"Mama Mia - Nur keine Panik" is a West German 90-minute movie from 1984, so this one will have its 35th anniversary soon. The director is Dieter Pröttel and the script is by his wife who got help from Erich Tomek, which is not a good sign most of the time to see his name attached to a project/screenplay. And this is also true here. The film is nothing memorable at all, but if you know a bit about German films, then you will know that the names Glas and Gottschalk, as famous as they may be, do not stand necessarily for quality acting. Admittely they aren't worse than the rest really and you will find more familiar names like Fischer², Drews, Olm and actually Mike Krüger who has a pretty hilarious cameo at the very end. Story-wise the film is a mess. There is not much of a plot here and when there is for a few moments, than it is pretty uninteresting. The music did not impress me either. Not at all. But still, there was something to this film that really had a big 80s vibe to it and it felt a bit representative of the decade, which is one of the film's strengths. Another is that you could feel they had fun making this one and even if you will most likely not have the same fun watching, it is slightly contagious. Oh yeah the dog was superb too. What wasn't are the child actors here who, even if they only had a line or two, were very bad and made the grown-ups look like acting gods. But yes, overall in terms of production values, the bad is sadly more frequent than the good, but it's not really worse than some other stuff Gottschalk, Glas and the rest made back in the 1980s, so I am surprised the rating is considerably lower. I give the film a thumbs-down obviously, but it is not all bad in here.
2 Reviews
A bit pointless and random, but not a complete failure
Horst_In_Translation11 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Could have been better
FlorianLaur9 September 2022
I agree with the only other review here. The movie starts out interesting, but there are too many random plot points that are later abandoned or forgotten.
I think if they had focused on a story where the ex husband is trying to win back his wife (something he doesn't do until the last 20 mins of the film) and him competing with a new guy, that would have been better.
I really didn't care for the male kid, he was annoying and kind of cringe worthy. The girl was better and at least went through some small change.
There were a few half way decent actors that seemed a bit wasted in this movie, such as Singerl, Obermayer and Fischer. Gottschalk himself is a decent entertainer, but a weak actor. Ultimately, way too much in this movie felt too random or forced.
The good thing is definitely the 80s vibe and for non-Europeans, the scenes in Ibiza might be fun to watch, especially for men as we get to see a lot of topless and even some nude women.
Overall, I give it a 5. It's watchable and there's a chuckle here and there, but it's mostly something you'd watch for nostalgic reasons.
I think if they had focused on a story where the ex husband is trying to win back his wife (something he doesn't do until the last 20 mins of the film) and him competing with a new guy, that would have been better.
I really didn't care for the male kid, he was annoying and kind of cringe worthy. The girl was better and at least went through some small change.
There were a few half way decent actors that seemed a bit wasted in this movie, such as Singerl, Obermayer and Fischer. Gottschalk himself is a decent entertainer, but a weak actor. Ultimately, way too much in this movie felt too random or forced.
The good thing is definitely the 80s vibe and for non-Europeans, the scenes in Ibiza might be fun to watch, especially for men as we get to see a lot of topless and even some nude women.
Overall, I give it a 5. It's watchable and there's a chuckle here and there, but it's mostly something you'd watch for nostalgic reasons.
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