This is not the usual Regina Ziegler catastrophe, on the contrary: this comedy is not bad at all, though not more than average. It would have been an over-sentimental film, were it not for the exciting Heike Makatsch doing very well in showing her comic talents and making her character convincing.
2 Reviews
The shape of (terrible) things to come
Horst_In_Translation3 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
"Männer und andere Katastrophen" is a german television film from 1999, so the old millennium still. At the end of the film/credits, it even said 1998, so this is probably when it got made. I must say that it is not a good thing at all that this film is still on national television so many years after its original release and actually an embarrassment if they do nothing of value with everybody's GEZ money and instead run reruns like this. Then again, it is maybe still better than what they consider fair and unbiased new reporting. But let's focus on this one here now, especially on those who made it. The director is Ulli Baumann. He launched his career with Hape Kerkeling films and RTL comedy series. Not great, but still way better than pretty much everything he worked on in the last ten or fifteen years. He is still active and has been busy lately with terrible stuff like Inga Lindström adaptations and stuff like "Die Kuhflüsterin". But no matter how bad he may be, he is nowhere near the level of Oesterlin and Schellack, the two writers here. This is one of their earliest collaborations and they have worked together on really a lot since then. This includes Katie Fforde adaptations, Traumschiff movie, Ferienhaus and "Ein Sommer in" works. In other words, chances are very low you will find a less talented duo of writers anywhere, not just here in Germany, but worldwide. It seems absolutely everything they have been a part of was bound for failure territory. Really shameful they are still picked to write screenplays. Michael Esser is another writer here. Not much to say about him. "Alles was zählt" and "Verliebt in Berlin" in one's body of work is pretty self-explanatory. Oh and Kerstin Gier is the one who wrote the novel this film is based on. She also managed to make the headlines with her more recent "Rubinrot" (and the sequels) books and series. While I find these pretty bad,the other stuff she has come up with seems to be horrible too. Just like this movie. I kinda doubt that her literary work is any good at all when basically every film based on her works is an abomination.
As for the cast here, the protagonist at the center of the story is played by Heike Makatsch. She was certainly bigger back then than she is now close to her 50th birthday, even if she is still easy to recognize. So it was maybe a big think kind of that she would play in a television movie here. Given the age, it is still fairly impressive that there are supporting actors in here that still make a bit of an impact these days. Stefan Jürgens is always nice to see for me as an RTL Samstag Nacht fan. Irm Hermann will obviously always be remembered for her Fassbinder movies. Dominic Raacke is surely a bit overrated, but has okay recognition value. Steffen Wink has been in some better films than the vast majority of the cast here honestly, also acted next to Götz George, Gérard Depardieu and others. Walter Kreye is a pretty established and experienced actor and has been in some okay crime projects. Ulrike Folkerts I cannot say anything positive about. I think she is not a good actress at all. There's others like Max Herbrechter, but I shall leave it at that. The question that ensues obviously is why all these people would appear in a downright horrible movie like this one here. One that got penned by two women who have no talent whatsoever and were also pretty much rookies by then. The outcome is as expected. Not even much more talented actors than those here could not turn this mess of a screenplay into a decent film. May sound harsh, but it is really unwatchable on so many occasions. I shall get to that later. This film runs for under 1.5 hours by the way, just like the vast majority of German small screen releases. No exception here. And let's be honest: If you take a look at the poster here on imdb, you know this will suck. Also if you take a look at the title: "Men and other catastrophes". Absolutely repulsive and neither cute nor funny. Let's add a "wo" at the beginning and see how gender justice warrios will react. For the lulz.
What we have here is of course a film by Degeto and produced by Regina Ziegler and this means the two most crucial components in determining that a German television film sucks are on board here. They are also always anti-male really. This is what I am referring to with the title of my review. Back then, there weren't too many terrible television films from Germany, but since then Degeto (and Ziegler) dished out hundreds without any creativity or authenticity to them. An absolute disgrace and gigantic scandal what people's GEZ money has been used. The good news is that now in 2021, the amount of these films seems to be on the decline. There's still new ones, but not that many as in 2010 or 2013 maybe when the number peaked overall. Still, there is no excuse for films like this being made and shown. Let alone, shown after more than 20 years still, even if the cast includes faces and names that we still recognize nowadays. Let's move on to why this film sucked so hard. You basically only need to take a look at the first couple minutes. I will summarize it for you quickly: the speed camera that goes off (yeah so many times in a month), the spontaneous babysitting talk, the guy (not) giving her the eye at the library, the water mess back home and so on. By minute two, you know already that we have a really protagonist here with a chaotic life and it is so sweet and entertaining and we really want her to succeed. "We" in this scenario sadly only implies to the really simple audience members. I would say I appluad those that see through this mess, but it's all so simple that nobody really deserves praise for something like that. There are many more moments. Not just the key story about whcih i will talk later on, but also for example a small sequence with a professor and how Makatsch's character is so cute and clumsy there. I don't even. In general, those scenes when the protagonist is there with her two female friend are when the film hits rock bottom every time.
