david-robin In 1999, ultra-violence was the opportunity for Jan Kounen, a mediocre French director, to create some hype around his first full-length movie.Dobermann (young Vincent Cassel) is a gangster with his team of crazy violent sidekicks. He is engaging in a new series of bank robbery, but he has to confront with a brigade of tuff policemen. One of these cops (Tchéky Karyo) has fascist methods, using torture as an investigation mean.The cinematography is hideous : the color balance is outrageous, and the wardrobe and hairdresser director should be fired. Kounen wants to prove his mastery of cinematography, and the film is a mixbag of every idea he has stolen from the classics : split-screen, slow-motion, stroboscopic effects, muted audio track, wide angle camera, Hitchcock's dolly zoom. But the final mix is like a cocktail of chocolate, vodka and ketchup : you just want to vomit.Unfortunately, the film is totally wasted. The characters are so stupid you don't know if you should laugh at them, or at the pretentious director who created them. Dobermann himself is supposed to be impressive, but he has no impact on script, close to being transparent.Jan Kounen might have wanted to create a kind of pamphlet about police and how cops can sometimes act worse than criminals... but Doberman is more like the non-sense of a 7-year-old kid who has smoke weed.

Magdalena Bieda I really don't know what to think about this movie. It seems to have all the elements that should make me enjoy it insanely. Dynamic action, fast pace, flashy violence, a healthy sense of the absurd, Vincent Cassel the Hot Frenchman. And, most importantly, the whole array of brutal, morally repulsive, crazy individuals, unredeemable or simply not wishing to be redeemed, visibly contended with their wicked ways. I've always liked dark characters better. I find them more exciting. The generic good guys are too bland, too boring. Also, if totally honorable, selfless, nice and altogether perfect, too irritating. It's the flaws that make people interesting. The more flaws they've got, the more points they score. At least in the movies. In real life, I prefer to hang out with the good guys. Although much less captivating, they're much easier to handle, and I'm all for minimizing the effort.In 'Dobermann' there are practically no positive characters, which actually makes sense. All the movies with criminals as the main focus are like that. I'm not talking here about the 'soft' criminals like charming crooks, gentlemen thieves and suave conmen. I mean the violent, murderous brand here. The ones that you certainly wouldn't want to cross paths with.In such movies, the lack of good characters is, in fact, crucial. Apart from the hapless victims with less than five minutes of screen-time, of course. These are welcome. No actual players, though. An honest, hard-working cop, a stern detective with a heart of gold or even a brave, steadfast construction worker, they would all compromise the whole idea. They would automatically gain the sympathy of the audience, who would start to root for them, completely condemning the villains. And that would be quite a problem, when the movie is actually about the villains. Well, they certainly deserve condemning, no argument here, but it isn't so vivid if there are no major positive characters to compare them with. This way there's no one to create the unfavourable contrast. We support the side represented not by the good characters, because there aren't any, but simply the main characters. That's when they have at least a few publicly approved traits (like cuteness or sense of humour). If they have none, we just watch the movie without any emotional involvement and just enjoy the show.I'm using the term 'we' rather loosely. I mean an average movie watcher, who cheers for the Good and scorns the Evil. Me, I generally like the Evil, but only if said Evil is not so ridiculously two-dimensional or ostensibly stupid that it offends my intelligence. The Cardboard Evil, not a fan.The thing is, I didn't enjoy 'Dobermann' insanely. It was fun to watch, sure, but not nearly as thrilling as, say, 'Devil's Rejects', 'Sin City' or 'Kill Bill'. I had the impression that it was trying too hard. To shock, to disgust, to scandalize. When the violence and vulgarity reach certain level of excessiveness, the grotesque begins. It's the transition that I watch with pleasure every time I see it. Here, however, it appeared to be too theatrical. Done with some skill, but staged nonetheless, even slightly forced. The movie would have undoubtedly benefited from a subtler touch. I also have some complaints regarding the main character, Dobermann himself. Well, perhaps not complaints, since it's such a harsh word, but a couple of little grumbles. I just don't think he's sufficiently memorable. I will certainly remember the dog-loving Pitbull, the ruthless, stoic Priest or the sparkly drag queen Sonia. But their leader was so slick, unflappable and laid-back, everything you expect from a classy gang leader, that he simply doesn't stick in the memory. He doesn't have anything that would make him easily recognizable among all the other master criminals. He's got a cool gun, but that's not enough.All that makes me feel at a loss. The movie is entertaining, but also mindless and pretty crude at times. Some scenes are brilliant, some blown to unnecessarily grand proportions. It belongs to one of my favourite genres, which means that I have high expectations but, at the same time, forgive a lot of trespasses. Kind of like you do with your own children.Hmm, I liked it, it was good. But the hint of disappointment is still there.

Libretio DOBERMANN Aspect ratio: 2.39:1Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTSA psychotic police detective (Tchéky Karyo) pursues a gang of armed robbers led by the ultra-charismatic 'Dobermann' (Vincent Cassel).A colossal one-fingered salute to the bland, homogenised pap dominating international cinema at the time of its release, DOBERMANN not only set debut director Jan Kounen on the road to cinematic glory, it also helped kickstart an aggressive upsurge in ultra-commercial European cinema (the "Taxi" series, BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, CRIMSON RIVERS, THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, etc.), begun two years earlier by Mathieu Kassovitz's equally subversive LA HAINE (1995). Fans of political correctness need not apply: DOBERMANN is loud, excessive, obnoxious and morally ambiguous in equal measure, and while some viewers may be unable to reconcile themselves to the action and violence of Kounen's raucous worldview, others should cling onto their seats and prepare for the ride of a lifetime...As the above plot synopsis attests, Kounen and scriptwriter Joël Houssin (upon whose pulp novels the film is based) have stripped the plot down to its barest essentials and constructed a series of instantly recognisable character-types (saint, sinner, braggart, dimwit, etc.), thereby liberating Kounen to indulge his true objectives: To push the boundaries of cinema to their absolute limits. DOBERMANN is a swirling tornado of audiovisual delights which unfolds via shock cuts, hurtling camera-work, loud explosions and in-yer-face action set-pieces, a heady mixture of Hollywood gloss and Hong Kong stuntwork ramped to the max. You want subtle? Try Merchant Ivory. THIS movie wants to gouge your eyes out!! The cast is toplined by French superstars Cassel and Monica Bellucci (they married in 1999), playing the antihero and his ultra-loyal partner in crime, and they both manage to carve a niche amidst the film's visual excesses, while Dobermann's misfit gang includes Stéphane Metzger (TRANSFIXED) as a beautiful drag queen who supports his loving, unsuspecting wife and family via prostitution. But the movie is stolen clean away by Karyo as the deranged cop on Dobermann's tail, an irredeemable psycho who's prepared to break every rule - legal and moral - to bring his nemesis to book. However, the audience's loyalties are tested when one of Dobermann's gang (the 'good' guys) shoots an inexperienced rookie cop for no other reason than he happens to be within range during a bank robbery, an incident which pegs the characters as dispensable lowlife scum. But this outrage is balanced by a subsequent scene in which Karyo (the 'bad' guy) invades a birthday party and forces Metzger to betray Dobermann's whereabouts by threatening the younger man's newborn child, before revealing Metzger's drag queen alter ego to his horrified, clueless family. Though the scene is cruel and uncompromising, Kounen isn't interested in queer-bashing a sympathetic character, merely demonstrating the moral corruption of Karyo's villainous detective; the drag queen is written and played with quiet dignity, and Metzger's 'fate' for betraying Dobermann under duress is both amusing and redemptive...Houssin's scenario builds to a frenzied showdown in a fancy nightclub, where Dobermann's gang defend themselves against an army of gun-toting police officers, and Karyo finally confronts his mortal enemy, culminating in an explosion of horrific violence. You have been warned! In fact, the script's antisocial attitude is perhaps a little TOO crude and excessive in places, but the director signals his intentions late in the film when a drug-addled gangster goes to the toilet and uses pages from 'Cahiers du Cinema' to, er... clean up after himself (if you catch my drift)! Tired of adhering to the established confines of critical acceptability, Kounen and his production team have fashioned an instant cult classic, one which defies convention and spits in the face of diplomacy. Acting and technical credits are top-notch throughout.(French dialogue)

Elad ZZZ I found this film 97 percent very good - it's running with an excellent-made action, ultra-violence, beating music and a reiterative plot (therefore the 3 other percent). What I really did like was the editing that contribute the film very realistic feature (more then others movies that futile just because the editor was merely an amateur) and the beating and the hitting scenes looked very good with then.although the film is delivering the goods - from the prospective of the visual side (and in a very good way, i must add) - it's failing miserably in delivering an intellect/thoughtful message or somewhat of a meaningful point. Of course, I don't criticize the film too much about that, though i prefer the point-making-movies.This film is for those who like action films with a lot of violence and a tepid plot, that it's only pure purpose is to the bring the viewer a 90 minutes of mid pleasure - which it does!