Manta, Manta

I watched a different Manta movie a while ago, thinking it was going to be this one ... I was wrong, which I realized while watching the other one. It is quite inferior to this one. While this also has characters that are hard to sympathize with - and calling them silly would still give them more IQ credit than they deserve, this can be fun to watch.

I was especially surprised about how good Til Schweiger is in this one ... I don't usually praise his acting work ... then again, the "role" seems to be destined to be played by someone like him, so I guess it was a good fit. Manta is a car that many people made and still make fun of ... and you can see why, when you watch the movie ... but they are also people - the ones driving the car that is! So sit back and enjoy the craziness ... if you can.

Manta manta is one of the funniest films I ever saw. The film is a parody description of a parallel world that has existed in Europe in the eighties and nineties. And may be still: It's the world of Opel Manta drivers, of man called 'Mani' and blonde women, often hairdressers called 'Ushi'. All sharing one passion:

OPEL MANTA

This film is probably only worth watching if you're from Western Europe. If you're not from there you miss the main point of the movie, portraying and maybe even exaggerating stereotypes.

The car the movie's title refers to, the infamous Opel Manta, is a car that has achieved cult status in Germany and is according to the general opinion mostly driven by 'socially unadjusted' people. Then again, if you look at the movie in a deeper perspective it might have a little more to it. You could see it as a movie about people with ambitions, (the mechanic that goes to university), setting your priorities straight (the main character that decides not to enter the race when he hears his girlfriend is pregnant) or about character (the 'loser' type that wins the final race).

This movie is extremely amusing, and might be more amusing to the dutch than to the germans. Part of the fun is the recognition of stereotypes: these guys really exists in Holland, Germany and probably Belgium, although they are often ruder and less sympathetic than the ones in the movie.

So first of all, what do people expect from a car tuning/racing comedy from the beginning of the 1990s? I hope not, Francis Ford Coppola worthy acting and family dinners that drag on for half an hour. Take it with a grain of salt, for what it is.

As part two , which I never expected, just hit the streaming services (in this case SKY), I felt like watching the original, to prepare. And it paid off well. Being born in 1980, the first film was part of my youth and we watched it a couple of times, having drinks and laughing about it all. What I did not remember, was the deeper sense of it, and Klausi being the not obvious hero.

Honestly it is not an eight star movie, but considering the bad reviews and harsh words that it got by some of my peer critics, I felt like being generous.

An absolute cult classic for anyone from a german speaking background born around the time.

Thanks for the memories really.