(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1

Yeah, so, I'm not German (though I do speak it)...

The humour is not inherently German (i.e. there is some!), but it is funny. Very, very funny. Bully started with "Der Schuh des Manitu", and that was a poor German ape of Blazing Saddles... but this is different. For a start the special effects make you wonder how Star Wars I-III managed to spend their significantly larger budget. They're good. There's something almost British about the comedic understatement and dead-pan delivery. A knowledge of colloquial German is useful though.

The "icon" of the movie, the gay trio of Kirk (Kork), Spock (Spuck) and the other one (it isn't clear which Star Trek character he's meant to be), is the weakest point of the flick, but fortunately it is a minor intrusion. There is plenty of wit, spoofing and entertainment besides. Til Schweiger is excellent - a German Bruce Willis, maybe? Perhaps, as an Auslander, I find this movie more endearing than I should, but I highly recommend it.

Mopsgeschwindigkeit!

Well, to be honest, after watching the first 15 minutes i thought it was the worst German comedy i ever saw... being a fan of Bully (and his TV show "Bullyparade") for some years now i felt the quality of entertainment and humour in the series, as well as in this movie, have decreased a lot and probably won't become again what made the TV series so special when it started. "Der Schuh des Manitu" was a big success, but (in my opinion) it was already made in a way a grandma with her grandson could watch and wouldn't be disappointed, because the jokes were not that strange or unexpected as when the TV series started. I got big sympathies for bully as a person, he's an intelligent and funny entertainer, but i think he should either decide to do movies for kids or stop the whole thing.

And now (T)Raumschiff Surprise... when watching the TV show the Star Trek parodies fitted well into the context, because of the variety of their other parodies on TV shows or movies, but a whole movie about 3 Star Trek guys that are obviously gay is not the big deal in 2004. Humour has developed, nowadays there are a lot of TV series that got similar jokes and characters (and they're not good).

In the movie, the changes of the scenery/time/places could not get me interested in what would happen next. As i mentioned above, i lost interest after 15 min, when having noticed most of the jokes could not even stand the "quality" of the last episode of "bullyparade".

What made the whole thing even worse is the advertising that came with it. There are not-funny spoken word-ringtones, a campaign for a burger restaurant, a pc game...

For me, "Schuh des Manitu" was some kind of funny when watching it the first time, it did not disappoint me. I expected worse with "(T)Raumschiff", asking myself how they would keep the gay-Star-Trek-thing entertaining for over an hour. They just switch time and places a few times, the number of jokes worth to remember is zero, some are not that bad, but i kept thinking they spent most of the time for the computer rendering stuff and tried to focus on the "story".

So if you're under 14, if you liked "Dude, where's my car", if you've never seen any Star Trek or Star Wars parody before , you could get a bit entertained.

I hope Bully finds a way back to his former qualities, he should not end like Christian Tramitz, who got to host his own very unfunny and lame TV show.

... put in some time travel.

"Traumschiff" could have been a great comedy, if Michael Herbig had decided to stick with the Star Trek/Star Wars theme. Sadly, the "Dreamboat Surprise" from the title only has the part of an extra in this film, appearing briefly at the beginning. The second half of the film is ruined by a time travel story, which is awful because A. it uses the most clichéed settings of time travel stories (the middle ages, the wild west and the presence) and B. it is not funny. Given the title of the film, I expected lots of fun on board of the gay spaceship "Surprise" with its lewd and girlish crew that prefers having "Kaffeekränzchen" instead of exploring the unknown regions of the galaxy (as seen in the great post-credits bonus). The last thing I wanted to see was actors reprising their parts from "Der Schuh des Manitu".

Now that I have expressed my disappointment I want to add that the CGI-effects in this film are exceptional for a German production and are very good (however useless, because this is supposed to be comedy, so we're in need for laughs instead of eye candy) and that three or four scenes really made me laugh - among them the best Darth-to-Luke-I-am-you-father-parody I have ever seen.

Do you know the show this is based on? Well I mean the German tv show Bullyparade - but of course it would also help if you knew the Science Fiction shows and movies this is based on too - actually spoofs would be a better description. Apart from that I was actually surprised to see Til Schweiger in this ... actually not just to see him, but to see him "work" - no pun intended.

Jokes are hit and miss (again with the puns), but you can tell they love the things this is based on. You may take offense because this mixes Star Trek and Star Wars lores and tropes ... but it is not meant to offend. The innuendo throughout the movie on the other hand ... not sure how this will be taken. A fun movie that those familiar with what this means, will be able to enjoy a lot more than others ... also comedy ... can you lower your expectations and just laugh at almost anything? It would help immensely.

"(T)Raumschiff Surprise" is sometimes funny, sometimes hilarious but it is also embarrassingly stupid at times. It has some new jokes but what I found shocking is that some of the jokes were "borrowed" (from Austin Powers; Loriot,...). So really you have creative ideas and funny and original jokes but in the same scene you have old or plagiarized jokes and gags that are complete misses.

I like Bully and I think he is funny, loved "Der Schuh des Manitu". There was a huge hype around this movie and when I finally saw it I was disappointed as the movie did not deliver. About a year after watching it the first time, I watched it again and I laughed about 5 times and smiled maybe another 10 times. I remember laughing quite a bit the first time I watched it but even back then I found it disappointing.

This movie is not quite as bad as the IMDb-rating (5.4) suggests but way worse than the hype around it makes you believe it is. (Most of the time my ratings for a movie are below the IMDb-average so me rating it the same as the average voter while saying it deserves a higher score is not a contradiction. Hope you can follow.)

** 5.5/10 **