"Männertag" is a German theatrical release from 2016, so this one will soon have its 5th anniversary. It runs for 1.5 hours and features many well-known actors from my country. Of course, it is also iin the German language, even if this information is still missing here on imdb at this point. So yeah the cast members are fairly famous, but the people in charge of this film behind the camera not really. And for good reason. Director Holger Haase and writer Philip Voges may have worked on many films/projects in the past, but a lot of what they did was really no good quality at all. And that is already a very positive way to express the state (i.e. the absence) of quality in their works. Voges has mostly worked on small screen releases anyway and the rare exceptions were really weak. Yep this one here was not his only theatrical movie. Then again his television stuff sucked just as much. Ilja Haller I will not comment on, may he rest in peace. But from the other two you can already know what (lack of) quality to expect here. The names in the cast only confirm that. Beck, Stein, Wnuk and Tall are actors who have consistently appeared in films that are close to being a complete waste of time. They may have okay recognition value, but range they do not really possess. Now Milan Peschel has some movies in his body of work that received a positive reception, but just as many, probably more, bad films too, especially all the stuff in which he starred next to Schweighöfer. Carolin Kebekus is not an actress. I guess they realized that too and she had like zero screen time. The only female who is seen a lot during these 90 minutes is Lavinia Wilson, well also not the best actress, but probably still more talented than (almost) all her male counterparts in here. And pretty attractive too no denying. Kida Khodr Ramadan is an oaky actor for sure, so kinda fitting he is in this film only really briefly at the very beginning. I am not sure what is more stupid: his character being called Dieter or Stein's being called Klaus Maria.
As for the story, the photo here on imdb makes it already obvious this is a mess. It is maybe a reference to the worst the film has to offer, namely the toad scenes, especially the one early on when the animal jumps into one character's mouth, but also the closure with Esmeralda at the very end almost. There are many other contenders for worst scenes and perfect examples why it is a horrible film with nothing positively memorable whatsoever quality-wise. The one thing you can say in favor of these actors is that teh script is so bad that probably nobody could have made it work. Entertainment for the simple-minded and we have that a lot unfortunately here in German comedies especially. It already starts with a really cringeworthy Robert De Niro quote/reference from Taxi driver as one character is an aspiring actor. Let me not even compare Beck to De Niro please. Unreal they even went there. Then the suicide scene at the very beginning almost. Of course, this was an incredibly serious moment, but the way they depicted it with how exactly it happened, it was very obvious that this film would never leave the comedy route. The unfunny comedy route that is and I felt really bad for Kida Khodr Ramadan that he had to appear in such a scene. Then again, he agreed to it... oh well. Okay what else. I think it is pretty telling that Chris Tall's performance is nowhere near the worst the film has to offer and that says a lot about all the other aspects. He was 25 back then I think and still looked physically young enough (maybe because of his weight) to play a teenager character. Of course, this one also gets his happy ending at the end with the cute girl. Felt unrealistic too. However, probably not as unrealistic as everything about Milan Peschel's character and you cannot even blame him. First of all, Kebekus is way too hot and young for him to believe they are together. Second of all, his character was really way too old for everybody else here. I don't know what they were thinking. Trying to convince us he is 5 years max older than the rest when reality is 15 years? Completely miscast. Tom Beck, who is maybe the least talented from the bunch (and that says quite something, I mean his career-defining work is Cobra 11 no?) has a pretty dumb story too and there is absolutely no point in why they would tell everybody they are a couple, him and Wilson's character. It does not make for comedy,, it does not add anything of interest at all. I guess they just had no idea what to do with the character that we would not forget him halfway into the film. Admittedly, this idea was still probably not as bad as one character being worried about his father's mental state and that he may have suicide ambitions. Now when this was revealed, it also became obvious Tall cannot make serious material work at all. Embarrassing line delivery. Who's missing? Oh yes, Oliver Wnuk. I am a big Stromberg fan, but not really of his character there and honestly has he done anything afterwards that people have seen? Except that comedy submarine "Das Boot" spoof starring Atze Schröder and his really stunning wife Yvonne Catterfeld? Are they still together? I think so. He is definitely overperforming there too. Anyway, as for his character's purpose in this film here, oh well *sigh* I don't even. You have to see it for yourself. Or better not. Let me just say I guess this was where the filmmakers attempted to make this a film that works well with the current gender debate issue. However, if I was affected by that, honestly I would be embarrassed by how clumsily this film tries to representent me on this issue.
