I watch plenty of movies. But I just can't get over Bullies movies. He has this sick sort of 70's slapstick comedy that has been played over and over again.Typically humour is best done by Anglo's. Though the French like "chits" are not bad. I talked to my wife about this and she said the difference is that the French make fun of each other. They don't pick on one without the other. In other words EVERYBODY gets a poke...Bully and his humour is not like that. It is insulting humour, and it treads thin because it is too focused without spreading it around.I speak English, French and German and have listened to the films in original language and try as hard as I might I can't deal with it.This is not to say some Germans can't be funny. There are some extremely funny comedians, just Bully is not one of them.

To start off, the film's producer Michael Herbig asked Germany to vote on his next film after "Der Schuh des Manitu" and the people chose (T)Raumschiff Surprise to be its topic.Five minutes after film start you know whether you are going to like it or not. Frankly, I'm slightly getting sick of this "you-must-laugh"-humour that has still not reached its climax in Germany. In his first big feature movie "Der Schuh des Manitu" the cool charm was underlined by a "super-gay"-Indian (sorry, Native American) but in this flick we got an all gay spaceship (which only appears VERY rarely). It's not the fact that they are gay which bothers me, it's rather the fact that as the audience you are left with no choice than either laugh about it or leave the theater. I chose to give it a chance but I was more and more disappointed, particularly after about 20min when everything that the title stands for gets totally lost. The movie appears like it doesn't know where it's going and the more it tries to get further, the more it gets stuck with cheap jokes which have no class at all.To be honest, I hate writing this because I had such big expectations of this movie that it annoys me how disappointed I was. The special FX shots are really cool, the music is state of the art, make up is nice, story got probably written on the dunny and the actors try their best (they really do)... Unfortunately that just doesn't make a good movie! And there has been another Spaceballs already, for humanity's sake! If you keep that in mind while watching "(T)Raumschiff Surprise" it's only devastating... And i seriously wouldn't be surprised if gay people rampage on this one! What a pity!

I picked up a copy of this film based on a friend's recommendation. And whilst what I watched was a Chinese translation, with English subtitles over a German film I still found it funnier than Either of the well-noted American spoofs, Spaceballs or Galaxy Quest.Set in a Sci-Fi Universe that's visually a lot like Star Wars, but structurally much like Star Trek the plot sees the (Emporer Plapatine-like) Martian Regulator blockading the Earth with aspirations of conquest.Earth's only hope? The crew of the Dreamship Surprise - most notably it's camp command crew, Captain Kork, Spucky and Schotty. As they travel to Earth to make a journey back in time to save the future they acquire the assistance of Earth's beautiful young queen and a Taxi Driver.The plot manages to skewer both Star Wars and Star Trek quite effectively, whilst somehow maintaining the looks of both (The sets on the Surprise are very sixties-Trek, most everything else seems Star Wars inspired). The journey in the past takes detours through Medieval Europe (Allowing a few Knight's Tale style moments) and the Wild West before ending up at Area 51 (which is foreshadowed in the opening).I'd seen a brief clip of the film before watching but was surprised at how consistently amusing it was. Yes, there's a few cheap gags, and more gonad jokes than I'd expect from it's American counterparts but it's still darn funny. Some nifty sight gags lurk in the background and some of the puns are meticulously set up and had me groaning out loud (in the manner of someone who appreciates a bad pun).If you like or hate sci-fi, there's many a reason to track this down. Some of the 'gay' gags may not be up everyone's street (and may cause a little offence to some - but it's hard to say) but that's par for the course with any parody.The soundtrack echoes it's inspirations very effectively, and a few times I thought it was actually going to take the plunge and rise dramatically into a John Williams soundtrack. Not only that, but there are actually a handful of brief musical numbers thrown in as well (Most often from the crew of the Surprise).The performances are pretty over-the-top for the most part, this is not a film that requires much in the way of subtle acting, but again isn't that another shot at it's targets? And before I sign out, Kudos must go to the special effects team, who managed to succeed in making a film that looks worthy of the huge effects budgets on the Star Wars prequels, presumably for a fraction of the price. The film is visually stunning in that regard, The Surprise, The Battleships, The Taxi and even the time-travel sequence (Which takes place on a sofa - surely a nod to Douglas Adams there) all look incredible and the film's one big action scene looks every bit as good as the Pod Race or space battle from the Star Wars prequels.My opinion, it may not be perfect, but there's no way I'll regret buying it. There were enough laughs to keep me occupied through it's entire run-time even though the pacing could have done with a minor trim.As a fan of Science Fiction in general I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it to most.

I've seen Der Schuh Des Manitu (great funny movie if you know all the "Winnetou"-movies) but haven't seen Periode 1. I'd like to see it. And i'd like to buy both movies if they would be in English language or at least with English subtitles. I know there are some trailers in English from Der Schuh Des Manitu. So where is the whole English version? Please let me know if someone know more about. Write an e-mail to: [email protected] I hope there will be another funny movie from this guy's. Maybe some funny version about all the James Bond, Starsky and Hutch, Petrocelly, Cojak and ... Or about ll the action ones: Rambo, Mad Max... Or what ever... we will wait and see to get surprised. Regards, Fred