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So much average

Fantastic!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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.

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.

Sure, this movie follows a formula, actually many formulas, about gay vs. straight flicks, soccer flicks, sports hero flicks, guy gets the guy flicks - but it does them all VERY well and with both love and humour. Although there is every cliché in the book here about masculinity and coming out, there is an equal emphasis on NON-stereotypical gay men. Ercin the Turkish player is as nelly as they come but hey, he's a Turk represented in a German soccer flick, AND his Dad is obviously 100% supportive and proud of him, fluffy hand-gestures and all. Hotte may be a stereotypical leather guy, but he's also a juggernaut on the field who strikes terror in his opponents. Our hero is so gosh-golly "straight-looking" that I had trouble believing in him as a gay guy in the opening sequence, but his dalliances with Sven change all that. I've been out since 1979 and have seen ALL the big- name "gay" movies. Some good, some downright awful. This one felt real, was engaging from the outset and made me laugh, good hearty belly-laughs, from end to end. I loved it. You will too.

I was really looking forward to seeing this film ever since I saw an ad for it on TV. And when I finally went and saw it I was not disappointed at all. On the contrary: this is a great film! It's funny, light-hearted and brilliantly cast. The story focuses on Ecki, a young man who works in a bakery in a very small rural community and plays football in his local team. When his team-members find out that he is gay they throw him out of the team. With the help of his sister he subsequently tries to form an all-gay football-team to challenge his old team in a match. And this journey through tough-guy town Dortmund is really, really funny! The incredibly talented cast (especially leading man Maximilian Brückner) pull every scene off and make it believable. OK, there are clichés in this film but they are also made fun of and not taken seriously at the same time. The movie also features a love story between Ecki and Sven, his cute team-mate and these two characters are totally cliché-free.This is a very good film and I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a really good laugh, see really good acting and a really touching love story - all in one film!