“Manta Manta – Second Part”: Til Schweiger shamelessly surrenders to narcissism

Full throttle, exhaust fumes, laughing gas. Then “Manta Manta” worked in 1991, the movie that made Til Schweiger and Tina Ruland the James Dean and Marilyn Monroe of Germany. Or at least from the Ruhr area. Til played Bertie and Tina played Uschi, he messed with cars and she with someone else’s hair, there was stupid Klausi (Michael Kessler), smart device, annoying Axel, bankruptcies, bad luck and bad luck were the basis of their daily life, there were no miracles there , but in the end it wasn’t just Bertie and Uschi making out with “Wind of Change”.

“Manta Manta” was a film about young people in the middle of Germany who were neither interested in the still very near German turning point, nor in the totally distant environmental protection. They just had to see if they could get the next grade better in a beauty pageant or in a car race. They were useless as heroes. And best of all, it was a movie ofbut not by Until Schweiger. It had charm.

And now? Til Schweiger’s gigantomania has reached a new level. Because now, 32 years after “Manta Manta” he has written, directed and edited “Manta Manta – Second Part” and of course he plays the leading role, because no one can translate the image that a silent person has of himself into images that are so sympathetic . like a silent one.

The genesis of the grandmaster project is a legend in itself: Schweiger likes to say he got kicked off a date (really? What woman dares turn Til Schweiger down?), and instead of getting drunk, he falls asleep or plays football look , he sat down, unleashed the “author” in himself and wrote “Manta Manta 2” in one night. Six others then edited the script, but ER laid the groundwork. And HE has done a great deal for himself. Unfortunately, he confuses narcissism with self-mockery.

But why? Stupid question. Didn’t Tom Cruise save the movie theaters 35 years after “Top Gun” with “Top Gun: Maverick”? Why couldn’t he? Wallow in yourself nostalgically? Getting sentimental about your own past and its fading? And hadn’t Tom Cruise also preserved the good, old, robust, loveable masculinity of the hero body of yesteryear in the present? Wasn’t that also a job for HIM? The resurrection of himself?

Nothing easier than that! Former racing driver Bertie (Schweiger) now runs a heavily indebted used car garage and a go-kart track for kids. He has no money, no driver’s license and no uschi (Ruland), but his daughter Mücke (Schweiger’s daughter Luna) lives with him and she is very talented in tinkering with engines and men. Uschi lives with the rich bastard Gunnar (Moritz Bleibtreu), no one understands why, she now owns a hair salon chain, while Bertie never takes off the chain Uschi gave him decades ago. Will Bertie and Uschi get back together?

And what about Bertie and Uschi product Daniel (Tim Oliver Schultz), who loses the last vestige of his already flawed character in stepfather Gunnar’s wealthy reserve? Will Daddy Bertie be able to save him??? And how is Bertie ever going to get his money back and, last but not least, save the job from the dim-witted, but of course sweetheart, Klausi (Michael Kessler)? For example, by wanting to win a car race????

Maybe Til Schweiger just had ChatGPT write the script. One that is based on the terms “Manta Manta”, “Til Schweiger”, and “Screenplays by Til Schweiger”. Because the latter all have something in common: they celebrate family and sentimentality.

“Manta Manta – Second Part” is a very sentimental family film, Uschi-Mücke-Daniel constantly declares their deep love for Bertie and tells him that he is the best man and person, and that sounds like calendar wisdom being eaten by unicorns. Rosamunde Pilcher, on the other hand, is ice-cold psychothrill. A lot of the two hours pass, because that’s the most important thing.

Cars are the most beautiful in the world. «Cars mean freedom. And I love freedom,” Bertie conjures up for his son’s enormously unrealistic school class and puts them together in a carphile trance. And yes, the final race is actually riveting. But otherwise, this very, very German film is more likely to be seen riding around in a hippie bus and older men bellowing “Beyond Eden”. And Bertie, Schweiger keeps telling us how great his young years were. Spoilers: they’re not coming back.

“Manta Manta – Second Part” will be in cinemas from March 30.