Undescribable Perfection

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fresh and Exciting

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is "Ein Käfer gibt Vollgas", the second film from the West German German-language Käfer film series, about a very special brand of car. The writer and director is Rudolf Zehetgruber again and he also acts like he does in the first film. The runtime is also similar at approximately 90 minutes. But there are differences too, for example the first film was a whole lot about the rally aspect and this one here focuses on different Käfer-themed action. I would not say it is worse than the first, which is usually a compliment for a sequel, but the problem here is that the first was already pretty bad. Zehetgruber got Blacky Fuchsberger in here to play the main character, which is certainly a main reason why audiences watched this sequel and probably also why it has more reviews here on IMDb than the first. But Fuchsberger alone cannot make this a good film. I found it very absurd, very over-the-top again many times, but sadly not very interesting. Not at all. Then again, I have absolutely zero interest in cars, so my lack of interest can be explained this way perhaps. Other than that, I still believe that the writing that had nothing to do with cars was also far from convincing. Thumbs down. Watch something else instead.

In the 1970s, German filmmakers - obviously inspired by the huge success of the Disney movie THE LOVE BUG - made several movies about another Beetle with extraordinary abilities. Though this one was painted yellow instead of white, and was computer-powered instead of having a magical personality. This entry in the series, SUPERBUG: SUPER AGENT, is one of the better entries of the series, though if you have seen all of the movies in this series as I have, you'll know that's not saying much.The main problem I had with the movie was that for the most part it was boring. You would think that this super car would be prominent throughout the movie, but it's actually less prominent than you'd think. There are actually large chunks of the movie where the car is offscreen. Most of the part is focused on some unfunny gangsters up to stuff that as an adult I found both boring and confusing. I can only imagine that kids - who are the primary audience for this movie - will be in agony watching it.When the car IS in the movie, it's kind of disappointing. There are a couple of okay slapstick fights where the car beats up some human goons, but as for the rest of the car footage, the movie strangely focuses on the car floating on water over and over and over and over and over and over again.The movie does showcase Portugal somewhat, something I have never seen in a movie (Hollywood or otherwise) before. But overall the movie is not one I would recommend you seek out, on TV or DVD. Speaking of the (American) DVD for the movie, it uses a crummy-looking print (as they did for the other SUPERBUG movies they also released here) that is bleeped for rough language and is missing some footage I remember seeing when I watched the movie on TV years earlier.

The direct sequel of "Ein Käfer geht aufs Ganze", which took place in Africa. "Ein Käfer gibt Vollgas" begins with Dudu's (Jimmy Bondie's computer-bug) arrival at the Algarve having swam from Dar-es-Salaam to south Portugal. There Bondie accidentally meets with Plato, some kind of an secret international cop, fighting some bad guys. Dudu, who's programmed to fight back when he's insulted, beats all the villains.Bondie is in this film a member of "General Service", an underground foundation which accepts any mission which does not violate the law. Bondie, his team (Maggie and Cyril) and of course Dudu help Plato to fight the Gangster-Boss Senor Marchese de la Sota and his men, who are searching for the missing hallmark stamp to produce fake money.The film is full of action and cheap but astonishing special effects and has a cool story with many German popular actors of the 70ies. E.g. Joachim Fuchsberger (Plato) who was a famous show-master in Germany and actor of most Edgar Wallace detective movies. Also Heidi Hansen (Tamara)who was known by every German in the 70ies, because she always acted in German 70ies music hit films.The soundtrack of the movie is groovy and the punch-sound effects are like those from the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill films! I'm surprised that this typical German movie was shown in other countries, too. I recognize that it is considered as trash by not-Germans, because it is trash!!!! But good trash!!!!

It is a paradoxical situation when one finds a comedy, thats so bad it's actually funny. It requires a lot of laughing in the "wrong places".Although surely not intended, Ein Käfer gibt Vollgas almost works as a parody of the films it tries to rip off: Disney's Love Bug and it's sequels.Any sense, plot or genuine intentional hilarity this one has not, but it is somewhat redeemed by the unimitable groovy seventies feel. It sort of reminded me of the seventies Reeperbahn- films in techniques of storytelling, but where the Reeperbahn films had plot just to connect softcore sex scenes together, this one is all bad.Released on video in Finland in the early eighties.