"Mann, oh Mann, oh Mann!" is a German television film from 2002 and like the vast majority of small screen releases from my country, it runs for 1.5 hours exactly pretty much, minimally under maybe. As you can see from the production year, this is not a recent film at all, but actually it is from the early days of trashy German television movies that really peaked for years, if not decades afterwards, but luckily things have gotten a bit better lately I think. At least in quantity. The title is pretty easy to understand I guess. Just remove the n three times and you have an international title. Of course, it is a reference to the three male protagonists in here and their lifestyle. Like so many other times with German small screen releases, it is indeed an anti-male movie that elevates female characters to the top no matter what they do and let me tell you looking at the one female character's actions in here, there is really no justification for that. But I will get to that later on in the second paragraph. The director here is Austrian Peter Weck, a truly prolific actor from an era long gone (Sissi a.o.) partially, but also a prolific filmmaker, even if he has more acting credits to his body of work than credits where he was the man in charge behind the camera. Actually, he had his 90th birthday a few days ago and this film was shown today in his honor. Well, "honor" because it really is nothing to be proud of from a creative perspective and if this is the kind of movies somebody is making when he is around the age of 70, then it does not necessarily say anything positive. Anyway, you will see if he is still alive depending on when you read this review as he is of course growing older too like everybody else despite his already fairly ancient age. Also, to show you how old this movie already is: This is from slightly over a decade after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification, but since its release there is already a gap of 18 years now, so an even bigger period than the one I just mentioned. Nuff said. This was a release for the Christmas holidays here, not too surprising, so it is basically from almost exactly the day when I turned 18, almost half my life ago. Okay, now you know hold old I am. Enough with that. The writer is Cornelia Willinger and she is also still working nowadays and she was already an experienced writer back then apparently. Interestingly she is from Saxony originally, but her career, especially her recent years, but really her entire body of work, include very Bavarian movies and series. And as for the cast, take a look at the lead trio here. I would say all three of them are very established actors here in my country and pretty successful. Not only German film buffs will recognize them, but those especially for sure. von Thun is the oldest of the gang and also a little bit more at the center of the story than Stokowski and Tidof.
As for their characters, it fellt pretty strange because there were almost no supporting characters at all. All the contact they had (except the woman dealing with giving children to families) was with each other. And with Stemberger's character. I must say I was a bit surprised early on that she was von Thun's character's wife because of the age difference, but I guess it makes sense with all that happens later on in this film in terms of romantic relationships. Well, only age-wise. I should not use "makes sense" in the context of this film anyway. It already starts messy enough with Stemberger's character's anger attack when she leaves her husband and how she keeps rambling about men and how they explore the moon, make crucial incentions etc. but once they walk into an attractive female that is not their partner they still cannot stay faithful. Here we have the first of several occasions of radical hate speech against men. It's not cute. It's not charming. It's just disgraceful. Female rights warriors were up in arms if it had been the other way around. Oh well. Nobody really saw this film, so maybe not. There are aside from sexism more moments when this film is really weak, also the small moments. Take Stokowski's character. Hehas maybe the worst material. When was the llast time you were at a bar or club and the barkeeper actually gave a concert? Yeah, right. Never. They really kept out all other actors here and left the tasks to the protagonists. I mean good for him that he is also a decent musician and could play the part, but still it did not feel realistic. However, the worst was maybe when at the end, after decades of casual intercourse with women apparently Stokowski's character realizes that now he is into men? Oooookay. If there was any moment where you could defend the script and say it is not entirely unrealistic, then this is it. Of course, the happy ending factor in an unrealistic manner is also there again in the very final scene with everybody at the table, but also with how they get the little Black boy earlier from the adoption agency. I am sure gay couples/men would be happy if such a miracle also happened in real life. Another thing I found embarrassing was the constant inclusion of von Thun's character believe in spiritual occurrences. It was cringeworthy enough already with the divining rod, but especially bad when they used it for comedy reasons like how centuries ago in another existence he says he was a gay man too. Around the days of Christ pretty much I think if I remember correctly. But yeah, they clearly wannted to go all in on political correctness with the kid's color and the gay references, so who cares if it makes sense from a story perspective. Let me tell you it does not. But it is not just the small references that suck, but also the film's key story. Honestly, I thought that Stemberger's character all of a sudden ending up together with her ex's friend was just fake and staged to have her man (von Thun's character) fight for her attention again, but they were actually serious with that. And as if it isn't bad enough already, she is also immediately pregnant afterwards after having tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant before. Are you kidding me? Just as realistic as the new couple running into the former friends at the opera. By the way, if wwe go right to the start, it already starts there with the failure. Men are not like that that they meet with buddies at a shack in the mountains and constantly have sex there with women while being in a relationship? What is this nonsense? What an offensive travesty. So yeah, no matter where you look with this movie, it is failure all along. I could give another dozen scenes and inclusions as examples, but I leave it at that hoping I can quickly forget about this abysmal movie. They really wasted a solid cast here with Tidof and Stokowski at least, maybe to some extent von Thun too, although I don't think he is too talented. Stenberger certainly isn't. Highly unfunny (all of it, even the mice and ferret references, where are these animals? you never see them and especially the dolphin references and how the men take care of the baby, which was never sweet or funny). Highly unrealistic. Highly unrecommended. I wish I could unsee it and I am actually glad they never made a sequel. Fat thumbs-down.
