning: Antonio Carrera (Michael Koch) gets forced to absolve his military training by the army while he is in the church, wedding his love Laura Moretti (Mia Aegerter). The Acting in some way doesn't really differ from just a few recruits getting drunk and stoned in the reality. Melanie Winiger plays her role as the strong Michelle Bluntschi mediocre, personally i found her rather annoying. The storyline contains a comedy combined with a romance, which does not work as expected. The romance-part is too trashy, and the comedy-part is not funny at all, it's just a cheap try and does not change throughout the whole movie whatsoever. It's funny for preadolescent 12-13 year olds, but not for such as those who search an entertaining comedy. The humor is weak except for some shots. Dope? Cool! Stealing? Cool! If you want a proper comedy about the Swiss RS, make sure you did not absolve your military training yet, and even then don't expect too much! I'll give it 4 out of 10 stars, because Marco Rima is quite funny during his screen time. Not a hell of a lot screen time though

• Accurate rendering of Swiss Army Life

  Halbwolf2006-06-22

  If you served in the Swiss Army, you WILL recognize yourself in this movie... and will enjoy watching it. You get the feeling of: "Yeah, that's how it is... oh, yes, I remember that exercise... That guy is just like our CO (or whoever)... oh, yeah, the Grenadier vs. Füsilier antagonism..." and so on.. If you never did serve in the Swiss Army, you probably won't understand half the jokes... and then the movie is just plain boring. This comedy is decidedly Swiss. You have to know the Swiss Army to understand it. I loved it, but I did serve. (I recognized myself most in the character of Korporal Wyss...) Most of my friends who are not Swiss or managed to worm out of military training didn't think it fun... not because it was inaccurate, but because they didn't understand the context.

• Funniest Swiss Movie Ever

  NikkiNoodles2005-06-24

  I am swiss and I really liked the movie. Maybe it's because I'm a girl and I didn't have to go to the military. I think the movie is funny and there are many parts that really can be true. What I didn't like too much is the acting of some actresses. Actually of just one actress. She's better off just singing... Michael Koch was great and I hope he's gonna be seen in other upcoming movies. Melanie Winiger (ex Miss Switzerland) did a great job, just too sad she didn't get successful in Hollywood. But I hope we're gonna see more of her acting. Marco Rima was great as usual. He's a real comedian! All in all I really love the movie, I think it's worth watching it. Unfortunately I doubt it will ever be shown in an English speaking country (but maybe they'll have English subtitles on the DVD)...

• fist swiss movie that can compete with the rest of the world

  fmor2003-10-30

  As Switzerland is a very small country and their strong point is for sure not culture I was very surprised in a positive way of this movie. This movie has a original love story, is never boring and has a lot of sense of humor. Especially when they make fun of the army. In the movie is the swiss army but of course it could be the army of any country. Another positive surprise for me was actress Melanie Winiger. As former Miss Switzerland everybody thought that can't work but she did a very good work and I think somebody should inform Jerry Bruckheimer. Melanie would be great in one of his action movies. The only negative point of this movie is the terrible title but otherwise this movie is really worth to watch.

• Uah!

  bifidus2003-10-13

  This film makes "American Pie" a sophisticated movie! No further comment needed. Humor is cheap, dialogues are stupid and the cast is awkward. Every cliché is used several times without any original twist. And far the worst, the movie turns out to be more catholic than the Pope. It's so sad.