As for the central story, we have the guy who is the boyfriend and is not attentive enough when it comes to his girlfriend and seems to prefer to spend time with cars and his buddies and that of course makes him a terrible person, a truly despicable main antagonist. As always with Degeto and Ziegler. Then, also as always with these two, they really messed up the element of realism and authenticity. Many examples there, for example how Makatsch's character keeps running into the neighbor repeatedly, like at the supermarket or also at the very end where it is true love of course. It seems by then the screen writers already gave up and the only thing they still went for was give the protagonist a happy ending. No matter what or how much sense it makes. Oh, but yeah luckily we have these cute moments when the neighbor shows up and Makatsch's character is naked and the idea how she has a little time advantage was so ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as how she slips and falls down and he sees her naked butt. And things get worse and worse there, like with how Hermann's character is also immediately around and we see her snoop through the door. And of course that the guy was there to fix something for his neighbor, so he is a man who knows what to do with his hands, a man who can repair stuff. Sure thing. That always comes in handy when looking for romance. The idea of Makatsch's character and her original boyfriend getting together again felt as fake as it could be as well. Every person with an IQ over 60 would know things will go wrong again and as always he is the one to blame. By the way, this sequence early on when she wants sex was only mildly watchable because Makatsch was fairly attractive back then. But kinda funny how the guy is the bad person there for not wanting to immediately and when he does near the end when they make up, he is also the bad person for wanting this time. No matter what perspective you take, it's always anti-male.
The story is so ridiculous. Truly embarrassing how Jürgens was also wasted as some kind of potential love interest, but then again, he is only a man too and not good enough with how he treats her. Although he was not one bit dishonest. The woman, on the other hand, are awesome. Hermann's character may be a bit annoying, but how she cares for everything and also plays with the children still makes her a good person. The latter also applies 100% to the protagonist's best friend and she also gets her happy ending for sure when she is all of a sudden together with the guy with the glasses (not the one from Youtube). Absolutely necessary for more fake happy ending here. This was such an unwatchable film. Sorry, I know I am repeating myself, but it is true. If I had to picked a hundred moments, only one of those would be funny and that was the reference that the painting suffered and how her father misunderstood during the talk when they were in the car. But of course, this conflict is also solved with no major damage. Many more examples I could mention here (like the speed painting) which makes 100% obvious that this film is always inside failure territory, but I am getting closer to the character limit and you get the message anyway. This one here you really want to skip at all cost. It is really showing us in a nutshell everything wrong with German television and was a trailblazer for Neubauer, Gehlen, Wörner, Thomalla and many other vastly overrated "actresses". Highly not recommended. Worst possible rating from me for this one.
As for the cast here, the protagonist at the center of the story is played by Heike Makatsch. She was certainly bigger back then than she is now close to her 50th birthday, even if she is still easy to recognize. So it was maybe a big think kind of that she would play in a television movie here. Given the age, it is still fairly impressive that there are supporting actors in here that still make a bit of an impact these days. Stefan Jürgens is always nice to see for me as an RTL Samstag Nacht fan. Irm Hermann will obviously always be remembered for her Fassbinder movies. Dominic Raacke is surely a bit overrated, but has okay recognition value. Steffen Wink has been in some better films than the vast majority of the cast here honestly, also acted next to Götz George, Gérard Depardieu and others. Walter Kreye is a pretty established and experienced actor and has been in some okay crime projects. Ulrike Folkerts I cannot say anything positive about. I think she is not a good actress at all. There's others like Max Herbrechter, but I shall leave it at that. The question that ensues obviously is why all these people would appear in a downright horrible movie like this one here. One that got penned by two women who have no talent whatsoever and were also pretty much rookies by then. The outcome is as expected. Not even much more talented actors than those here could not turn this mess of a screenplay into a decent film. May sound harsh, but it is really unwatchable on so many occasions. I shall get to that later. This film runs for under 1.5 hours by the way, just like the vast majority of German small screen releases. No exception here. And let's be honest: If you take a look at the poster here on imdb, you know this will suck. Also if you take a look at the title: "Men and other catastrophes". Absolutely repulsive and neither cute nor funny. Let's add a "wo" at the beginning and see how gender justice warrios will react. For the lulz.
