SnoopyStyle Johann Rettenberger is released from Austrian prison after serving time for armed robbery. He returns to a life of armed robberies and competitive long distance running. He starts winning the races and gains some fame due to his background. He begins a relationship with social worker Erika who he knows from the past.The lead needs more emotions to be compelling. He's too controlled. His history with Erika needs to be laid out fully from the beginning. It's hard to engage with this guy who is so unengaging. The action could be shot with more thrills. I didn't realize that this is a true story and I don't know if it matters. It could have helped if the movie digs into the lead Johann more.

Aristides-2 I could easily have given this film an 8 or 9 if the writer/director Heisenberg had come up with an original fictionalized story. But he didn't. Instead he took a series of historically real events dealing with an Austrian named Johann Kastenberger, who not only was a long distance runner of note in his country but was as well a compulsive bank robber. He then sanitized the story of this vicious sociopath, who not only murdered one person (and not his annoying parole officer by the way) but is suspected of murdering 3 others. If this movie had been based on fiction then my high rating would be made by the fact that I have never been so engrossed by such a minimalist movie. All of the aesthetic choices Kastenberger made that support existential minimalism are pitch perfect. Fellow reader, make the effort and read the history of Johann Kastenberger. Heisenberg clearly didn't want to make yet another movie about a compulsive and cruel robber/murderer so he took the real character and subtracted virtually all the idiosyncratic elements of Kastenberger's persona to give us the enigma in the film. Too bad cause Heisenberg clearly knows how to use all the crafts a director needs to make visually fascinating movies.

SeussMeTub Most fans of Hollywood movies will probably not like this film because it doesn't contain massive explosions or a bombastic soundtrack (in fact it practically has none) but this stunner (based on the story of a real life bank robber) is one of the great thrillers of the decade. A sleek, sparse study of existentialism, THE ROBBER is a must see.It begins rather abruptly, the first scene is a man named Johann (superbly played by Andreas Lust) running in what seems like a training center, but as soon as the camera pans back we realize he is in a prison and is about to be released after serving a 6 year sentence. As the story unfolds Johann is set free where he begins to win marathons but leads a double life as he returns to his old habits of stealing cars and then using them as getaway vehicles for his bank robberies.As with European cinema, much of the pacing and characters are understated, there are times when nobody says anything but from the background noises and the looks on their faces you can clearly tell what they are thinking. Even though the few people he knows (his former girlfriend, his parole officer) deeply cares for him and pulls strings to get him to live a normal life it's clear that he does not want any of it. Johann just wants to rob banks and run because that is all he is. The whole movie takes place in Austria, the land of Heidi and Vienna coffee houses but with the movie being portrayed through Johann's eyes, Austria seems bleak, detached and robotic to make it look almost unbearable to be living in; while there are other characters in the story, they seem to be nothing more than minor twinkles in Johann's eye- he does not care for them and it almost seems like they are ghosts to him.There were some professional critics that lambasted this movie for not revealing Johann's motivation on why he is what he is. But what they don't understand is that it really doesn't matter. Some people do things because it's the one thing (or two in Johann's case) that gives them meaning- everything else is of no consequence. I find the main protagonist/antagonist of this movie to be a combination of Johnny Depp's John Dillinger in PUBLIC ENEMIES and Barry Newman's Kowalski in VANISHING POINT. They exist only to do the one thing that matters to them and that's it.

ihrtfilms I went to this on a whim and I'm glad I did. The Robber is a tight and tension filled thriller based on real events of a convicted bank robber who released from prison goes on a new crime spree. The film is in a way quite quiet in that there is little dialogue, but we don't really need too much talk as we get enough visually.Johann is neither a likable person nor is a crazed criminal psychopath which leads the viewer to a unusual predicament in that you start to almost barrack for him. He never hurts anyone, just robs banks and in the interim goes running in marathons. In his face mask and plain clothes, he doesn't even look like he'd hurt a fly. Of course things turn nasty and caught up in the picture is a woman Erika, she, like the audience as events get worse are left with the moral dilemma of choosing an outcome for Johann. Should he get away with it or be caught and serve time? Johann himself never really expresses any real emotion so there is little to understand why he should do what he does, but this adds to the film as it gives the audience more intrigue without throwing in too many questions.Stylishly the film looks great, some beautiful scenery during one of the marathons are great. And then there are the running sequences, Johann runs a lot, to bank robberies, from robberies and then just for the hell of it. Director Benjamin Heisenberg uses some great camera work to follow Johann on these runs and in one sequence when he is chased by a cop car through a car park, the editing is effective enough to create a tense exciting sequence. The films ends with quietly, in some ways rather sadly, but others may find it a little too predictable. However the film is a great piece of work that makes the audience question itself and it's attitude towards others.More reviews at my site iheartfilms.weebly.com