Customer Reviews

The Challenge: 2005

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There's a reason German cinema isn't widely viewed outside of Deutschland: in Germany, we love our talk shows, cop dramas, soap operas, and MTV knockoff stations, but the country isn't too great about producing feature films of global interest. Every once in a while, there'll be recognition for something like Downfall, but that's the exception. Germany is no Hollywood, and a few years ago, it was almost impossible to imagine the making of a German martial arts movie. Then Mathis Landwehr came about and gave Tony Jaa reason to fear his competition. Joining the likes of Scott Adkins, Marco Zaror, and Matt Mullins as among the new breed of aspiring kung fu stars, Landwehr is the perfect man to put Germany on the map as a worthy contributor to the action genre. Where low-budget karate fare is concerned, "Challenge" (aka "Der letzte Schüler") stands among the best of 'em.

The story: in the near future, a new order arises in Germany (and presumably all Europe) that sees the government dismantled and modern weaponry rendered obsolete. In this new world, the evil pupil of one of the last masters of the fighting arts kills the teacher of Jonas Klingenberg (Landwehr) in scorn - not considering that the student will return to lead a civil uprising against him and his storm trooper campaign.

In actuality, this is as much a vehicle for fellow martial artists Volkram Zschiesche and villain Christian Monz as it is for Landwehr: the trio of them cause for some of the most memorable fights I have ever seen that don't involve wires. Admittedly, I am not entirely up-to-date on German action flicks, but I think I would've known if there was anything this physically cool coming out of my home country priorly. Like the first time I saw Tony Jaa perform, I watched these three in action and wondered "is there ANYTHING these guys can't do?" As acrobatic as they are technically sound, the three of them blend traditional martial arts with performance acrobatics and weapons-handling to a fresh degree in six showstopping fights... Alright, maybe only four of those fights are actually great, seeing as a couple scenes feature shamelessly sped-up footage and annoying quick-cut editing. To my surprise, the movie inexplicably dropped this lackluster style early on to let the grandeur of performances shine through. Right on.

The movie doesn't let its budget constraints show, making good use of its ghetto/underground shooting locations and casting a surprising amount of its supporting base from the country's Vietnamese population. Production values are strong with passable CGI. By large, the acting is acceptable, save for the villainous Christian Monz who hams it up the worst side of Matt Schulze. He's accompanied by his equally evil sister Kleo (Zora Holt), and for some bizarre reason, they were written to be incestuous - best portrayed by a very uncomfortable scene in a hot tub. While this aspect is made painfully obvious, other parts of the film are left too ambiguous...like the relationship between Jonas and the girl who nurses him back to health in the beginning of the movie (yes, he starts off dying), the identity/backstory of the disfigured executioner who wants to roast Zschiesche's feet (Bela Felsenheimer, drummer of Die Ärzte), or even why firearms no longer work in this age. In the long run, the movie isn't dying for an explanation, but it wouldn't have hurt to elaborate a bit.

Though devoid of any special features, the film is presented in its uncut form and features the original German language track, which is good. Needless to say, you oughtn't pick up this film for its dramatic content, but if you're an action junkie with a hard-to-satisfy addiction, "Challenge" is up to supplying a thoroughly satisfying fix. Get it!

This review is for the Amazon VOD rental of this film. This is a fairly
good German martial arts movie. Not much of a story but the fight scenes
are all nicely done. I would say hardcore martial arts fans would get a
kick out of this flick. This film is in German with English subtitles.
I would also like to say that Zora Holt is one beautiful woman and I would
have enjoyed seeing more of her in this movie.

this is awesome german martial art movie.the stick fighting was the best good script and good actorsand a ho lot of action and just a little bit humor i would watch this movie over and over it that good

Okay, the fight scenes are more or less okay but the storyline of this movie is pretty worthless. You might as well look up some decent fight scenes on youtube since they are for free.