ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Michel This is my first review for any title. I have watched a whole lot of movies, but never before felt so strongly an urge to share my opinion. I was actually looking forward to this one! I liked the underlying theme and always enjoy Moritz Bleibtreu, one of our few great actors. He did deliver an outstanding performance - the movie nonetheless didn't. Here's why: - The change of hearts of the main character is pretty much done in a cut from one scene in which he's still a self-loathing TV producer to the next where he isn't. Not much of a development there. It just sort of happens. The characters are all shallow and one-dimensional AND badly acted (except for the lead, which Bleibtreu plays as well as the retarded script allows him to)The great problem the movie is based on DOES NOT EVEN EXIST! They say that TV quotas control everything in TV and keep quality stuff from being broadcasted. Now that may be true to privately owned networks - in Germany though (as in other countries, too) it is stipulated by the law that public networks have to uphold a certain standard of "higher culture" and information in the public's interest. These networks are paid for directly by everyone whether they like it or not and do neither rely on advertising nor quotas! How can a TV producer achieve such a standing without understanding the difference between private and public networks? We all sure do! Maybe the writer should have researched just a tad more.Even if the fact I stated above wasn't true: A society is not defined by what is shown on TV. Even if there weren't public networks but nothing but trash and stupidity on every channel: There's still cinema, literature, music, any kinds of art one can access without a TV. Believe it or not: If you have read a book or magazine or visited an exposition someday without having had your TV telling you to, you rendered the movie's sentiment false by doing so.In the course of events Rainer and his fellow short-thinkers suspect the quotas to be rigged: Instead of a genuine elicitation they are instead forged by a few evil TV masterminds. While that is surprisingly not true, later in the movie the group around Rainer become just precisely what they feared to be the truth: a small group of people deciding on the quotas. How could nobody see that?! I thought "well, maybe that's where the movie shows us how they become corrupted by their newfound power" or something in the likes of that - but no, the moment passes and nobody seems to bat an eye.The movie states that there is bad and good TV. Nothing in between. The group never once fight about a broadcast some like whereas others don't. They just agree on everything, saving the movie from an interesting turn of events.When they find out that the quotas are in fact not rigged but very much accurate, they wonder how people could actually like and willingly watch trash TV. Rainer postulates that by having the networks shove trash into their audience's eyes for long enough, the viewers regarded the trash to be normal and started to demand it. Solution: Shove quality TV in their faces until the process repeats in favor of that. If this is true: Is such a society worth being saved? Is anyone who just blindly consumes like that really going to appreciate a screening of, say, Eraserhead? This is a horrible dystopia - and again, nobody seems to worry about that.After "the world is saved" and quality broadcasts have replaced the trash which was sent before, people can be seen going outside again - so now that it would actually be good to watch, they don't. What? Is all that's left to say.All in all, this movie is a case in point for "TV is stupid" and, following it's sentiment, should have kept itself from being made. Avoid if you are looking for an intelligent, well crafted and well written movie. Watch, if you also enjoy videos of people falling on their faces. This is basically the same.

