"Sex Up - Jungs haben's auch nicht leicht" is a German comedy movie from 2003, so this one will soon have its 15th anniversary already. The writer and director is Florian Gärtner and this small screen release is maybe his most known work. It runs for 90 minutes approximately and features a cast of mostly young German actors. The only cast member who made it somewhat big afterward is Jacob Matschenz who plays one of the three students in the center of the story. The one other cast member that German audiences may be familiar with is Michaela Schaffrath, also known as Gina Wild during her adult film career. So yeah, let's take a look at the story. We have a trio of young men and they are struggling with love and the girls in their life and there are the usual teenage problems too, like arguments with parents, even if there is nothing too serious of this kind here, and problem with other students, especially a gang of jocks, who randomly appear every time our "heroes" are in an embarrassing situation and who of course also always have a camera with them to record it all.And there we have already one of the main problem of this film. It sacrifices realism altogether in order to include as many "funny" situations as possible. And by the "s I used you see that I did not find a whole lot funny. The humor is about a flower looking like a male penis and the juice that comes out of it makes people become sex animals towards the first person they see after they consume that juice in a drink or so. Oh yeah, now you know what to expect here. And when the film tries to be actually relevant, it is even worse. The best example is when one of the boys suddenly turns gay and yeah there is so much drama about his coming-out etc. Oh wait, actually the writers forgot that crucial plot developments 2 or 3 minutes later and everything is once again as it was. Makes sense. Not. So yeah, what else is there to say. This film is certainly a contender for worst career effort from Matschenz and probably also almost everybody else in here. Or maybe it isn't as they did in fact even make a sequel to this piece of garbage and I am genuinely worried that one may be even worse. Just imagine the (already fairly weak) "American Pie" gone wrong in every way one could imagine and this is what you get with "Sex Up". Stay far far away. The script is a huge mess and all the other components (acting, direction etc.) aren't much better.

=== Minor spoiler ===From time to time I keep a couple of red Flamingo Lily either in office or at home. Never, never have I made any possible analogy between this flower and the male genital! Yet it's a wickedly clever comparison just by thinking about their similar outlook. What's more devilish is that the flower in the story ejaculates (love potion) whenever it sees a female, no matter dog or human, real or just on photo!The comedy may easily be taken as another American come-of-age teen flick yet very German elements exist: 1) Ziege's parents are overjoyed while hearing sexual moans and groans from his bedroom. They giggle happily and think that their boy has finally grown up. In American version, surely two worrying faces (one from mom, another dad) may fill the screen. 2) Ziege and Häschen beg Sven to help find out how much time it takes for the aphrodisiac to be in effect and also its fade-out. I just exploded in loud guffaws when they utter so decisively together that they do it "für Wissenschaft!" (For the science!). In actuality, the entire process of demystifying the floral juice is absolutely highly scientific. If the flower is found by three American boys, they would yell and cheer, "For the chicks!"Frankly speaking, it looks pretty "filthy" as you see semen on ceiling, Häschen's farting while seeing girls, flower gets nutrient from pizza with green mold. Thank God we have the young handsome faces of André Kaminski and Joseph Bolz as antidotes, promising young actors.

Ziege, Häschen and Sven are best friends and just average teenagers with the usual problems: girls, hormones and the first sex. Being 16, all three guys are still virgin and look for ways to change it. Sven is the only one having a girlfriend, Ines, but somehow their relationship just doesn't work. Ziege just looks for a girl who could deflower him, until then he passes the time with, well, pleasing himself. Häschen falls for the beautiful Valerie and has another problem: Whenever he walks up to a girl to talk to her he farts. Everything changes when Ziege's parents return from an exotic holiday and bring a mask with them. Overnight a plant grows out of this mask and its juice has an incredible effect: Once you've taken it and it starts to work you get horny at the first person you see at that moment. When the friends want the plant to work for them they slowly discover that they actually don't need it.What sounds like "American Pie" turned out to be maybe the most intelligent teenage comedy of the last years, by international standards. Pity it only ran on TV, I think it deserved a bigger audience. However, the comedy is pretty sexy with many hints but thank god less obvious erotic things. It's one of those movies where something begins on the screen and the result of it plays in the viewer's imagination and this is one of the film's greatest strength. But to be honest what I liked most about "Sex up" were not the hilarious jokes, but the way it portrayed its protagonists and the theme love. Boys in this film are not only stupid, cool, hormone-driven teenagers only stumbling from one funny situation into the other, they have feelings, they are vulnerable and the film takes the time to give each of them enough room to develop their character on screen and it's just great. Like I said, an intelligent comedy with a certain depth but still lightly enough to deliver great one-liners and the likes. Besides it finds elegant ways to deal with other topics: Friendship, loyalty, family, homosexuality and well, dancing on stage… The film lives, of course, mainly through its protagonists. André Kaminski, an inspiring young actor with international experience shows here a great comic potential and is very natural and comfortable in his role as the all-time-horny Ziege. Joseph Bolz, to some people familiar from "crazy" has grown up and matured, he, too, is a very talented and sensitive actor dealing with the most difficult part of the three. Jacob Matschenz, too, is great as the shy Häschen and is more the master of the more quiet tones. But basically everyone in this movie is casted perfectly.Try this movie and enjoy it – you'll love it. Especially because you certainly will discover yourself in one of the main characters. Three thumbs up for this summery coming of age comedy and a wonderful tribute to love.