"Das war der wilde Osten", also known as "Go Trabi Go 2", is a German movie from 1992, so this one has its 25th anniversary next year. The title already tells you that this is a sequel and it also tells you that it is mostly about the comedy arising from the German separation into two countries. If you take a look at who made this film, you will find names that also worked on the first film, but you will also find names that did not and honestly looking at these names makes obvious that they have worked on more than just a few trash projects in the past and this fits nicely with their body of work. It's not exclusively comedy, but the dramatic scenes do not really feel authentic and the "funny" scenes never really managed to entertain me. So if there is any reason to watch this one, then it may be the political context and how people perceived East and West Germany back then. What I wrote about the filmmakers is also true about the cast. There are people in here (including lead actor Stumph) that played in the first, but there are also new faces here. Some of the cast members may actually ring a bell to prolific German film watchers, such as Rolf Zacher, Jochen Busse, Heinrich Schafmeister, Wolfgang Lippert or Gunther Emmerlich. But even if it was entertaining to see them, it is debatable whether they are really gifted actors with a lot of range. Still they borough some of the rare entertaining moments in here I guess as overall, also in terms of the main plot and story line, this was never convincing at any point and there was certainly no need for a third film. There was also no need for a second film I guess as the first one was already as mediocre (gently-speaking) as it gets and it got definitely overappreciated back then, even by the German Film Awards for example. It just hasn't aged well. So yeah, if you really are interested in the subject, then you can check this one out, but you absolutely should not expect anything of quality here or you will be majorly disappointed. The characters aren't simply interesting enough and thus it's quite difficult to care for them at any point. Also the actors don't come close to mastering the almost impossible challenge to make the writing interesting. Likable (as for Stumph's character) just isn't enough anymore. Watch something else instead.
Review of Das war der wilde Osten
