The technical aspect is impressive but a gimmick will only get you so far, and the acting is quite good, these actors deserved a better script. MY GOD what a bunch of insufferable idiots these characters are. I actually feel embarrassed on their behalf. Robbing a bank, leaving the car two blocks down the road, going in to a club next door to party throwing 100euro bills around, getting thrown out of the club, realising you left your friend passed out in the getaway car, then getting into a shootout with the police, there's incompetent and then there's these guys. Enjoy your Darwin Awards, you fucking idiots.
Like a blood ballet or a death dance, the graphic choreography on display here is, at times, as stunning as the fact this 2-hour plus film was shot in one, single take.
A magnificent accomplishment and a good film, to boot.
Before you watch this movie, a tip: if you don't understand German, watch it without subtitles, it's a completely different experience.
I felt like I watched two different movies. At first I started to watch with full subtitles, so by the time I reached 1 hour into the movie, while they were rehearsing the heist, I thought the movie was pretty average, other than the exceptional one-take aspect that we all know about. So I thought to myself: what if I watch it like Victoria? That whole heist rehearsal scene would be completely different and confusing, which I think is something that Victoria might be thinking and feeling. So I look it up online and saw that some people recommend watching without subtitles. So I started to watch the film again, and it was nothing like the first time. Sure, you don't understand 80% of the dialog, but you get something else, you get to experience what Victoria is going through, she also don't understand German, so other than the Sonne translation, you have no clue about what is happening, and to me that's the best part of this movie, to experience exactly what Victoria is going through, to discover with her what is happening, to feel confused just like she is feeling, trying to understand things through their body language, through some words that are similar to English. It gave to me a whole new perspective. But since I only discovered this halfway through the movie, the experience was kinda ruined for me, so for that I'll only give 7/10
What an utterly mediocre and over-hyped flick. I should have seen the warnings signs when someone tries to push a movie on you BECAUSE IT*S DONE IN ONE TAKE that really doesn't say anything about the movie. As someone pointed out there acting is quite good at times but it's impossible to feel anything for the naive and imbecile characters. Honestly, don't watch at all.
Filmed in one shot, this is film is actually more than a one-trick-pony. Wonderful shots of Berlin nightlife and outdoors scenes, remarkable acting and grand writing. It all came together in a sweet, distasteful and grand way. I really enjoyed this film.
I thought it was weak. The entire movie culminates to the heist and their great escape, but it was so poorly written and executed. The part where you feel the most thrilled is when the car stops working, and that's it. The thing is, the whole point of a long take is to make you feel like every single moment in the screen is important, that you can't blink or else you'll be lost in the sequence, that you have to be in the edge of your seat. Victoria throws this concept away. It bores you, even if the take works beautifully and the actors convince you from the start to finish.
The characters in the movie are as dumb as Patrick (from Spongebob Squarepants). The only reaction I got to everything bad that happens was like "what the hell did you expect?". Most of all I hated this Victoria for being the stupidest and the most naive girl on earth. I can't even speak about actor's performance or the execution of movie being one-shot because the script and characters made me hate this. No. Just no.
I'm rating this so highly but I'll most likely never re-watch this film? It's truly an experience, and I'm glad I saw in the cinema because you have to be fully concentrated and also in the mood for this trip. The film is so long, and it felt so long, because you were right there where everything happened. But despite being so long, I can't imagine how they could've shortened it down? They could have ended it at the party before the police came, but the part with the police and shit... It was breathtaking, it was so cool. I need a behind-the-scenes thing, or at least a really long interview with the directors, because the amount of work this must've taken.... It renders me speechless.
Now one of the reviewers commented on the sound editing: personally I felt that all choices were intentional and the ambience music didn't annoy me. In fact I found it nice that that we didn't have to hear them talk all the time, since the film can be very tiring (because of the one-shot effect)
tldr: A very cool and breathless movie, technically great, however slow moving and long (as a person who hates long movies this didn't bother me though)
The only thing is that I wish we had learned more about Victoria. There was the scene in the cafe, but that was briefly. I wish it had been expanded upon, even just a bit.
So, I watched 'Victoria' and I have mixed feelings about it. For those of you who don't know, 'Victoria' is a German heist movie filmed all in one take - quite the impressive selling point if you ask me. Credit where credit is due, this film is nothing short of an achievement. The level of planning, timing, and coordination that it took to make this one-shot movie is absolutely awe-inspiring. There were several shots in which the camera was behind a ledge, and when the camera moves up to see what's behind the ledge, in the background, we see an action taking place at that exact moment. It's moments like those that really show that talent involved in making this film.
