One of my all time favorites.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is really a great disappointment to see such an interesting director as Werner Herzog doing such a conventional and uninteresting film.The story is set in Poland and Berlin in the year before the Nazis ascended to power in Germany. Zisa, a Jewish strongman from Poland goes to Berlin and becomes involved in the cabaret shows of magician and fortune teller Hanusse, first playing the role of an 'aryan' here and then as a new Jewish 'Samson'. Unfortunately this allegedly true story is treated in the most conventional and stereotype way one could imagine, without any dramatic tension, character development or historical revelation. Poland's Jewish shtetl is idealized as in some Shalom Alechem inspired story without the charm of Shalom Alechem. Berlin between the two wars lacks the fascination and spark of many good movies that dealt with th etime and place and is populated by operetta villains Nazis. Hanussen is a fascinating character, but here he is uni-dimensional and makes us long for the mysterious and complex view we got from him in Istvan Szabo's 'Hanussen'. Moreover history is twisted, Hanussen is killed in the movie in 1932, while in reality he was assassinated in 1933 a few weeks after the Nazis came to power. Some dream scenes haunt the hero during the movie but they do not succeed to transmit any emotion or message.If Herzog had made this film at the beginning of his career I would have doubted his talent. Having done as a mature director, after he already proved what a fine director he can be is really the only mystery around this movie.

"Invencible" tells the story of a strong young Jewish who travels to Berlin to try his luck in the previous days of Hitler's ascension to power. It's kind of an allegory about principles, about not giving up what we are. Herzog achieves moments of great beauty, with a great photography and nice production, but the script is not as good as it should have been. Also the movie is way too long. It's not in my Werner Herzog Top 5 but as I've said before it's a movie full of beauty and good vibrations that deals with one of those anti-heroes that Herzog loves to portrait.*My rate: 6/10

"Invincible" (2002): I should always start by saying "Werner Herzog is one of my favorite film makers"… and then go into all the reasons (at least those for which I can find words). "Invincible" is based on a true story (in typical Herzog fashion), and focuses on two main characters – a man who claims to be the Psychic to the Nazis, and, a Jewish peasant strong man from Poland. They meet in 1932, just before Hitler takes power. As a true story, it is absorbing, that's for sure, but in the hands of Werner Herzog, he treats it with greater care and intentions – it becomes a parable, a story worthy of a religious text, a story with all the huge warnings and lessons in Life. Tim Roth plays the Psychic, recreating a wonderfully pompous, secretive, and nasty man at the height of his "powers". Jouko Ahola plays the plain, honest, earnest Peasant, a Strong Man, and the new Samson. His little brother plays a mystical role of near-narrator, a young prophet, a dedicated heart. "Invincible" is a grounded story, more in the style of Herzog's "Strozek" than, for example, his "Heart of Glass". Production values are high, unlike some of his superbly powerful, earlier, lower-budget films with film quality weaknesses I find distracting at times.

Let me first state that I ended up enjoying this movie more than I thought I would. Also, Tim Roth's acting simply makes this movie. The strongman's acting actually improves as the movie goes on but is still mediocre at best. This is probably no fault of his, but his inexperience is really obvious when acting besides Roth. The proto-Nazis are easy to hate, which is fine by me, but again, the best scenes are the stage scenes with Rothman--he really sells the spiritualism angle of the movie. His discovery of being a Jew near the end of the movie is not fact-based, apparently, it was not a well-kept secret, but it moves the movie along, and makes Hannussen seem like a hypocrite of the first order.