User Reviews

The protagonists are a lovable but geeky batch of characters. The antagonists are a group of generally unlikable bully sorts. The underdogs inevitably win in some symbolic battle to prove they're not losers after all. That's the Slobs vs. Snobs picture in a nutshell. They're generally light on character development and focus overwhelmingly on letting the audience know that it's okay to be geeky/ugly/fat/skinny/smelly/some other unpopular characteristic. While those messages rarely reach those that could use the lesson the films can often be a bit of fun with heroes that are easy to root for and bad guys just as easy to hate. Shelly Horman's new Guys and Balls (Männer wie wir) is a decent one. The slobs are a group of homosexual soccer players and the snobs are a team of rude, homophobic Fußballspielers in this screwball comedy.

Ecki (Maximilian Brückner) is the goalie for a small German town's soccer team. Already in the doghouse for a controversial play at the end of the last game he's totally ostracized when he makes a drunken pass at a decidedly heterosexual teammate. His longtime nemesis Udo (Carlo Lubjek) takes charge and get him kicked off the team and his parents are shocked by the news of their son's sexual orientation. Parting words between the team and their ex- goalie bring a challenge; for Ecki to field a team of homosexual for a match against his old team. He heads to the big city to find his sister in the hopes that she can help him find some gay footballers. Wouldn't ya' know it he finds a group of unlikely heroes. The group includes a trio of leather-clad bikers, a very feminine Turkish deli worker, an extremely masculine lesbian, a closet construction worker and a couple of Brazilian players. The broad spectrum of gay personality types, including stereotypes, could come off as amateur caricatures in lesser hands but Horman & crew do a fine job of compensating for the characters' lack of depth. The biker trio especially is shown with a light humor that comes at the expense of common perceptions of lifestyle leather queens rather than at the expense of the characters themselves. The dearth of character development isn't normally that big of a problem. Only when unnecessary melodrama is introduced does it intrude. Scenes between Rudolf (Christian Berkel) and his son tend to ring a bit false because we don't know much about either of them and the sudden conflict between Ecki's parents seems a bit out of place.

In the city Ecki finds not only his sister (Lisa Pothoff) but also Sven (David Rott), a handsome hospital worker with looks and soccer skills to spare. As Ecki, with the help of a drunken former soccer star for a coach, works to make the team ready for the match he also must work to put his relationship with his parents back together. Will the team be better than everyone expected? Will Ecki's parents be able to transcend their prejudices? The answers are never really in doubt just as in any film of this type.

That a film is a predictable by-the-numbers formula doesn't necessarily mean it's no good. There is a reason that formula exist, they sometimes work. A fun, light comedy that's a bit stupid and a little romantic, Guys and Balls is an example of one that does.

"Männer wie wir" or "Guys and Balls" or "Balls" or "Lattenknaller" is a German movie from 2004, so this one is already 13 years old now. If you read some of the titles, you can already exactly expect what you are in for. It is a mix of gay-themed film and football movie. The protagonist gets fired from his football team when they realize he is a homosexual. As a consequence, he builds his own football team and plays against his former team in the end and of course you already know how it will go out. But predictability is the least of the problems this 100-minute movie has. The biggest problem is of course the screenplay. It is packed with clichés and the action has nothing to do with realism. And I could list a 100 examples for it. What do you want to hear? A man never knows he was a homosexual until he lies close to a friend. A team of complete rookies wins against a team of trained football players. The gays show some movements and actions in play that nobody could ever put on display that has not played football for a long time. Random gays pop out left and right when he is looking for his teammates. He does not care about his new-found sexual identity, but is all about this project and about revenge. Very likable huh? So yeah it is a really really bad movie and in my opinion, it is try-hard comedies like this one (or dramas as well) which hurt the tolerance in our society a lot more than they help it. The acting in here is frequently over the top and the film itself just does not make any sense at all. If it's a comedy, it's never funny despite the very visible and very failed attempts by the filmmakers to make us laugh. If it's a drama, than it's never relevant or realistic. If it's a sports movie, then the underdog element was elaborated on extremely poorly and that's the only aspect they even tried to make an impact with. It's very telling that writer Benedikt Gollhardt has never worked on another full feature film, but has a lot of weak television stuff under his belt. So yeah, there is not a single perspective from which you can enjoy this film or take it seriously at all. This is especially disappointing, almost dangerous, because this subject here (gay people in sports) is an important one and actually almost the only area in which discrimination against homosexuals is still present today, more than a decade after this film came out. It's not in society in general in my opinion, but maybe the depiction of the subject in films like this one is one reason why people are still very intolerant in this area. I don't think you should see this film. I gave it a major thumbs-down and it certainly is a contender for worst (German) movie of 2004.

