"Where is Fred?" is a German film from almost 10 years ago starring Til Schweiger, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jürgen Vogel and some more well-known actors, at least in Germany. The story is about a man, who ends up accidentally being perceived as disabled by the general public when he tries to catch a ball for his future wife's son. The film's director is Anno Saul. You may have heard of his films "Die Tür" or "Kebab Connection" and he directed Martina Gedeck and Jessica Schwarz in the past already and many more. The film is written by Bora Dagtekin ("Türkisch für Anfänger", "Fack ju, Göhte"). He used a script from an American writer duo that was behind the "Despicable Me" movies and "The Lorax". The American version of "Wo ist Fred?" was never made though in contrast to the German.Even before the plot really develops, there are already quite a few references that this film will have a lot to do with disability, for example how Fred almost drives over a disabled early on, or how Kurt Krömer's character criticizes a building site for not being handicapped accessible. One of the main problems for me was that I found the love interest to Vogel's character simply more interesting than the one to Schweiger's. but that's just personal preference. I liked some of the supporting performances too. The initial love interest for Fred was truly one of the funny highlights with her psycho son and Christoph Maria Herbst delivers as always of course too. His fake attack fit the film nicely. A real one may have been too serious for a comedy movie. Also it was nice to see my favorite "No Angel" in a very small role. Honorable mentions to Gode Benedix (works a lot with Schweiger) and Martin Brambach (one of my favs). Shame the two only play very minor characters. Still I felt the movie could have been kept at 90 minutes instead of clearly over 100 and, without some of the weaker scenes, not much would have been lost. Maybe this applies to when Schweiger invents a twin brother and constantly switches between characters. This has been done better in "Hannah Montana: The Movie" actually. The funniest moment for me though was when he comes as the wrong role to the woman with the evil son and she asks him if he completely lost it now. The ending is sadly as predictable as it's cheesy. The whole love confession scene in the basketball stadium was truly cringeworthy.All in all, it is a decent comedy and I would recommend it to those with an interest in German cinema. However, those who are easily offended when it comes to jokes about disabled people may want to stay away as the humor is occasionally a bit rough here.

A man in love will marry his girlfriend but first he has to get a signed basket ball for her wayward son - but only handicapped fans have the chance to get one. Seems like the only way to get this ball is visiting a basketball match as a handicapped ... Really equal to Hollywood productions! One gag after another, finest slapstick, no sensitive humor but crashing gags the entire movie. Jürgen Vogel and Til Schweiger at it's best! Alexandra Maria Lara plays the "emotional" part - absolutely lovely! And Christof Maria Herbst has been the best handicapped nasty person at all!! And about piety of handicapped people - no gag at the expenses of disabled people! We've got a severely disabled child and have been amused and laughing during the whole movie!Absolutely recommendable!!

Seen this one in a Sneak Preview yesterday and must say it was terrible. After the credits I thought: "Hey with this cast it'll probably be pretty good". Didn't at all turn out that way. Lame predictable groaners, terribly simply drawn characters (maybe except a little Ms. Lara's) and an ending one could foresee 10 minutes into the movie. And worst of all, it misused a delicate theme (handicapped persons) for low level and mostly tasteless jokes without ever touching anything but the surface of the issue. The handicapped person the film sympathises with the most is the one who is just faking it. What kind of message is that? And the film doesn't have a thought through ending at all, it basically comes down to: "I love you, doesn't matter that you acted like a prick."To sum it up: Great cast that must have been terribly bored to sign up for a terrible flick.

Saw this movie tonight in our local preview sneak - i have to say i'm a German citizen and not (really NOT) fond of our native movies, specifically comedies...but this movie was fun, really fun! The story follows Fred, who is engaged and not fully accepted by his lover's son. To win his friendship he has to get him the ball of the game from the Berlin basketball teal Alba. The clue is: only handicapped persons are given the game ball. To what leads this? Fred takes a wheel chair and is faking a handicap to win the ball and with it his lover's son's respect. The movie could be described as a German Farrelly like movie, as for the jokes pointed at handicapped persons...but these jokes are not insulting, they're really funny. As is the whole movie. And the best thing is....it has Alexandra Maria Lara in it!!! To tell you something: Lara looks sinfully good in this picture, she is astonishingly beautiful. What's left to say is, that if you like to have some 90minutes of fun, watch this picture - it's the best German comedy in years (and don't mind Til Schweiger, he is not that bad either)!