(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1

... 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.

German TV gets sillier every day. You must have seen it to believe. The same goes for Periode 1. It is actually a comedy show that runs once e week. Once upon a time these comedians decided to make a movie. It was called `Der Schuh des Manitu' and it became the greatest success in cinema history in Germany. I couldn't believe that. I found it not the least bit funny nor do I find the tv series funny. But both have a huge fan base. Bully, the star of the this whole travesty isn't funny either. The only thing he does, is pretending to be gay. You see this every week in his show you saw this in `Der Schuh des Manitu' and you see it now in `Periode 1'.

I don't know what is going on in peoples minds. The can laugh a thousand times about the same old joke as long as the media tells them that the jokes are good. It reminds me somewhat of Farenheit 451….

Being gay is even trendy now. Thanks to the German TV. They realised to construct e extremely positive stereotype about gays. You see gay dozens of times every day in lots of shows, films and commercials etc. And they do always follow the same stereotype. For example a gay man is always sympathetic, he knows much about fashion, he is the man who understands women, he behaves a little bit over the top in every aspect. But he is always very, very sympathetic. I do not have something against gays but I have something against this stereotype. Here in Germany there are two kinds of gay reactions to the film. The superficial ones that loves the movie because they are shown as most positive, sympathetic and nice guys and who are even influenced in their behaviour by the stereotype shown in the media. And the others, more sophisticated ones, how know that they are all thrown into one an the same pot. They know that gays are individual as every other person on this planet and not only a one dimensional stereotype or a trendy appearance that will be replaced in the future from some other appearances.

After `Der Schuh des Manitu' German people were allowed to vote for a sequel. For example one could vote for another western or a star trek like sequel etc. As you see the star trek parody has won. And so it came to the slogan that this is the first democratically voted movie in history. But most of the movie plays in medieval times. Bully (the main actor and director) said in an interview that he always wanted to make a medieval movie. That said you can mention for yourselves how democratic this movie is. But that doesn't matter because `Periode 1' is on its way to be even more successful than its predecessor.

There are certainly other dim-witted personalities in this movie that are very popular and that every child knows in Germany. For example the not-so-funny Stefan Raab. He made one of the most stupid songs for this movie that will be a number one smash-hit before long.

All these factors: the beloved stereotype, the democracy, the stars and the music in combination with the commercials that you are confronted with all day through and last but not least the pride of the Germans to have created an Hollywood-like movie with special effects and gay slapstick jokes that do not have hide behind American comedies make this movie look like the greatest achievement in cinema history but if you lift the veil a little bit you see that it is only an empty husk of a movie, a wanna-be Hollywood flick and unfunny as hell. The same jokes repeat throughout the whole movie. It is so boring and even worse it is a `positive-gay-propaganda'. Sounds kinda funny but it isn't. Tanks for reading. (2/10)

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!

"(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 **

After having read all postings and comments about the movie in this place up to now I simply want to tell that I love it! Surely the movie cannot be to everyone's taste especially not to the taste of those who run into cinema with a checklist about "will it be better than 'Schuh des Manitu'", "how many gay-jokes will be cracked", "does German comedy still exist" and so on. I myself was skeptical, too, whether Periode 1 will reach Schuh des Manitu but I was disappointed positively. Tonight I watched Periode 1 the second time and, like in Schuh des Manitu, I discovered gags I haven't perceived the first time because there are enough of it in there! Why do most of the commentators put emphasis on the gay-factor? Surely that was the original attention of "Unser Traumschiff" in Bullyparade but in the movie there surely is more! You remember "Men In Tights" (Helden in Strumpfhosen) by Mel Brooks, the Robin Hood-spoof? O.k., there was no gay-topic in it but it was very smug! Enjoy the details! The counselor of "William der Letzte", the rented spy, the taxi and so on - there's so much in it you can laugh about! Michael Bully Herbig surely accepts the inheritance of Monthy Pythons and Mel Brooks, in my eyes!

Simply enjoy it like me!