Zeiten ändern Dich (2010) User Reviews

The problem of this movie is Bushido...

[xanten-edmund · 1/10 · 8 February 2010]

It's easy to understand the dilemma of this movie. Although it was produced and written by German veteran Bernd Eichinger and directed by Uli Edel, who brought us 'Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo', the fact that it is with and about German rapper Bushido kills off their momentum.

In fact, I assume, that all efforts of making an 8-mile-like biopic about Bushido are simply money-related. This movie and the upcoming Bushido album are supposed to create a synergy, that equals a cash printing license.

This alone would be business, but the problem is, as I mentioned, Bushido himself. To make a biopic about someone, that someone needs to have an interesting story. And quite frankly: Bushido, or Anis, does not. The overall ark about his father problems is way too thin to hold all of it together and where Eminem was living in a real sh*t hole in 8 Mile, Bushido had a caring mother, a relatively stable youth and no real back story, why he became what he is today.

To link 9/11 with his initial decision to begin with rap, is in case it is just storytelling very dumb. If it is actually true, it proves my point, that his story is not worth making a movie about.

Given the basics of Bushidos relatively uninspired life, the script can't be good - Eichinger tried as hard as he could to give the film some structure, but it doesn't work out. That leads to uninspired performances by all German veteran actors in Zeiten ändern dich, like Hannelore Elsner and Moritz Bleibtreu.

And than there is Bushidos own acting. The final scene with his father that is supposed to show some sense of forgiveness is a perfect example for it: He just doesn't deliver. It should have been the most important bit of the movie, but it lacks emotion and... yes, acting abilities.

1/10 is my vote for this one. Not because it is a real 1/10, maybe it would be up to 2 or 3. It's because it has a crew and cast, who could have easily delivered a really good film - one that had a real story to tell. Eichinger produced the Oscar-nominated Downfall and now it comes to this... a all time low in his career.

What i liked about the movie...

[bodo13 · 1/10 · 7 February 2010]

...nothing.

There is so much bad acting of the main character, it is just funny (even if not intended).

I do not write this often, but this is probably the worst movie ever. Even in P*en Movies there is better acting, better looking actors and even more meaningful dialogs.

The Story is that there is no story. The Gangsta-Rapper pretends to be a tough boy and shows the world how he can sell drugs and keep talking nicely to his mom.

Don't waste your time watching this!

Its realky a good film of a good rapper

[ambrosiusjohnny · 10/10 · 10 July 2020]

I love Bushido and i love his Movie,the story is really beautiful and the actors are not the best but also not bad.

Unfair treatment

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 12 February 2017]

"Zeiten ändern Dich" or "Time You Change" is a German movie from 2010 that runs for slightly under 90 minutes (without credits) and you can basically call it a biopic about the German rap musician Bushido. The film is based on his biography and he also played himself in here, mostly in the second half. It is also based on Bushido's biography. The screenplay is by the late Bernd Eichinger, a bit of a legend here in Germany still, even if he also produced a lot of garbage. The director is Uli Edel and same description fits him too, even if he probably gets even less respect than Eichinger. Now about the movie itself: First of all, if you look at the cast, this is really pretty impressive: Elsner, Bleibtreu, Bloéb, Schuch, M'Barek, Ochsenknecht, Flint, Tander and Semmelrogge are names that German film buffs will recognize immediately. And they are also the reason why the movie works out pretty nicely overall. Yes here and there, we see a moment of weak line delivery, but sometimes it is not even Bushido (not a trained actor at all) who brings these. Actually, I thought he held his own very well for the most part against these experienced actors. I was positively surprised. His voice-over narration may have been on the weak side on some occasions perhaps, but not in a way that it breaks the film either.

The story is rock-solid too. Of course, you can ask yourself if Bushido is a man who deserves a biopic, but honestly he was on top here in Germany in what he did for a long time and I think less deserving people got one, so why not. The story he tells here about his family, his girlfriends, about drugs, about his buddies and of course about his music was interesting to watch at most of the time. Sure, here and there, they may have added stuff for dramatic purposes, but this is the case in every (biographical) movie I believe. So no problem here either. And honestly, the final performance by Karel Gott (and Bushido) gave me goose bumps at times. Nice closure here for sure. This review comes from somebody who is not a fan of Bushido's music in general at all, but we should not close our minds to what we don't appreciate and still give it a chance. That's why I ended up enjoying these 1.5 hours quite a bit for sure. It's never boring, never fake and never weakly crafted in opinion. I think that the quantity of haters is immense here looking at the rating, but this is actually a good movie and I recommend checking it out. It does not deserve to be anywhere near the likes of "Kartoffelsalat" or "Bruder vor Luder", 2 very recent, very crappy German films as well who deserve a 1 or 2 on the left side of the rating. This one here is far far superior and it is actually closer to a 4 out of 5 than to a 2 out of 5. Go see it. Don't get distracted by all the people giving this a 1 because 90% or more of these certainly have not even watched it, but voted because of their personal dislike of Bushido. Their loss.

