Ey Man - Give Us Your Car! - DVD

Movie: Leon (Benjamin Gourley) still believes that the separation from his ex-fiancée Jackie (Sunny Mabrey) is his biggest problem. But he is sorely mistaken. Constant money worries force him to work two jobs at once. First, he and his buddy T.J. (Jason Mewes) retrieve unpaid cars for their boss Bob (Rafael J. Noble) from the unwilling owners - not exactly a safe job. At the same time, he's working as a janitor in an apartment complex where his secret crush Dominique (Lindsey McKeon) also lives. But can a perpetually broke janitor impress a woman like her? T.J. knows the answer: he suggests that he and Leon use their car-breaking skills to steal cars and then have Bob turn them back into cash. But even though Leon doesn't want to be a part of this illegal operation, he soon finds himself in the middle of the biggest trouble, with an angry gangster (Zack Ward) and a love-struck waitress (Izabella Miko) on his hands, and also putting his foot in his mouth with Dominique. And that's nowhere near the peak of their problems.

Ey Mann - Gib uns dein Auto has nothing in common with the Ashton Kutcher hit Ey Mann - Wo is' mein Auto, even if the German title suggests otherwise. Director, screenwriter and main actor Benjamin Gourley has delivered a mixture of romantic comedy, buddy-comedy and crime-comedy, in which the good intentions are visible here and there, but which comes across as too indecisive and overloaded. This is already obvious with the romantic aspect. Leon not only has to deal with his advances towards Dominique and his ex, from whom he desperately wants to get his engagement ring back. On top of that, he dates a crazy waitress for reasons the viewer doesn't quite understand, but she would much rather start something with TJ, who is already taken.

Also the other aspects of the story are too crammed with different plot lines and side characters that it's easy to lose track as a viewer. While Gourley does make an effort to have all the threads come together at the end, by the time it does, you as a viewer have long since lost the desire to follow the story. It feels like the young filmmaker has convulsively tried to incorporate a bit of the style of Kevin Smith films with the quirky coolness of Quentin Tarantino into a story infused with typical American Pie humor. And that mix, unfortunately, doesn't work at all.

A few very nice ideas and pretty moments are repeatedly ruined by extremely flat gags. The characters remain largely pale, as they simply aren't given the space to develop. If Gourley had decided on a style and followed it consistently, if he had lightened the story by a few unimportant subplots, the film would have definitely had the makings of his indie comedy worth watching. The scenes between Leon and Dominique, for instance, work well because of the chemistry between the two. And also ideas like the gangster boss, who gets his hair cut by his mother, are good for some laughs. But the unbalanced and above all completely overloaded mix just can't convince in the end. That the German dubbing also desperately tries to be even funnier than the original is then also not really conducive to the overall result.

Picture + Sound: There is actually hardly anything to complain about the technical implementation. For a small production like this, the picture is pleasantly sharp and the rich colors can also be seen. The sound is particularly pleasing in the powerful dts mix with some well-used ambient noise and minor surround effects. For a low budget comedy, totally satisfying.

Extras: Apart from the trailer for the film and further programme tips from the provider, the DVD unfortunately has no other extras to offer.

Conclusion: Ey Mann - Give Us Your Car is an arguably labored comedy that has a few nice moments and neat ideas, but they are almost completely drowned in a jumble of various characters and plot elements and flat gags. Director/screenwriter/lead actor Benjamin Gourley's attempt to mix too many different ingredients together results in a not really palatable comedy that has some good moments and funny ideas to offer, but that in the end too rarely scores with good laughs. Therefore: unfortunately only conditionally worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp