Advertising Rules!
Advertising Rules!
| 04 April 2001 (USA)
Advertising Rules! Trailers

Edward Kaminsky, an aging ad man, wants a golden parachute from his agency; he must first land the Opel auto contract. Rosa, a youth with wealthy parents, wants to establish herself as an artist. The clumsy and enthusiastic Viktor, not quite honest, wants work. When he wanders into Kaminsky's meeting with Opel and says something about irony, the Opel director wants him in on the campaign. Then he steals an idea from Rosa that the Opel director loves. Before Rosa discovers he's expropriated her idea, Rosa and Viktor become lovers. Father-son feelings materialize between Kaminsky and Viktor. Can the impulsive Viktor hold it together before Rosa learns the truth and flies away?

Reviews
Develiker terrible... so disappointed.
Bardlerx Strictly average movie
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
groggo When I rented this mess, I neglected to notice that it was released worldwide by Columbia Pictures-Sony. As soon as I saw this on the screen, I knew what I was in for: yet another formulaic Hollywood-style 'comedy' (excuse the expression) dressed up in the German language.Advertising Rules (AKA Viktor Vogel) is only occasionally funny, and is full of American references and 'comic situations' (we've seen similar scenes in roughly 500 'comedies,' give or take, churned out by Hollywood in the past 20 years alone). Included in the usual suspect list are some of the same weary visual clichés that are varied in Advertising Rules only slightly (attempt at 'freshness' I guess) -- there's the frantic (and obligatory) out-of-control car crash, a chase in a supermarket (complete with dumbkopf cops), a brawl that ends up in garbage heap, a 'hero' (hapless of course, what else?) who gets smacked in the kisser at least four times, a hero who demonstrates the use of a chainsaw and -- what a shock!! -- sees it go out of control and destroy a table. I could go on and on (vacuous insights into the world of advertising; crusty veteran ad man throws young wannabe on his keister in the opening scenes, ends up being a father figure toward the end; sweet-as-candy, talented Hepburnesque gamin falls for dorky 'hero').You've seen it all before. Here it is again, replete with German voices. The same movie could easily have been made in Hollywood (maybe a remake is already underway -- something with, say, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell or Jack Black as the lead actor and Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow or Katie Holmes as the ever-so-sweet love interest.If you're like me (i.e. long ago fed up with derivative, repetitive, juvenile 12-20 age-group drivel that passes for 'adult' comedy in Hollywood), you'll be more vigilant in selecting films that are released internationally by major American studios. If you don't, what you'll almost inevitably get is yet another Hollywood movie with very 'safe,' by-the-numbers story lines. Exhibit 'A' is this film.
petr-17 This is a very insightful film. The lead actor, Alexander Scheer, is the ultimate casting choice. He portrays physically a geek like nobody else. The film itself examines the rapid accent into popularity and money, the selling of original values and building a fake existence.It is humorous and follows a realistic ideology. The two scenes that form the core of the film is the guerrilla filming in the super market (with the subtext of war journalism) and the subsequent weekend, which forms a nostalgic look on youth with an older character (as opposed to an observing role.)Götz George provides the excellent effigy of lost but regained youth and principle. Chulpan Khamatova is perfect as the perky pseudo-rebellious artist with rich and disapproving parents.A film worthwhile seeing more than once, first to enjoy and then to analyze.
Jedi Clerk As I said... I thought this movie was cute... my fiancee and myself enjoyed it immensely. It's not groundbreaking or earthshattering by any means but this film has a good heart. It's sort of basically like 'Trainspotting' meets 'How To Get Ahead In Advertising' German-style. Any movie that has the guts to poke at the soft white underbelly of the corporate advertising beast is alright with me.An interesting note is that in this movie which is about not making compromises to big-money ad clients they changed the North American title to 'Advertising Rules' and there is sort of a gratuitous disclaimer in the beginning pointing this fact out. How ironic that some advertising exec (who obviously didn't pay attention to the film's message) felt the need to change the name...
chebert If you're in advertising (like I am), or are about to get into advertising you should check out this movie. If you're not interested in it then don't bother. There are so few movies around that get into the business of advertising. From the pitch to idea development to a campaign rollout, it's kinda cool to see it in the movies...and in a mostly hip and humorous way. As one of the other reviewers said, it's not REALLY all that funny...but it made me chuckle.