A total ...

[theraptor-2 · 1/10 · 25 March 2010]

... train wreck. Dunno where to start, really. Avoid at all costs.

I have to add ten lines of text, so I'll say that producer Bernd Eichinger and director Uli Edel probably wanted to print money quickly on the relative popularity of vulgar talk singer Anis Ferchichi, aka "Bushido". However, "Bushido's" star seems to be sinking, maybe because it's hard to keep streetcred with mostly immigrant youth when the cultural and political elite is kissing your behind. And the ruling party, the "Christian-Democratic-Union" invites you to join its ranks. Add to that 13 cases of proved (and costly) plagiarism and maybe the film came out a few moths late for making money. Despite its seeming to have been hastily produced. Meh, this time stealer will soon be forgotten like its subject.

Excellent

[user-156-308073 · 8/10 · 15 January 2017]

I really do not care about 2.8 score or whatsoever. This is a good movie I lived in Berlin and the movie can make you feel as if you were there. Bushido is no actor that is true still the message comes through: stay firm in your believes and let nobody tell you how to behave.. One of my favorite movies. I think the low score is a result of audience not coping w/ the fact that a father indeed can ruin a family's life because feeling as an outcast in a foreign country. This German viewers could not take. More to that Arafat and Bushido's relationship w/ crime families whatsoever made him a very bad press also. I do not care about that neither. The movies mood and the German reality in real life comes through and that's enough for me to give it 8 stars. Performances are solid, dialogues are sometimes weak but please take into consideration that this is a movie about a singer who rocked German media and basically changed the rules Germans are looking to immigrants.

Zeiten ändern Dich - times really change you

[Pizdolu · 10 August 2010]

In order to make a more comprehensive assessment I would like to divide my review into 2 categories. First of all, what I liked about the movie: -the thing which really stands out is Bushido's music; the soundtrack is exquisite, his rap has never sounded better; the rhymes and the beats are something very different from what you normally hear on TV-this is the film's saving grace -I enjoyed the idea that his mother supported him in becoming a rapper given how bad an image rap still has today in some countries -he seems to be the kind of guy who enjoys his fame in real life and this is very important -the concert scenes in the end of the film suit him; that's what Bushido does best

Now for the bad part: -it's definitely clear that he's not a good actor; he even lacks the skills to portray himself on the big screen; other cast members outperform him and this tends to be quite embarrassing at times -the plot of the film is non-existent and uninteresting -the resemblance to Eminem's 8 Mile is uncanny; it really makes you wonder: if 50 cent couldn't make it why would Bushido? -the overall acting is poor

As a conclusion, my grade for this film would be a 5 out of 10 at most. I would only recommend it to Bushido fans and to anyone who would like to get a taste of how good German rap has become. On a more optimistic note, please take the time and buy at least one of Bushido's major albums (7, Heavy Metal Payback, Zeiten ändern Dich) and you'll see why I've been praising his music so much.

In one word: Pathetic

[t_atzmueller · 1/10 · 16 November 2014]

People who are interested in French movies might recall the 1995 movie „La Haine", about the everyday life of a group of „social misfits" in the seedier part of Paris Don't let the word "gangsta" fool you. "Gangsta" stands for social ghettos in the big cities, where the immigrant youth lives in relative (financial- and social-security-wise) comfort and have nothing better to do than to imagine the run-down neighborhoods to be real ghettos like they have them in the States. This includes mimicking (if not to say "aping") American Rap- and Hip-Hop-culture, which to them implies loitering in the streets, trying to look tough (the "crime-scenes" are generally limited to stealing bikes and selling marijuana) and producing an embarrassing imitation of Hip Hop music. In other words: these kids wouldn't last 24 hours in a real ghetto, be it in Britain or the slums surrounding Paris, let alone the "real deal" in the US.

As to the music: I'm not the biggest fan of Hip Hop but understand the appeal it has to the audience and find myself intrigued by the often poetic lyrical content. What is megalomaniacal labelled "Deutsch-Rap" is an embarrassing stutter, accompanied by loose wiggling of fingers in an attempt to ape gang-signs and the "provocation" of the lyrics is limited to adding as many profanities as you can.

