Scouts of Peace

BND agent Frank Kern (Jürgen Prochnow) is ambushed by the KGB when he tries to get the future president of Katchistan out of the country and to Berlin for an important peace conference. With contact with their best agent severed and time running out, those in charge at the BND have only one choice: they must ask former GDR spy Jochen Falk (Henry Hübchen) to help them. Together with his former team - Jacky the technician (Michael Gwisdek), Locke the logistician (Thomas Thieme) and the once perfect seducer Harry (Winfried Glatzeder)- Falk is persuaded to join the mission. After all, he still has a score to settle with Kern. The pensioners allow themselves to be infiltrated into Katchekistan together with the young BND agent Paula Kern (Antje Traue), not suspecting that the mission will go quite differently than planned.

The story of Scouts of Peace is actually a really good idea. Reactivating a group of retired agents and sending them into a crisis area with a young female colleague is a thoroughly amusing premise for an agent comedy. The old men are perfectly cast, especially with Henry Hübchen and Michael Gwisdek. And director Robert Thalheim has also proven himself to be an accomplished filmmaker with such diverse films as Westwind or Am Ende kommen Touristen. All good prerequisites, but not enough to produce an all-round successful work.

The problem with the comedy is that it is nice and entertaining, but nothing more. Here and there it shows the necessary bite, which again is noticeably lacking in other places. In some moments, it just lacks the necessary oomph, while in other scenes, it's simply the comedic timing that doesn't work. This is a shame in that the ingredients are actually all spot on. The ensemble is well chosen - including Hollywood export Antje Traue - and plays with obvious fun in the whole thing. The story also has potential, which flashes through entertainingly here and there.

It's not entirely apparent whether it's the script, or the direction, that keeps slamming on the brakes here before the full potential of the felicitous aspects can unfold. The fact is that the film weakens in the very points that actually make for great cinema entertainment. Rather, Scouts of Peace comes across as solid TV entertainment: You can watch it, it's entertaining. But you really don't need to have seen it in the cinema. A little more courage for vicious satire could have worked wonders here. Therefore, in the end, the only thing that can be said here is: All involved have made an effort, but in the end, unfortunately, the film that could have been Scouts of Peace didn't come out. And that's why there is only with cutbacks still a worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp