"Ballermann 6" is a German movie from 1997, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year. The runtime here on IMDb says 95 minutes, but all the versions I found run considerably shorter, roughly 80 minutes namely. It is the second film (of so far 3) from the Tom Gerhardt / Hilmi Sözer film series in which they play two (nicely-speaking) very simple guys who are basically just interested in cars, female( breast)s and alcohol of course. Gerhardt is not only lead actor in here, but also writer and co-director. The other director is Gernot Roll, one of the finest cinematographers in German film history, but here he proves once again that directing is definitely not his strength. Then again, not even Spielberg could have directed a garbage script like this one here into a quality movie. I am tempted to call these Gerhardt/Sözer films live action versions of the Werner Beinhart movies. But as well as these work, it really only works as animation and not as live action. It certainly isn't helping either that Gerhardt's one (and only one) shtick gets repetitive so quickly. And it's never funny at all. The inclusion of cameos by known faces (to Germans) like Jürgen Drews (of course in a Ballermann film), Ottfried Fischer or Uwe Ochsenknecht elevates the material only slightly, maybe from 100% crap to 99% crap. In any case, this film never should have been made after how bad the first one was and even after this second film they did not understand it and made a third film (hopefully the last) not too long ago actually. This trilogy is probably the worst German film has come up with in terms of all the trilogies that have been made in over a century. Shame on you Tom Gerhardt! Something good about this film here? That it runs for 80 minutes only and that's the only thing. It still felt like 2.5 hours. Stay far far away.
Review of Ballermann 6