Anis Ferchichi (whose "street-name" Bushido would normally put a chuckle on your face, if it wouldn't continue to appear in the tabloids und so-called "Unterschichten-TV" now and again) tries to come across as some kind of Enimem-Rapper, but fails at all levels, be it acting, rapping or conveying any sense of charisma. It's a performance that can only defined by the word "embarrassing", whether you like his music or not.

The real tragedy is the participation of people like Hannelore Elsner, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ulli Edel (hard to believe that this is the same director who gave us "Christiane F: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) and Bernd Eichinger (this being one of his final productions), who are otherwise accomplished players in the German film-industry and should have known better than to associate themselves with tripe like this. But I guess it's kind of telling where the money ranks in the overall scheme. In other words: it's right "up there" with films like the Justin Bieber vehicle "Never Say Never" or Ulli Lommels "Daniel der Zauberer" (which, if memory serves, are all rightfully united in the IMDb Bottom-100-List).

1/10

This movie deserves more then what people give it.

[grella713 · 10/10 · 21 April 2011]

There are a lot of people that are just giving bad reviews of this movie, I honestly think that they do not know what they are talking about and are just jerks. I love this movie, it has a really great message at the end. Bushido's acting wasn't all that bad, people keep saying how terrible of an actor he was in this film, but he wasn't, he did an alright job, and it shouldn't really matter because he's a rapper, not a big time actor, he wasn't any worse then Eminem in 8-Mile, and everybody is saying how great that movie was. I would definitely recommend watching this movie, it'll be a need experience to see the life of a German Rapper, who is actually one of my favorite rappers in Germany. If you live in the United States I know it's hard to find this movie, but there are ways, but I can't promise you English subtitles for it is not Dubbed, so hopefully you'll know a little German so you can understand, and even if you can't, you can still tell what is going on in the movie just by watching it.

"Zeiten ändern dich", but the movie doesn't

[miakaw · 3/10 · 8 February 2010]

First of all I have to admit the movie was somehow entertaining, otherwise I probably would not have watched it until the end.

I appreciate most of the movies by Bernd Eichinger. And since I've been interested in the beginning of Bushidos rap career, also his personal backgrounds, I were pretty curious about this film.

Unfortunately i had to observe that the movie regardlessly skips several important events and persons which contributed a lot to pave the way for Bushido's success. And these are not the only aspects which Bushido obviously liked to cut out. The whole movie seems to be like a commercial for Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi. But the problem about commercials is their missing story. The film consists of a succession of petty scenes which are unrelated to the title and the purposed intension. The only thing that changed over time is the relation between the protagonist and his father and I strongly doubt this is worth making a movie about it.

The extremely poor acting by Bushido and his colleagues even affects the performances of other the other actors which are usually very good. Most of the scenes are totally affected and superfluous.. as for instance the one in which some random guy is looking for his fiancée which is gang-banged in a tour bus.

The major problem about 'Zeiten ändern dich' is that the movie is clearly a fairy tale, although it's not meant to be one. Even though I'd assume every scene really happened as shown, most of them are simply insignificant and not relevant for the story.

Bushido want's to tell a story, but all that remains are phrases like 'Respekt war schon immer eine Sache, die wichtig war für mich.' He wants to tell how he finally grew up but leaves us with a feeling that he still didn't.

Why you shouldn't star in your own story aka this movie will most likely not change you

[kosmasp · 2/10 · 17 October 2010]

I guess most of the people who reviewed the movie, didn't like Bushido. I can only guess that most of them thought he was full of himself. Maybe that comes down to the fact, that his acting isn't really up to the task. And it's most unfortunate, though I'm not sure why the director would want to cast him in the movie, if he saw any sort of test screening/performance of Bushido.

Bushido on the other hand is best, when he is singing. You can feel his energy and power when he performs. Unlucky us, we don't get to see him that often in that "mode". When he is talking about his life or things happening, it sounds like he was forced to read something of a paper and trying to get back at the people who forced them, by not putting any emotion into the reading at all.

Not everything will have happened as told here (I'm assuming, especially the very "dramatic" ending) and this will mostly appeal to fans ... I don't think he will gain new fans, with the movie ... But decide for yourself if you're brave enough

This was trash..

[theaven-59003 · 1/10 · 11 October 2020]

I have make an account here for to rate this trash-movie. It's outstandig trash. 1000 lies in this Movie and his story. Bushido will push his self as it possible. 90min waste of time, thanks for this. 1 Star Rating