Brooke Morriswood (This review was written after I saw the film at the Toronto film Festival in September '07)For anyone struggling to find an artistic direction, a new voice, or inspiration, this is a must. Blisteringly angry, intelligent, subversive, and furiously cynical about contemporary society, this is film-making as it should be.Wingartner's target is the dumbing-down of popular culture, primarily via the medium of lowest common denominator television. It tells the story of Reiner, a TV executive specialising in Reality TV - his latest project involves a sperm race between three contestants to win the opportunity to impregnate a woman - who experiences a Damascene conversion following an encounter with a woman whose grandfather committed suicide after being falsely indicted in one of Reiner's news shows. When his attempt to introduce intelligent programming bombs, Reiner decides to artificially manipulate the TV ratings to force the channels to alter their schedules in favour of more informed material. Gathering a motley collection of unemployed workers - the unlikeliest band of anarchists you'll ever see - he audaciously sets off his own cultural revolution.A relatively simple story is wonderfully elaborated by a marvellously sympathetic cast. Moritz Bleibtrau (now definitely laying claim to being the most interesting actor working today - just look at his resume for the last 9 years) gives a tour de force as Reiner. His character's metamorphosis from coke-snorting, brash yuppie to contemplative, passionate man of reason is never less than convincing and a wonderful exhibition of his range and charisma. He's ably supported by the luminous Elsa Shultz Gambard (unbelievably making her major film debut) as his guiding angel. The direction - though potentially overindulging in montages just a bit - is uniformly superb, allowing the actors free rein to tell the story. Nonetheless, Weingartner's deferential camera is fully capable of stepping to the fore - the opening 6 minutes constitute probably the most exhilarating car sequence I've seen this year. Though dealing with decidedly academic, political and radical themes, "Reclaim your brain"'s 129 minutes absolutely fly by. It's a blast.Anyone into cinema should see this film. Anyone who's bewailed current popular culture should see this film. Anyone who'd champion education over soma, action over passivity, or quality over quantity should see this film. And I mean SEE. At the post-movie Q&A, Weingarter was disturbingly pessimistic about his ability to continue to make films. Getting the money to make this feature has apparently been a real struggle, and he claims to have sunk most of his money from "The Edukators" into the project. "How can I continue," he asked "if the people who aren't interested in this never see it (he reckons it'll never be on TV), and those who are copy the DVD or download it? Cinema tickets and DVD sales are all I have." I'm not going to preach regarding the crime of copying/downloading, but it'd be a genuine atrocity if this man went out of work. PLease, go see.

kalafudra The acting was exceptionally well for a German movie - I don't know if I just notice bad acting more easily when it's in German (it is my mother tongue after all) or if it's really rare in the German film biz to have good actors. Anyway, in this movie it was well done (and if I think about Stipe Erceg in "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" that's also not always the case in Weingartner's movies). Unfortunately the actors had to fight with cliché after cliché being thrust upon them. The cocaine-sniffing, not giving a damn about anything media guy, the socio phobic computer nerd who spends his time with conspiracy theories (by the way, Weingartner should probably talk with the psychiatric association - he obviously has buried somewhere in his movie a miraculous cure for a psychosis, seeing as Philipp is socio phobic and then a couple of weeks later he isn't anymore, not really anyway) and the revolutionary who is just a hurt little girl inside. Characterisation gets a little better towards the end, at least for the main characters. Sadly, it's not enough to give them any depth. The directing style was very conservative - the initial characterisation of Rainer, the news paper clips or the raid - there's nothing we haven't seen before. It's not badly directed but in connection with the "revolutionary" content (not the content itself being revolutionary - we've all seen movies about the bad bad media biz, but the film being about revolution) it could have used some more revolutionary directing. As in "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" (I'm sorry for the constant comparison between those two movies but they are so similar, not only in style but also in content that it just forces itself on me :), Weingartner uses lengthy monologues to explain why revolution is good/necessary/the thing to do, which can and does get boring. Fortunately, there are some funny scenes, although he sometimes tries too hard. The morale of the story is inconsequential at best. Because it obviously is a victory for everybody that people stop watching TV altogether to read books or to go for a walk: So bad TV makes people stupid and good TV makes people stop watching TV? Also, Rainer stresses more than once that you should trust people to be able to handle intelligent TV. But by manipulating the quota, he doesn't even give them a choice. Isn't his approach to force-feed them the good stuff as bad as force-feed them the bad stuff?

CORITO1 I saw this movie yesterday in the San Sebastian Film Festival. I liked the message a lot.A German TV executive has a wake-up call and changes his life ,supporting a culture-driven society.In these days , TV programs are usually rubbish, and a lot people think in that way, it's difficult to find programs with real interest. So Reclaim your Brain for me is a very good title. We,Citizens, are very tired of this rubbish we are sold day over day. we can change the world!.But this change is not in the movies, but In our everyday's life.thank you to all the crew of this movie for doing this picture.