The Movie: Mad Heidi
The Director: Johannes Hartmann, Sandro Klopfstein
The Cast: Alice Lucy, David Schofield, Casper Van Dien, Katja Kolm, Kel Matsena, Almar G. Sato, Max Rüdlinger, Werner Biermeier, Pascal Ulli, Rebecca Dyson-Smith, Milo Moiré, Yves Wüthrich
The Story: Swiss mountain girl Heidi is abducted by brutal government troops and must defend herself and fight a war against a cheese-fueled machinery of hate.
The Review:
You really want to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into if you choose to watch this movie, and you really should choose to watch this movie. I think my closest comparison in tone and style would be Iron Sky, a super campy nazi sci-fi movie that managed to find that perfect sweet spot comedies like these need to land in otherwise they fail miserably. Heidi would also fit in nicely with Robert Rodriguez's Planter Terror which was the more outlandish half of the Grindhouse double feature he created alongside Quentin Tarantino.
I mean, if you add in a couple shots of Heidi's feet, this movie could easily be mistaken as a Tarantino revenge comedy, and I mean that in a good way. Seriously though, the number one thing directors Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein have going for them with this movie is that they know exactly what they were getting themselves into when they set out to create this explosively bloody cheese fest and for the most part it all works out in glorious fashion. If you're ijnto this sort of thing, I guess.
Genre fans of course wil be very happy with all the cheese (both literal and figurative) as well as all the blood splattering fight scenes as torsos get ripped apart, heads get hacked off, and bodies genrally get destroyed in extravegantly creative ways. Of course, there is no emphasis here on creating dramatically nuanced characterizations although the performances all the way around fit what the creative team is trying to accomplish to it's all actually very well done.
Alice Lucy fills the role of Heidi about as well as anyone could, she looks the part and she carries her character's unwavering heroism pretty much exactly as you would expect. Casper Van Dien, who most will still know from Starship Troopers, tries valiantly to break that mold by coming up with a deliciously evil President Meili who is a fun character within the framework of this movie but doesn't really stand out otherwise. Overall, it's pretty clear that everyone involved had a great time making this movie and most should enjoy watching it as well.
The Verdict:
Mad Heidi is a great example of what's possible when this type of movie works. It's fun, it's campy, it's bloody, it's intentionally bad, and of course it's oh so deliciously cheesy. We need more Swisspolitation films as soon as possible.
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