"Mensch Mama!" or "Fast eine Million" is a German television movie from 2012, so this one is moving closer to its 10th anniversary. Like all the others, it runs for 1.5 hours approximately and like many others, it is just incredibly weak. The duo of writers Falk and Strotmann makes it clear already looking only at their bodies of work. One had almost no experience before this film (and luckily none after either), while the other's career-defining effort is "Verbotene Liebe". Germans know what this means. This show is garbage. The director is Dirk Regel, who has worked since the old millennium, but for him it is also true that he is all about quantity and not quality and it's easy to see looking at his body of work. So this projectg was doomed from the beginning really. Schade, Schubert, Boettcher and Urlacher are mildly famous actors here in Germany probably, but the script would have made it almost impossible for every even more talented actor to turn this into decent movie. I am not even speaking about "great". Reality is that it is garbage. Birge Schade is probably still mostly known for her role in the NeverEnding Story sequel when she was really young, but she has been pretty prolific too over the year. Again, quantity over quality. The best example is really the scene when her character finds out that she won approximately a million in the lottery. Bad acting at display there. And there are more examples, even if it must be said that she is not as bad as the writers here and it was almost impossible to do something convincing with the character she was given here. Götz Schubert was alright. Better than his female co-lead for sure and I am not surprised to see he has been in several decent movies and projects in his career. He certainly has okay talent, which still poses the question why he agreed to appear in this garbage. I doubt he really needed the paycheck.
Anyway, I already mentioned the lottery win and this is really the framework for the movie. Really unrealistic by definition already, but who cares. The writers certainly did not. Also everything that follows is truly questionable. Be it the female protagonist to create the most ridiculous scheme in order to get her husband off the couch and have him work and start his own business again. It's just a travesty and all the actors felt like victims that they were supposed to pull this nonsense off. Then there is a reference throughout the entire film, but most of all at the very end, about another male character who has a romantic interest in the female protagonist. This was a bad joke too, but no they seriously meant it. I felt especially bad for the actor there because he was not onl used (one could almost say "abused") for this story, but he was also supposed to trick the male protagonist into thinking there wasn't a million, but it's all him. Why did they not take the easy way out. Simply have the woman tell her husband that they are rich (like a good honorable, hoenst spouse would) and try to start a business of have the husband live his dream if she cares so much about him. The whole idea about him wanting to succeed on his own was stupid enough really. Money can't buy you talent anyway and he would have succeeded on his own. Besides, it is not as if Schade's character worked for her fortune. But nonetheless the husband is displayed as the fool and idiot towards the end because he does not see how kindhearted his wife was for creating this massive scheme just for him. Oh well, it shows that this is a film mostly directed at women. The worst example is really that the expression in the title should be directed at Papa then, not at Mama, but having a female character mentioned in the title will simply attract more female audiences. This is really the perfect movie for housewives who are so dumbed down that they are stupid enough to mistake this film for being realistic and entertaining. I hope they get the help they need. Okay, finally one other component where this film hits rock bottom and that would be the music. Be it those scenes (always from the same camera angle) with the daughter who was already bad enough a singer, but seeing how Schubert's character had to stand next to her and join was something that could not have been any more cringeworthy. Shameful to see that the filmmakers thought this was either funny or quality music, maybe even both. And this was not all unfortunately. There is a choir in this movie and approximately every 1015 minutes they get to butcher a really famous song with their performance. Disgusting stuff really. If any of the actual composers/singers of these songs gave the filmmakers permission to use their work in this movie, then they would definitely very much regret it after seeing this film. Every single cover is an abomination. That's all now. Oh well, just one quick final addition at the end of my review about the end of this movie: Of course, they also include the forced and rushed happy ending with the two protagonists being happy together again. Never in doubt. I just want to forget this film as fast as I can. Not even good enough to be shown at noon here in Germany. I guess those who are stupid enough to like it will lose their last remaining brain cells during these 1.5 hours. Highly not recommended.
Anyway, I already mentioned the lottery win and this is really the framework for the movie. Really unrealistic by definition already, but who cares. The writers certainly did not. Also everything that follows is truly questionable. Be it the female protagonist to create the most ridiculous scheme in order to get her husband off the couch and have him work and start his own business again. It's just a travesty and all the actors felt like victims that they were supposed to pull this nonsense off. Then there is a reference throughout the entire film, but most of all at the very end, about another male character who has a romantic interest in the female protagonist. This was a bad joke too, but no they seriously meant it. I felt especially bad for the actor there because he was not onl used (one could almost say "abused") for this story, but he was also supposed to trick the male protagonist into thinking there wasn't a million, but it's all him. Why did they not take the easy way out. Simply have the woman tell her husband that they are rich (like a good honorable, hoenst spouse would) and try to start a business of have the husband live his dream if she cares so much about him. The whole idea about him wanting to succeed on his own was stupid enough really. Money can't buy you talent anyway and he would have succeeded on his own. Besides, it is not as if Schade's character worked for her fortune. But nonetheless the husband is displayed as the fool and idiot towards the end because he does not see how kindhearted his wife was for creating this massive scheme just for him. Oh well, it shows that this is a film mostly directed at women. The worst example is really that the expression in the title should be directed at Papa then, not at Mama, but having a female character mentioned in the title will simply attract more female audiences. This is really the perfect movie for housewives who are so dumbed down that they are stupid enough to mistake this film for being realistic and entertaining. I hope they get the help they need. Okay, finally one other component where this film hits rock bottom and that would be the music. Be it those scenes (always from the same camera angle) with the daughter who was already bad enough a singer, but seeing how Schubert's character had to stand next to her and join was something that could not have been any more cringeworthy. Shameful to see that the filmmakers thought this was either funny or quality music, maybe even both. And this was not all unfortunately. There is a choir in this movie and approximately every 1015 minutes they get to butcher a really famous song with their performance. Disgusting stuff really. If any of the actual composers/singers of these songs gave the filmmakers permission to use their work in this movie, then they would definitely very much regret it after seeing this film. Every single cover is an abomination. That's all now. Oh well, just one quick final addition at the end of my review about the end of this movie: Of course, they also include the forced and rushed happy ending with the two protagonists being happy together again. Never in doubt. I just want to forget this film as fast as I can. Not even good enough to be shown at noon here in Germany. I guess those who are stupid enough to like it will lose their last remaining brain cells during these 1.5 hours. Highly not recommended.
