Daniel, the Wizard (2004)

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The 80-minute "Daniel der Zauberer" or "Daniel the Magician" is a German film from 2004, so this one is already over 10 years old. The writer and director is Ulli Lommel and he is known for acting in the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. As a filmmaker himself, however, Lommel is known for having come up with many films that received very bad reviews for the most part and his fairly recent effort here is probably where he hit rock-bottom. German audiences may still be aware of the phenomenon that was Daniel Küblböck earlier this century, a young man who became third in the German version of "American Idol" despite hawing a pretty awful voice and he made up for it because of his uniqueness and style. That's the way it was and everybody knew him back then. I guess this is why Lommel thought a movie would lure many fans to theaters. But it turned out a huge flop.The quality of this film is not debatable. It looks extremely amateurish and I find it shocking that this is the work of a filmmaker who has been in the industry for decades. At least, Küblböck and his family do not have any experience which somehow explains their terrible performances. This looks like the work of a 20-year-old filmmaker who never made another movie, but Lommel is the exact opposite. All quantity, no quality it seems. The cast actually includes more people other than Lommel who worked with Fassbinder on several occasions and I find it pretty sad how low they have sunk here. The film's biggest problem are the production values. Be it directing, editing, sound work, music, acting or most of all writing, you name it, it is extremely flawed on many occasions from start to finish. You will find advertising in this movie on the most blatant occasions, such as a couple bottle of alcohol standing randomly at a baker's shop. The sound was really bad too. The music was loud and the voices of the actors were almost impossible to understand, especially Lommel himself.This movie had many references about religion. The bad guy (Brem) is shown clearly as an equivalent of Satan while the way Küblböck kept saving people from death is not only extremely cringeworthy but also completely void of realism. There is talk of a man about to drown who saw Küblböck as an angel and survived thanks to the singer. Or the woman who intended to commit suicide, but found a reason to live for in Küblböck's music. The only somewhat solid aspect was the plot twist with the angel being Daniel's dead grandpa. But this alone was far from enough to make up for all the abysmal stuff in here. A tremendous failure. Don't watch.

Detractors of German pop oddity Daniel Küblböck who wanted this movie to fail could not have been indulged more than having Ulli Lommel write and direct the feature. Küblböck's polarizing persona melded with Lommel's highly questionable style of filmmaking to make for a movie that I'm surprised ever saw the inside of any theater and is practically custom-made for criticism. If someone greatly dislikes the movie, there's really no arguing with 'em...but as a lover of low-budget filmmaking, I found enough things that I liked to inspire a decent rating.The film's biggest liability is not actually its cast or direction, but its screenplay. Lommel's screenplays frequently read like something written by a man on LSD, and this one is no exception. The movie would probably be a lot more coherent if only the story could stay focused on the actual plot. Instead, it entertains no less than five different narratives: (1) the planned assassination of Daniel by a knife-carrying weirdo (Rudolf Brem) and his cohorts, (2) a rivalry between said weirdo and Daniel's ghostly protector (Lommel), (3) Daniel's quest to perform in Hollywood, (4) Daniel's status as a magician-in-training, and (5) the conflict between a teen fan (Marina Lommel) and her grandfather (Peter Schamoni) over Daniel's music. Any movie running under 90 minutes would have trouble exploring all of these subplots, but DANIEL DER ZAUBERER strains itself even further by also focusing on footage from Daniel's live performances, impromptu music videos, and go-nowhere scenes like when the would-be assassins stalk Küblböck outside of his home.The level of awkwardness is high. Some of it has to do with the acting - performed by mostly first-time performers - but more of it has to do with the blocking, editing, and the script. Dialogue shots are frequently shoved together in a manner that in no way replicates normal conversation, and scenes are occasionally interspersed with completely unrelated footage. Director Lommel must hate establishing shots, because the viewer is often just dropped right in the middle of a scene without buildup. New characters appear from out of nowhere and strike up intimate conversations with established characters. All of it's very odd.While the film depicts Daniel's vehement critics as old fogies and pathetic weirdoes who scribble death threats, his fans don't look all that great either - not the young devotee who's willing to alienate her grandfather's customers for his music and certainly not the odd girl who cavalierly tells him about how he appeared to her father in angel form (even Daniel seems weirded out by that). The movie is not very effective in drumming up support for the guy, but given its lack of production values and inherently flawed nature, I wonder how much better a more restrained version would have even been.There are some redeeming features. While this film kicked off what many consider the absolute worst portion of Ulli Lommel's career, DANIEL DER ZAUBERER has a level of energy that most of his future films lack. Few scenes drag, and unlike subsequent Lommel fare like DUNGEON GIRL, this one actually feels like it's building towards a planned conclusion and not something the crew came up with on the fly. The actors' performances can be contrived, but they're all pretty sincere and played with more confidence than you'd find in a typical no-budget movie. Fans of the main star will probably be disappointed that Daniel is no way cut out to be a dramatic actor, but they'll appreciate the presence of several exclusive songs that have yet to be released in other formats. There's even the occasional feel-good scene, like when Daniel and his on screen grandmother (Katja Rupe) discuss his deceased grandfather.This one's hard to recommend to most people, but if you tend to like films that the rest of the world seems to dislike, this one may be or you!

This movie won me a bet with a friend of mine. I said she could not watch this without crying, yelling or leaving the room.. well she cried, she yelled and she tried to left the room, but it was locked by that time.Do not watch this movie .. this isn't a game, this isn't negative psychology to make you interested and there is no message intended apart from "Do not watch this movie". Since the whole "plot" evolves around people hating the main actor, and you will hate the actor while watching this work, you get the distinct impression that the movie is actually aimed at you. Should that be the case, it's the cultural equivalent of stoning the viewer to death.

I am so, so sorry.I am not sorry for this movie. I am sorry for myself. Vain? Certainly. But vanity, I'm afraid, is a virtue in this instance.Daniel Der Zauberer (or Daniel the Wizard) is a movie about German...entertainer (...?)...Daniel Küblböck. It is apparently supposed to be an art movie about how his singing inspires thousands, but instead of just a bunch of dancing and singing (like the ego trip known as Moonwalker), it seems to have a plot. My German is negligible in this case, so I didn't understand *any* of the dialogue, but according to the handy Internet, a Goth band tries to kill him because his music is better than their's, or something like that.There is a character who I guess is supposed to be "the Wizard" of the title, Johannes Küblböck. Based on the fact that they share the same last name, I assume he and Daniel are father and son, but we never really learn whose side the Wizard is on; I was perplexed. Sometimes he helps the Goths, then he apparently is playing Santa or something for young Daniel (?). And there's something about a girl and her father, who are No. 1 fans trying to help him, although I honestly don't know what happened. The girl looks a little young for him, is it his sister? The ambiguity, perhaps, is the balancing factor of this movie. In many instances, ambiguity can set up a nice atmosphere, provide a bit of mystery...but this isn't a horror or mystery movie. It's an art movie, and an art movie where I really don't have a clue what's going on. My main problem was that it was hideously boring and the acting was terrible.Oh, and of course, I was especially creeped out by Daniel's...choice of dress. He's not gay, I'm sure, it's just...Ah, well. Terrible. And my favorite movie is Manos: The Hands of Fate.