Movie Review: The Clown: Payday

The Clown: Payday (Der Clown - Tag der Vergeltung)

Action Concept Film- und Stuntproduktion, Germany, 2005. 

Der Clown was a action-packed German TV-series near the turn of the Millennium. The movie continues the story four years after the series ended. 

Max Zander (Sven Martinek) was a cop who became vigilante hero the Clown when criminals killed his friend. He had friends Dobbs (Thomas Anzenhofer) and Claudia (Diana Frank) to help him in the fight against crime. After the series Claudia was murdered and the Clown has gone underground working as a mall guard. 

Max Zander

Der Clown

Claudia's reporter sister Leah (Eva Habermann) got a hot tip about armored van robbery. She is taken hostage, so Max must stop glooming (that's enough for the character development) and go back to action with his pilot-friend Dobbs. But it's a trap as supercriminal Zorbek (Götz Otto) wants to eliminate the Clown before making the robbery of the century. Also old nemesis Commissioner Führmann (Andreas Schmidt-Schaller) wants to arrest the Clown for obstructing police work, causing general mayhem and jaywalking.

Leah

Mona (Xenia Seeberg) and Zorbek

Big budget Euro action film uses tricks learnt from Hollywood but maintaining the style of German krimi series. Comic book action is combined with joking remarks, it is all silly but fun check out your brain entertainment. The plot is simple, heroes against the bad guys. This is a B-movie with A-movie budget and the stunts have taken most of the money. A decent amount of vehicles and airplanes are wrecked in award winning stunts with big explosions made with real effects. The Clown's team always sticks together (BFFs!) contrasting Zorbek's team who are always backstabbing their own team-members. Sven Martinek has rugged Teutonic charisma with Thomas Anzenhofer as his trusty sidekick and of the bad guys Xenia Seeberg (Sven's ex-girlfriend) steals the show as deadly vamp.

Synthpop song from the movie: Wolfsheim: Kein Zurück.

Rating: Good

Starring: Sven Martinek, Thomas Anzenhofer, Eva Habermann, Götz Otto, Andreas Schmidt-Schaller, Xaver Hutter, Xenia Seeberg, Dirk Heinrichs, Martin Brambach, Patrice Bouédibéla, Horst Sachtleben, Oscar Ortega Sánchez, Bernhard Hoëcker, Thomas Born, Claudia Mehnert, Stefan Gebelhoff, Frank-Leo Schröder, Crisjan Zöllner, Stefan Richter, André Hartkopf, Stefan Weinert, Karoline Heinrich, Christian Beuter, Diana Frank, Paul Henning Gödderz, Pat Murphy
Directors: Sebastian Vigg, Roland Leyer