Now, although this ambitious single-take selling point is extremely impressive, it is just one aspect of the film. And as much as I loved and enjoyed the movie, there were a few aspects that were kind of lacking - one of those aspects being post-production audio. The film had a good soundtrack, and for the most part I didn't mind the extra music being there. But in one scene, instead of the music accompanying the sounds in the film, it literally replaced them. All of a sudden, at a very unfitting moment, the film decided that what the characters were saying wasn't really important. It kind of seemed like the music was only there as a cover-up. Maybe one of the actors flubbed their lines, maybe they couldn't fit the mic guy in the elevator; it just seemed really weird and out of place for the characters' voices to suddenly be muted.
Closer to the middle of the movie, we hear this inexplicable post-production nose-breathing sound. It happens three times in the span of less than fifteen minutes and then never happens again the entire movie. The main character's in a vehicle and all the sudden we can hear this really loud breathing. My initial thought was, "Is that the cameraman?", followed by, "Oh, maybe there's someone in there with her." Then she gets out of the vehicle, and a few minutes later the same thing happens again. It happens when the camera moves closer to her face and then stops when it moves away - At which point I think, "Oh, it's just a really bad foley to accentuate how intense this is for her." But then the third time it happens, the camera's nowhere near her and she shouldn't reasonably be making those noises. It's confusing, distracting, unfitting, and completely unnecessary, And all it would have taken to fix it would be to just not add it into the movie.
Later there's a sleeping baby in a crib. Later on, the camera's not looking at the baby and we hear it screaming and crying; and within seconds, as the camera looks back towards the baby, it is sleeping again, making it obvious that it was just a poorly done sound effect. Again, something that easily could have been fixed by just not adding it into the movie. And last but not least, the absolute worst culprit of post-production audio cheating was the piano scene. With the short clip of her playing piano in the trailer, it left me thinking one thing: if what she winds up playing is actually impressive and complicated, then that'll add a lot to the movie. I mean, if it takes a certain level of coordination and you fuck it up, then you have to start the whole movie over. So this was a scene that I was particularly looking forward to. And unfortunately it is some of the worst fake piano playing ever. You realize that you actually need to press down on the keys for it to make noise, right? This scene clearly only exists to impress the audience by having us think that she's actually playing, so having it cheated this poorly is kind of disappointing. And the way that this scene pretends to be doing something impressive is just misleading and dishonest.
Another issue that I had with this movie is that these are the stupidest characters ever of all time. Not going to spoil anything, but there are moments in this film where the characters are so stupid that they become unrelatable. And then if something bad happens to them, all I can think is, "Well, what did you think would happen?" Still, for the most part, this was a very entertaining and well executed movie. Every single performance on screen was absolutely fantastic, and that, combined with the pressure of not really wanting to mess up your lines, had me impressed, to say the least. Yes, it's flawed. But I think its achievements outweigh those flaws, so I would recommend checking this one out and seeing for yourself.
I would consider this the worst major film release of 2015.
The film is a wonderful experience, we watched without subs and you feel like you're experiencing it all from Victoria's PoV.
There's so many comments about bad script and plot, it's almost like nobody here has gone on a drunken night out. I've been in a handful of situations in my life where the tension has escalated between locals and my group of friends in a foreign country on late nights out that meander into one event after the other and this made me feel like I was back in those moments. Spoiler, we didn't rob a bank...
I was stuck to the screen all the way through, captivating viewing.
girl, get your shit together! all this fuck up for a strange man? get a grip.
A chaotic, anxiety-driven drama thriller that's equal parts cute, suspenseful and harrowing. The way it takes place all in one night and without cuts really sells the realism, letting us see that what happens on the screen. That's an impressive technical achievement considering how challenging it must've been to make this. The tension grows with each passing minute, you come to actually care about every single character and truly feel for them during their highs and lows. This is definitely something that I need to watch again, though I think a thirty-minute trim down would've helped this immensely.
Unfortunately i am going to agree with most of people in the comments..The plot is so stupid it made me angry..One shot was something quite unique and really different and the actors did their best for sure but in THIS movie this was not enough..Also it could be shorter and some dialogues really were useless..If the characters were not so stupid and mainly Victoria i would have enjoyed this much more..
6.4/10
Besides the technical feat of having it filmed in one take this movie starts of starts off strong making you wonder what's gonna happen next. Halfway however, for me, it loses steam as the characters decide to do the most idiotic thing possible. The events that follow is a domino-effect of bad choices and "nowhere to run" and cause of this, at 2:14-ish, is about half an hour too long.
I thought it was weak. The entire movie culminates to the heist and their great escape, but it was so poorly written and executed. The part where you feel the most thrilled is when the car stops working, and that's it. The thing is, the whole point of a long take is to make you feel like every single moment in the screen is important, that you can't blink or else you'll be lost in the sequence, that you have to be in the edge of your seat. Victoria throws this concept away. It bores you, even if the take works beautifully and the actors convince you from the start to finish.
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2015-11-20T11:49:16Z
this is one of those movies that makes you forget that you are actually watching the movie and not part of the events taking place. from the continuous shot to the real time action you will only realize it was 2:15 hours when it's over.