I had to shut this off after about 20 minutes, there were too many stereotypical scenes & people for me.

I saw another German movie SUMMER STORM It came out at about the same time, I gave that movie rating of 8. as I liked all the people in it, It had charm & warmth.

I have a review of it, please check it out.

Guys & Balls had no warmth or interesting people.

I do like films about gay people, BUT I want them to be likable especially the lead.

The few soccer scenes I saw did not even look appealing & the scenes over the beginning credits, I found annoying.

The film may have gotten better as it went on BUT I was in no mood to stay.

Ratings ** (out of 4) 57 points (out of 100) IMDb 5 (out of 10) **

** ratings based on what I saw & my projected feelings on what I did not see.

This film is a delightful cross between The Bad News Bears and The Full Monty. But, the film really takes only the best from those other films.

Yes, the story is the familiar drill about whipping a rag-tag group of misfits into a competent team, but the individual personalities of the actors and the sweetness of the characters make this a very easy film to watch.

It is funny to watch macho stereotypes fall as the gay players become better and better at soccer. Also, during the climactic match between the hetero team and the homo team, when the straights decide to play dirty; they can only think of pushing, shoving, punching or tripping the gay guys. When the gays decide to fight back, it's by groping their opponents butts,grabbing their balls and kissing them. Very Funny! The straights are not prepared for this kind of dirty ball playing.

There is a predictable resolution between the gay hero and his homophobic dad, but over-all, this film was a charming diversion.

Stumbled over this film on Amazon.com. Had never heard of its release but the three reviews gave it five stars and rave reviews so being a lover of German movies I bought a copy...

Have to say that I was not impressed. The production values are cheap, the story is derivative, the characters are less than engaging and for a comedy it is surprisingly short on laughs.

I wanted to like this but I just found it lackluster and dull. Or maybe I expected more of independent German cinema than a gay spin on The Full Monty and a cast of stereotypes.

There are bits in the film that make no sense at all, like one of the Leather Bears trying to get Ecki in a sling --like he'd even look at him twice? Or the vengeful ex-wife turning up at the match but ending up cheering for her estranged gay husband? Bunkum is not the word! Well, at least it explains the movies UK title, I suppose...

Excellent, I like to watch foreign films and this one was great. Yes clichés were used but these stereotypes of gay people do not overwhelm the movie. I love how the whole "gay" aspect of the movie is not exaggerated like in many American films I've seen. It's light-hearted, fun and something you can go "aww" about. And when Ecki (Eckhard) saves that penalty shoot, you are just urged to jump up and go "YES"! Beautiful The cast convinced me. The lighting was perfect. And the romance between Ecki and Sven; true-to-life. By the way. Sven (David Rott) is gorgeous!!!! I really recommend this film, as it seems many people connotate that soccer is just a mere "srtaights-game". Enjoy it.

It's rather funny how two movies coming out of Germany at approximately the same time and released in New York City one after the other at the same theatre (the Quad) dealt with subject matter as predictable as a pop tune. Where SOMMERSTURM dealt with the coming-of-age of a young gay man, GUYS AND BALLS is the often-told story of the underdog, with everything but the kitchen sink going against him, and his chance to make his mark and claim a much-deserved victory. The underdog in question is Ecki (Maximilian Bruckner) who is given the task of assembling his own -- a gay soccer team, and face off with his former team. This is all rather okay stuff -- the movie rolls along at a pretty brisk pace -- but one big minus is the fact that including Ecki, most of the other gay men are treated pretty much as garbage throughout the movie's entirety: one of them, a leather-daddy, has a son whom his she-hag of a (former) wife won't let him even get close to, and after a while, the homophobic taunts get a little tiring. However, the addition of David Rott (Sven) into the mix livens things up considerably. In short, GUYS AND BALLS is entertaining fluff despite its uglier undertones and it's kept afloat due to its good cast and gab for visual puns.