What we have here is of course a film by Degeto and produced by Regina Ziegler and this means the two most crucial components in determining that a German television film sucks are on board here. They are also always anti-male really. This is what I am referring to with the title of my review. Back then, there weren't too many terrible television films from Germany, but since then Degeto (and Ziegler) dished out hundreds without any creativity or authenticity to them. An absolute disgrace and gigantic scandal what people's GEZ money has been used. The good news is that now in 2021, the amount of these films seems to be on the decline. There's still new ones, but not that many as in 2010 or 2013 maybe when the number peaked overall. Still, there is no excuse for films like this being made and shown. Let alone, shown after more than 20 years still, even if the cast includes faces and names that we still recognize nowadays. Let's move on to why this film sucked so hard. You basically only need to take a look at the first couple minutes. I will summarize it for you quickly: the speed camera that goes off (yeah so many times in a month), the spontaneous babysitting talk, the guy (not) giving her the eye at the library, the water mess back home and so on. By minute two, you know already that we have a really protagonist here with a chaotic life and it is so sweet and entertaining and we really want her to succeed. "We" in this scenario sadly only implies to the really simple audience members. I would say I appluad those that see through this mess, but it's all so simple that nobody really deserves praise for something like that. There are many more moments. Not just the key story about whcih i will talk later on, but also for example a small sequence with a professor and how Makatsch's character is so cute and clumsy there. I don't even. In general, those scenes when the protagonist is there with her two female friend are when the film hits rock bottom every time.
As for the central story, we have the guy who is the boyfriend and is not attentive enough when it comes to his girlfriend and seems to prefer to spend time with cars and his buddies and that of course makes him a terrible person, a truly despicable main antagonist. As always with Degeto and Ziegler. Then, also as always with these two, they really messed up the element of realism and authenticity. Many examples there, for example how Makatsch's character keeps running into the neighbor repeatedly, like at the supermarket or also at the very end where it is true love of course. It seems by then the screen writers already gave up and the only thing they still went for was give the protagonist a happy ending. No matter what or how much sense it makes. Oh, but yeah luckily we have these cute moments when the neighbor shows up and Makatsch's character is naked and the idea how she has a little time advantage was so ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as how she slips and falls down and he sees her naked butt. And things get worse and worse there, like with how Hermann's character is also immediately around and we see her snoop through the door. And of course that the guy was there to fix something for his neighbor, so he is a man who knows what to do with his hands, a man who can repair stuff. Sure thing. That always comes in handy when looking for romance. The idea of Makatsch's character and her original boyfriend getting together again felt as fake as it could be as well. Every person with an IQ over 60 would know things will go wrong again and as always he is the one to blame. By the way, this sequence early on when she wants sex was only mildly watchable because Makatsch was fairly attractive back then. But kinda funny how the guy is the bad person there for not wanting to immediately and when he does near the end when they make up, he is also the bad person for wanting this time. No matter what perspective you take, it's always anti-male.
The story is so ridiculous. Truly embarrassing how Jürgens was also wasted as some kind of potential love interest, but then again, he is only a man too and not good enough with how he treats her. Although he was not one bit dishonest. The woman, on the other hand, are awesome. Hermann's character may be a bit annoying, but how she cares for everything and also plays with the children still makes her a good person. The latter also applies 100% to the protagonist's best friend and she also gets her happy ending for sure when she is all of a sudden together with the guy with the glasses (not the one from Youtube). Absolutely necessary for more fake happy ending here. This was such an unwatchable film. Sorry, I know I am repeating myself, but it is true. If I had to picked a hundred moments, only one of those would be funny and that was the reference that the painting suffered and how her father misunderstood during the talk when they were in the car. But of course, this conflict is also solved with no major damage. Many more examples I could mention here (like the speed painting) which makes 100% obvious that this film is always inside failure territory, but I am getting closer to the character limit and you get the message anyway. This one here you really want to skip at all cost. It is really showing us in a nutshell everything wrong with German television and was a trailblazer for Neubauer, Gehlen, Wörner, Thomalla and many other vastly overrated "actresses". Highly not recommended. Worst possible rating from me for this one.
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