Axel Stein there is really not too much to say about here. He was maybe the most forgettable of them all and that also says quite something. Perhaps they wanted to make up for that with the character's name. I don't know. However, had he been left out of this film, not one bit would have changed about both story and quality. Hannes Jaenicke, another really experienced German actor who has not always starred in quality films gently-speaking is in it too, but he only has one scene really and this is also really much more about the costume than about him. It is a mess from every perspective. Maybe there were two or three one-liners in here that were mildly funny, but in the face of all the dialogue that was not one bit funny although it tried so hard, that is of course far from enough. Another problem is really that the film is trying to tell a message and elaborates on so many areas where it takes itself seriously too while not even coming close to delivering the artistic impact that would make it understandable. Really embarrassing to watch frequently with how the characters are in different stages and predicaments in their lives and how spending time with each other solves all this basically. You must be really simple to believe it like that. Of course, there is also the obligatory argument near the end after which everybody hates everybody (for unrealistic pseudo conflict) and (why of all people?) Wilson's character steps up to make sure they get along with each other again. The music, well there are songs in here that aren't entirely bad, but this is of course because these songs were successful, so no creative merit to the filmmakers here for simply picking them. On the contrary, the ways in which they used these songs actually made it for me more difficult to maybe like them as much as I normally do when not seeing scenes from this film at the same time. Another thing I want to say is that really they could not have gone wrong when it comes to the end with making sure the characters from that journey on really see each other on a regular basis and go on scheduled trips now once a year or so that the one character's death was at least for a reason and even there they did go wrong because they simply left it out. Unreal. So in short: Everybody who enjoys Schweighöfer comedies and (more recent (his old stuff was okay)) Til Schweiger movies will have a good time watching this film. it does not really say anything positive whatsoever about their taste in movies. So my recommendation here is definitely that you keep as much distance as you can and sta far far away from this abomination of a film. Not many worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
As for the story, the photo here on imdb makes it already obvious this is a mess. It is maybe a reference to the worst the film has to offer, namely the toad scenes, especially the one early on when the animal jumps into one character's mouth, but also the closure with Esmeralda at the very end almost. There are many other contenders for worst scenes and perfect examples why it is a horrible film with nothing positively memorable whatsoever quality-wise. The one thing you can say in favor of these actors is that teh script is so bad that probably nobody could have made it work. Entertainment for the simple-minded and we have that a lot unfortunately here in German comedies especially. It already starts with a really cringeworthy Robert De Niro quote/reference from Taxi driver as one character is an aspiring actor. Let me not even compare Beck to De Niro please. Unreal they even went there. Then the suicide scene at the very beginning almost. Of course, this was an incredibly serious moment, but the way they depicted it with how exactly it happened, it was very obvious that this film would never leave the comedy route. The unfunny comedy route that is and I felt really bad for Kida Khodr Ramadan that he had to appear in such a scene. Then again, he agreed to it... oh well. Okay what else. I think it is pretty telling that Chris Tall's performance is nowhere near the worst the film has to offer and that says a lot about all the other aspects. He was 25 back then I think and still looked physically young enough (maybe because of his weight) to play a teenager character. Of course, this one also gets his happy ending at the end with the cute girl. Felt unrealistic too. However, probably not as unrealistic as everything about Milan Peschel's character and you cannot even blame him. First of all, Kebekus is way too hot and young for him to believe they are together. Second of all, his character was really way too old for everybody else here. I don't know what they were thinking. Trying to convince us he is 5 years max older than the rest when reality is 15 years? Completely miscast. Tom Beck, who is maybe the least talented from the bunch (and that says quite something, I mean his career-defining work is Cobra 11 no?) has a pretty dumb story too and there is absolutely no point in why they would tell everybody they are a couple, him and Wilson's character. It does not make for comedy,, it does not add anything of interest at all. I guess they just had no idea what to do with the character that we would not forget him halfway into the film. Admittedly, this idea was still probably not as bad as one character being worried about his father's mental state and that he may have suicide ambitions. Now when this was revealed, it also became obvious Tall cannot make serious material work at all. Embarrassing line delivery. Who's missing? Oh yes, Oliver Wnuk. I am a big Stromberg fan, but not really of his character there and honestly has he done anything afterwards that people have seen? Except that comedy submarine "Das Boot" spoof starring Atze Schröder and his really stunning wife Yvonne Catterfeld? Are they still together? I think so. He is definitely overperforming there too. Anyway, as for his character's purpose in this film here, oh well *sigh* I don't even. You have to see it for yourself. Or better not. Let me just say I guess this was where the filmmakers attempted to make this a film that works well with the current gender debate issue. However, if I was affected by that, honestly I would be embarrassed by how clumsily this film tries to representent me on this issue.
Axel Stein there is really not too much to say about here. He was maybe the most forgettable of them all and that also says quite something. Perhaps they wanted to make up for that with the character's name. I don't know. However, had he been left out of this film, not one bit would have changed about both story and quality. Hannes Jaenicke, another really experienced German actor who has not always starred in quality films gently-speaking is in it too, but he only has one scene really and this is also really much more about the costume than about him. It is a mess from every perspective. Maybe there were two or three one-liners in here that were mildly funny, but in the face of all the dialogue that was not one bit funny although it tried so hard, that is of course far from enough. Another problem is really that the film is trying to tell a message and elaborates on so many areas where it takes itself seriously too while not even coming close to delivering the artistic impact that would make it understandable. Really embarrassing to watch frequently with how the characters are in different stages and predicaments in their lives and how spending time with each other solves all this basically. You must be really simple to believe it like that. Of course, there is also the obligatory argument near the end after which everybody hates everybody (for unrealistic pseudo conflict) and (why of all people?) Wilson's character steps up to make sure they get along with each other again. The music, well there are songs in here that aren't entirely bad, but this is of course because these songs were successful, so no creative merit to the filmmakers here for simply picking them. On the contrary, the ways in which they used these songs actually made it for me more difficult to maybe like them as much as I normally do when not seeing scenes from this film at the same time. Another thing I want to say is that really they could not have gone wrong when it comes to the end with making sure the characters from that journey on really see each other on a regular basis and go on scheduled trips now once a year or so that the one character's death was at least for a reason and even there they did go wrong because they simply left it out. Unreal. So in short: Everybody who enjoys Schweighöfer comedies and (more recent (his old stuff was okay)) Til Schweiger movies will have a good time watching this film. it does not really say anything positive whatsoever about their taste in movies. So my recommendation here is definitely that you keep as much distance as you can and sta far far away from this abomination of a film. Not many worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
