Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Where is Fred?" is a German film from almost 10 years ago starring Til Schweiger, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jürgen Vogel and some more well-known actors, at least in Germany. The story is about a man, who ends up accidentally being perceived as disabled by the general public when he tries to catch a ball for his future wife's son. The film's director is Anno Saul. You may have heard of his films "Die Tür" or "Kebab Connection" and he directed Martina Gedeck and Jessica Schwarz in the past already and many more. The film is written by Bora Dagtekin ("Türkisch für Anfänger", "Fack ju, Göhte"). He used a script from an American writer duo that was behind the "Despicable Me" movies and "The Lorax". The American version of "Wo ist Fred?" was never made though in contrast to the German.Even before the plot really develops, there are already quite a few references that this film will have a lot to do with disability, for example how Fred almost drives over a disabled early on, or how Kurt Krömer's character criticizes a building site for not being handicapped accessible. One of the main problems for me was that I found the love interest to Vogel's character simply more interesting than the one to Schweiger's. but that's just personal preference. I liked some of the supporting performances too. The initial love interest for Fred was truly one of the funny highlights with her psycho son and Christoph Maria Herbst delivers as always of course too. His fake attack fit the film nicely. A real one may have been too serious for a comedy movie. Also it was nice to see my favorite "No Angel" in a very small role. Honorable mentions to Gode Benedix (works a lot with Schweiger) and Martin Brambach (one of my favs). Shame the two only play very minor characters. Still I felt the movie could have been kept at 90 minutes instead of clearly over 100 and, without some of the weaker scenes, not much would have been lost. Maybe this applies to when Schweiger invents a twin brother and constantly switches between characters. This has been done better in "Hannah Montana: The Movie" actually. The funniest moment for me though was when he comes as the wrong role to the woman with the evil son and she asks him if he completely lost it now. The ending is sadly as predictable as it's cheesy. The whole love confession scene in the basketball stadium was truly cringeworthy.All in all, it is a decent comedy and I would recommend it to those with an interest in German cinema. However, those who are easily offended when it comes to jokes about disabled people may want to stay away as the humor is occasionally a bit rough here.

offenes_meer As has been said before, German citizens don't always think too much of German comedy films. Too often these are VERY obvious, blatant, superficial etc. - you name it. Seems we have a different culture here, if you compare to films like Dumb and Dumber, Jay and Silent Bob, Jim Carey stuff etc. you will find that in Germany this kind of film is more or less restricted to the age 12 to 16 where you will want to laugh and not think about plot lines, stringency of characters and story etc. So, let's leave aside a number of flaws in the plot and some not very credible twists. Sitting in the cinema, this film actually makes you roll of your chair a couple of times and has some really good gags - most of them drawing on ridiculous situations and confrontations. Although handicapped persons play quite a role (sometimes wondered, which were actors and which actually handicapped ..) they are neither being made fun of, nor exploited. Rather, some concern for their situation is raised. The thing that saves this film is the actors. Alexandra Maria Lara is more beautiful than ever and will make male viewers shrink in their seats in awe. Christoph Maria Herbst (Maria btw. can be a male or female second name in German) offers a wild and extremely convincing role as a wheelchair-confined basket ball fan (stay on for the snippet that comes up after the first credits at the end of the film!). Including one of the best dialogues I have seen acted in a long time: Herbst, having hurt himself badly is pensively picking a glass splinter from his shoulder when Denise asks 'are you hurt?' and he replies matter-of-factedly 'how come you ask?' not even looking at her. Till Schweiger has been bashed quite a bit in Germany - which seems 'normal' with any actor having too much success. Jealousy, I'd say. It can be said, that he is not too much of a character actor and mostly 'sells' his good looks. In this film he actually does offer a fair performance. Playing the grumbly guy with a bad conscience fits him well. I've never heard of neither the director nor the script author, but maybe we will be seeing some new quality work in German cinema soon?

trixi_sunshine Well, I read that the plot is based on an American script (the most obvious sign of that is that it is about basketball, no one really cares about it in Germany) but they withdrew because they considered it too politically incorrect. But having seen some of the Farrelly Brothers' movies, I really wonder why. Although the subject of handicapped persons and how to treat them is not sufficiently dealt with it contains a few laughs. Once more I wonder how Til Schweiger of all people could become so famous, definitely the worst part of the crew, once more. Must be his looks. But the others compensate for it, especially the little fat kid who wants to have the basketball. What makes this film worthwhile is the cast consisting of Jürgen Vogel who usually excels in more serious roles and Christoph Maria Herbst who embodies a real handicapped person and a real basketball aficionado. Alexandra Maria Lara looks good too, granted. It would be pointless to give away the plot because you'll figure it out after 5 minutes.

Thekingofdudes Saw this movie tonight in our local preview sneak - i have to say i'm a German citizen and not (really NOT) fond of our native movies, specifically comedies...but this movie was fun, really fun! The story follows Fred, who is engaged and not fully accepted by his lover's son. To win his friendship he has to get him the ball of the game from the Berlin basketball teal Alba. The clue is: only handicapped persons are given the game ball. To what leads this? Fred takes a wheel chair and is faking a handicap to win the ball and with it his lover's son's respect. The movie could be described as a German Farrelly like movie, as for the jokes pointed at handicapped persons...but these jokes are not insulting, they're really funny. As is the whole movie. And the best thing is....it has Alexandra Maria Lara in it!!! To tell you something: Lara looks sinfully good in this picture, she is astonishingly beautiful. What's left to say is, that if you like to have some 90minutes of fun, watch this picture - it's the best German comedy in years (and don't mind Til Schweiger, he is not that bad either)!