Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei 2004

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Unless you're the sort who has a Che Guevara T-shirt tucked away somewhere in your closet, the needlessly long The Edukators wears out its welcome. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: For a film that points out so much wrong with German society and shows such dubious, dangerous behavior, it leaves the audience with high spirits and a sense of crazy exhilaration. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Ambitious but ultimately lackluster drama about the conflict between extremist politics and selfish human nature. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: With greater critical distance on the filmmaker's part, and a disciplined use of the editing scissors, it might have been something substantial. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Like its protagonists, it means well, but gets mixed up. Too easily. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: Captures the frustration of those who sense something deeply dysfunctional in the political and economic status quo but feel impotent do anything about it. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: There's an evenhanded humanism flowing through 'The Edukators that may strike doctrinaire viewers on either side of the divide as mushy, but it's tough enough for the rest of us to chew on for a long time. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: A sweet, funny and gripping romantic adventure, it's about the limitations of political activism in this day and age, and what happens when your girlfriend and your best friend fall in love. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The first film to anatomize the contradictions of the rage-against-the-machine generation. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: For a movie that cautions against the crass commercialization of countercultural iconography, The Edukators seems far less interested in changing the world than in printing up some really cool T-shirts. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: The film is less a bohemian thrill ride than a slow lecture. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The dialogue between the captive and the captors gets a little didactic, and the ending is as contrived as it is cynical. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Three young Berliners frustrated at the iniquities of global capitalism cross the line that separates provocation and protest from serious crime. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: This year's most articulate statement on film about the current disillusion with politics among young people everywhere in the Western world. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It ends interestingly, but it would've ended better, and played better, had it been half an hour shorter. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Plays out like an ambivalent political tract, full of dissatisfaction but no conclusions. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: What is interesting to watch are the unexpected turns that occur when a jilted lover, a kidnapped rich capitalist and a pair of new lovers are cooped up in an isolated chalet. Read more

Time Out: Read more

David Rooney, Variety: Ambling drama shows an exasperating lack of economy and a weakness for diatribe dialogue, but becomes progressively more involving after a laborious start. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Shot on shoddy, harsh-lit DV, The Edukators casts Hardenberg as the avuncular voice of reason, his fat-cat complacency the destination point of a rational adulthood. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A deft, entertaining story that mixes menace with charm and satire with seriousness. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The whole thing feels messy, painful, funny and believable, just like that hideous circus known as real life. Read more