Tana Schanzara Movies

An arrogant football star gets an unexpected lesson in the mental side of the game from one of his fans in this comedy from Germany. Hans Pollak (Uwe Ochsenknecht) is an unemployed factory worker who drives a cab part time to bring in some money. Hans is also a committed football fan, and he is so loyal to his favorite team, Schalke 04, that he puts up his house as collateral on a bet that Schalke will win their next game -- and that their star player, Pablo (Oscar Ortega Sanchez), will pull out of his losing streak and kick a goal for the team. What Hans and his friends don't know is that Pablo couldn't care less about the team or the game; he's soon to be traded to an Italian franchise who will pay him more money, and he's too wrapped up in his ego and his cocaine habit to bother with anyone else. Hans and his buddies meet Pablo in a bar and are angered by his cavalier attitude; when Pablo stumbles into Hans' taxi later that night, they get into an argument and Hans knocks him out. While Pablo sleeps it off on Hans' couch, Hans and his friends decide to give him a crash course in the importance of teamwork and a winning attitude, to the anger of the hung-over athlete and the puzzlement of Hilde (Marita Marschall), Hans' wife, who doesn't know about her husband's wager. Marita Marschall's performance in Fussball Ist Unser Leben earned her the Best Supporting Actress prize at the 2000 Bavarian Film Awards. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this comedy thriller, the words of the title Bang! You're Dead! are what anyone with a computer and foolish enough to let the mad scientist in this film gain access to it is likely to see, before something ingeniously awful happens to him. The scientist met an American schoolteacher at the Frankfurt airport as she was arriving to participate in a convention for teachers of German. Almost immediately, she gets embroiled in a series of adventures, beginning with the scientist having a heart attack, being taken in hand by emergency services, and then recovering sufficiently to give them (and her) the slip. She then encounters the doctor's assistant, who knows he is up to no good, and plans to find him and thwart his plan to wreak mayhem via computer. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is the second comedy made by director Adolf Winkelmann about societal dropouts in the Ruhr industrial valley. Katlewski (Delle Quandt) has an acerbic way of pinpointing the buttoned-down minds of fellow workers who conform without question to their class-imposed parameters. Katlewski has had it with his wife who cannot let any neighbor surpass her in material gewgaws, and he has had it with his job as a coal miner as well -- quitting one day by just walking out. To survive, he finds odd jobs anywhere -- driving trucks, tending bars -- but he finally has a chance to find some gratification in life. He not only develops a relationship with a girlfriend who shares his views and understands him, but he craftily lifts enough money from a fat-cat who needs pruning anyway and pays off the debts his wife had accumulated for him. Perhaps Katlewski will be on another track entirely as he heads back to the miner's job he had recently abandoned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, when young Atzi, Lutz and Sulli are laid off from their extremely technical jobs in a Dortmund factory, the likelihood of their finding similar work is pretty remote. Instead, they steal a broken-down moving van with bad brakes and hare around the countryside along with a girl who hitchhikes a ride from them. This youthful film was a box-office hit in Germany at the time of its release. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide