Anatomie 2 DVD > Reviews > Unbelievably stretched sequel

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Disliked it
Story	Very weak
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Unmemorable

Advantages:	Well - paced, all - star cast, superb special effects
Disadvantages:	Somewhat hollow, inconsequential, outrageous

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Following my review of the prequel to this last week, I give you now the second installment of the increasingly far-fetched premise that is Stefan Ruzowitzky's "Anatomie 2".

Picking up where we left off, the Anti-Hippocratic Lodge is at large again, this time in a Berlin hospital. We see the story through the protagonist, Jo Hauser, a young doctor who moves to a classy upmarket Berlin hospital to work. Soon he joins the evil Lodge and starts to compromise his integrity in order to achieve fame and also to help his crippled brother Willi who suffers from some muscular degenerative disease. He learns their unethical ways and discovers a new medical approach of implanting bionic muscles into the human body (illegally of course). With the help of a Filipino nurse he soon realises his folly and must work against time to save the many lives who are at stake.

The movie is very slick and fast, a lot like "Confidence" and its all-star cast reads like a who's who in German cinema with pretty faces aplenty. We have the omnipresent Herbert Knaup starring as the evil mastermind professor, Franka Potente returning as Paula Henning from the prequel for a cameo, and also the absolutely delicious Heike Makatsch as the reckless femme fatale accomplice. Even the Filipino nurse is played by the gorgeous Philipino-Irish Brit Rosie Alvarez. Their performance is largely commendable but I feel that they have been let down by the flow and direction of the film. Despite an array of superb special effects that look more real than any other slashers I have seen, the movie disappoints because it lacks credibility.

You can get an idea of what I'm on about if you watched some featurettes in the extras -there were many scenes the director confessed to omitting because the test audience felt it was too outlandish to believe i.e. the bionic muscles enabled the cast to jump like X-Men. Unfortunately, perhaps not enough of these similar concepts were weeded out and I felt like I had sat through a very inconsequential movie.

I would not recommend this to the average viewer but only to die-hard slasher fans who would settle for any kind of suspense with knives. The DVD is loaded with extras though -some deleted scenes, story board comparisons, alternate scenes, trailers and interviews. However, the price is well over ten pounds and I thank God I only rented it.

Watch at your own peril.

Thank you for your time.

***---Yet another easy-to-read HabitualDamnation review---***
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