Steig. Nicht. Aus!

The good intentions are obvious . The effort of Wotan Wilke Mohring is impresive. The film has few great moments . But... . Far to be bad, it has few huge sins. Against the story, it is not convincing. Second, it seems be only a strident moral lesson. Not the last, you feel the end becoming predictable. And, sure, one more problem- it is too, too long. The last seems be the basic sin.

"Steig. Nicht. Aus!" is a remake of the Spanish thriller "El desconocido" (or known in the USA under its equally non-specific title "Redemption"), and as the older movie is currently on Netflix in my region and I like to compare different adaptations of the same story, I watched the Spanish film before going into the German update.

So, having seen the same story a couple days prior, my problem with "Steig. Nicht. Aus!" wasn't as much that it was terribly made (it's at least more watchable than most movies I would give 3 stars), it's that the movie gave me nothing new that I didn't already get out of "Desconocido". In fact, some aspects of the remake are a few steps below the original.

Take, for example, the opening scene, which is the only scene that writer-director Christian Alvart doesn't lift from the Spanish version: Our main character talks to a strange woman on a plane about his fear of flying, which stems from his not being able to just step the vehicle and get out. Get it? Because he won't be able to get out of his car either, once the film stars proper. Foreshadowing!

The opening scene quickly morphs into the that of "El desconocido," and from that point onwards Christian Alvart's script is little more than a German translation of that movie's script. This practice of making the same movie again in a different language is very irritating to me, because the experience of watching this movie can be almost completely replaced by watching an earlier movie - and one that is much better made.

Much of this movie revolves around main actor Wotan Wilke Möhring sitting in a car and talking to people on his phone. Sadly, he is no Tom Hardy (or "Desconocido"-star Luis Tosar, for that matter). He alternately under- or overacts, leading to some unintentionally funny moments. Luis Tosar in "El desconocido" was able to portray different levels of concern and panic, slowly growing more stressed as the film went on. Möhring just gets rid of every emotion that isn't extreme anger or slight uncomfortableness.

The direction is equally unsubtle, with many cheesy zooms in Möhring's face when he is in beast-mode. The music is also quite overbearing, at least in the beginning. The supporting actors do a good job, and the film is overall probably quite watchable if you've got nothing better to do with your evening. If you have the choice between this and its predecessor, I would strongly advise you to watch the other one, though.

Emily Kusche Stands out. Impeccable.

Möhring is solid, sometimes great, sometimes not so much. Probably not his fault but some of the director's choices.

The sound design is not always flawless. Stemming from its direct to TV -production.

Some minor characters are mediocre at best. Especially the police chief (not Herzsprung). Overacted, dumb and kills the illusion.

Some pacing issues in the second half.

A very odd music choice for the credits.

Some even to the most oblivious viewers very concerning and obvious mistakes by the police. (Did they not have a strategic consultant?) As well as more rather bad acting.

But overall solid. Gripping. Heartfelt. And a triumph for Kusche.

7/10.

Germany production with tension, intrigue, non-stop action, twists and turns. Deals with a bank executive, who faces a risked situation when he receives a mobile phone call informing him he has just a few hours to get a large amount of money or a bomb under his seat will explode , but events are about to be worst . A loving father (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and husband is exorted by an unknown guy and he is about to lose his life, his money and his family. This Summer, all roads lead to the truth !.

Passable thriller with plenty of twists, turns and a suspenseful finale. It contains unstopped action with adequate cast and nice supporting actors giving functional performances. Wotan Wilke stars in this high-voltage thriller called 'Don't Get out ! About a matter of life and death, containing action, revenge and redemption, in which our starring receives a bomb threat while driving his children to school that his car will explode if they stop and get out. In a race against time, he will have to do the impossible to save his family. Complicating things still further , the police pursues him and surrounding his car and then events get awry.

This is a top-notch thriller about a high-powered banker submitted to weird circumstances surrounding him, that's just the starting point for him, and a bit later on , things get even wrong. A film in similar quality other Hollywood blockbusters but in German style. As this picture results to be a crossover from other benchmarking successes as well as grossing American films , such as : ¨Locke¨ by Steven Knight (2013) with Tom Hardy , "Speed" (1994) directed by Jan de Bont with Keanu Reeves , and "Phone Booth" (2002) by Joel Schumacher with Colin Farrell. This thrilling movie has a lot of action images , including pursuits , car crashes , explosion , and anything else . The plot can not be very realistic ; however, displaying several scenes have you on the edge of your seat . The picture increases the relentless tension as well as the flick progresses on screen . Thrilling and nail-biting film with a lot of scenes of drama, tension , emotion and action , all of them at equal parts . This is including an unexpected denouement in its final part . The picture is decent enough , though uneven, as developing mostly into the car, it has a lot of turns; but not very original, it is a simple and inferior remake. However , being very entertaining for its continuous suspense . The entertaining premise is overspread across the movie adding some brief conventional pitfalls .

In this remake of the Spanish film " El Desconocido (The Unknown)", Wotan Wilke plays decently a banker living in Berlin who receives a phone call while taking his children to school, as a mysterious voice tells him that the car is loaded with explosives that will detonate unless he does what it says.

Germany's ¨Steig. Nicht. Aus!¨ (Don't. Get. Out!) (2018) by Christian Alvart with Wotan Wilke Möhring is the second remake of Spain's ¨El desconocido¨ (2015) by Dani de la Torre with Luis Tosar; and after: South Korea's ¨Balsinjehan¨ (2021) and going on: ¨Retribution¨ (2023), starring Liam Neeson, Matthew Modine, this is a Germany/Spain/France/United States co-production financed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Mercedes Gamero, being directed by Nimród Antal.

This increasingly potent thriller being compellingly directed with startling visual content by Christian Alvart (Case 39, Pandorum , Antibodies , Curiosity: the cat) . In 1998, he wrote, produced and directed his first 35mm feature film: Curiosity & The Cat, - a low budget thriller-. Many of his friends from the Frankfurt days were part of the project. The film was nominated for the Max-Ophüls-Award and the Prize of the Minister President of the State Saarland. Alvart then worked as a writer for several German features and TV shows. In 2005, he debuted Antibodies, his second work as a director. When it premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival he was named as one of "Five Directors To Watch" as well as the "German New Face of Cinema" at The AFI Festival. Antibodies was also invited to the Edinburgh Film Festival as well as many others, winning numerous awards. Rating Steig Nicht Aus !: 6/10.

This movie had me nailed to my seat, or rather: seats. I had to make two attempts at watching it. I am a father of two myself, and the first time round I had to turn off the tv when things got to tough for the kids. But the seed was sown and I found myself wondering what the heck was going on in this story, and I needed to find out. So I watched the rest online two days later. I don't regret it. I felt the pain of the father, wondered about the villain and his next moves, got angry at the police making bad mistakes, and rooted for the heros. And at the end I realized that this is what good movies do.

P.S.: Emily Kusche did a fantastic job. I loved her even better than Wilke Möhring. In every second, the emotional state she displayed reflected precisely the situation she was in.