As for their characters, it fellt pretty strange because there were almost no supporting characters at all. All the contact they had (except the woman dealing with giving children to families) was with each other. And with Stemberger's character. I must say I was a bit surprised early on that she was von Thun's character's wife because of the age difference, but I guess it makes sense with all that happens later on in this film in terms of romantic relationships. Well, only age-wise. I should not use "makes sense" in the context of this film anyway. It already starts messy enough with Stemberger's character's anger attack when she leaves her husband and how she keeps rambling about men and how they explore the moon, make crucial incentions etc. but once they walk into an attractive female that is not their partner they still cannot stay faithful. Here we have the first of several occasions of radical hate speech against men. It's not cute. It's not charming. It's just disgraceful. Female rights warriors were up in arms if it had been the other way around. Oh well. Nobody really saw this film, so maybe not. There are aside from sexism more moments when this film is really weak, also the small moments. Take Stokowski's character. Hehas maybe the worst material. When was the llast time you were at a bar or club and the barkeeper actually gave a concert? Yeah, right. Never. They really kept out all other actors here and left the tasks to the protagonists. I mean good for him that he is also a decent musician and could play the part, but still it did not feel realistic. However, the worst was maybe when at the end, after decades of casual intercourse with women apparently Stokowski's character realizes that now he is into men? Oooookay. If there was any moment where you could defend the script and say it is not entirely unrealistic, then this is it. Of course, the happy ending factor in an unrealistic manner is also there again in the very final scene with everybody at the table, but also with how they get the little Black boy earlier from the adoption agency. I am sure gay couples/men would be happy if such a miracle also happened in real life. Another thing I found embarrassing was the constant inclusion of von Thun's character believe in spiritual occurrences. It was cringeworthy enough already with the divining rod, but especially bad when they used it for comedy reasons like how centuries ago in another existence he says he was a gay man too. Around the days of Christ pretty much I think if I remember correctly. But yeah, they clearly wannted to go all in on political correctness with the kid's color and the gay references, so who cares if it makes sense from a story perspective. Let me tell you it does not. But it is not just the small references that suck, but also the film's key story. Honestly, I thought that Stemberger's character all of a sudden ending up together with her ex's friend was just fake and staged to have her man (von Thun's character) fight for her attention again, but they were actually serious with that. And as if it isn't bad enough already, she is also immediately pregnant afterwards after having tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant before. Are you kidding me? Just as realistic as the new couple running into the former friends at the opera. By the way, if wwe go right to the start, it already starts there with the failure. Men are not like that that they meet with buddies at a shack in the mountains and constantly have sex there with women while being in a relationship? What is this nonsense? What an offensive travesty. So yeah, no matter where you look with this movie, it is failure all along. I could give another dozen scenes and inclusions as examples, but I leave it at that hoping I can quickly forget about this abysmal movie. They really wasted a solid cast here with Tidof and Stokowski at least, maybe to some extent von Thun too, although I don't think he is too talented. Stenberger certainly isn't. Highly unfunny (all of it, even the mice and ferret references, where are these animals? you never see them and especially the dolphin references and how the men take care of the baby, which was never sweet or funny). Highly unrealistic. Highly unrecommended. I wish I could unsee it and I am actually glad they never made a sequel. Fat thumbs-down.