MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 3,078 this week

Guys and Balls (2004)
"Männer wie wir" (original title)

6.5
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 6.5/10 from 1,209 users   Metascore: 60/100
Reviews: 20 user | 24 critic | 10 from Metacritic.com

After their most recent loss, a soccer team discovers its goalie is gay and casts him out. He retaliates by bringing back an all-gay team for a game to prove who's better.

Director:

0Check in
0Share...

Related News

‘Desert Flower’
| Moving Pictures Magazine

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2369 titles created 4 months ago
 
a list of 23 titles created 27 Nov 2011
 
a list of 85 titles created 9 months ago
 
a list of 49 titles created 6 months ago
 
a list of 93 titles created 13 May 2012
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Guys and Balls (2004)

Guys and Balls (2004) on IMDb 6.5/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Guys and Balls.
3 wins & 3 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Shelter II (2007)
Drama | Romance | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend's brother.

Director: Jonah Markowitz
Stars: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes
Get Real (1998)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

A tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.

Director: Simon Shore
Stars: Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5/10 X  

The star player of Icelands top football team causes a stir when he admits to being gay to his team mates and then goes on a journey to discover himself (with the help of the local press). ... See full summary »

Director: Róbert I. Douglas
Stars: Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Helgi Björnsson, Arnmundur Ernst Björnsson
Summer Storm (2004)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to... See full summary »

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Stars: Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Jürgen Tonkel
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

In the palm-shaded oasis of West Hollywood, we meet Dennis, a promising photographer. As he prepares to celebrate his twenty-eighth birthday, he laments, ' I can't decide if my friends are ... See full summary »

Director: Greg Berlanti
Stars: Ben Weber, Timothy Olyphant, Zach Braff
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

The daughter of orthodox Sikh rebels against her parents' traditionalism by running off to Germany with a football team (soccer in America).

Director: Gurinder Chadha
Stars: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent with the only athlete who stays with him.

Director: Cameron Crowe
Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger
Leatherheads (2008)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6/10 X  

In 1925, an enterprising pro football player convinces America's too-good-to-be-true college football hero to play for his team and keep the league from going under.

Director: George Clooney
Stars: John Krasinski, David de Vries, George Clooney
Wimbledon (2004)
Comedy | Romance | Sport
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X  

A pro tennis player has lost his ambition and has fallen in rank to 119. Fortunately for him, he meets a young player on the women's circuit who helps him recapture his focus for Wimbledon.

Director: Richard Loncraine
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, Sam Neill
Comedy | Drama | Music
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.5/10 X  

The hockey career of former Toronto Maple Leaf Eric McNally, who was known as a tough enforcer, came to an end with a shoulder injury. He is now a sportscaster. Except to his assistant Nula... See full summary »

Director: Laurie Lynd
Stars: Tom Cavanagh, Ben Shenkman, Noah Bernett
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.1/10 X  

Lindsay is stuck in the middle of her relationship with Ben and his passion for the Boston Red Sox.

Directors: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Stars: Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon, Jason Spevack
Latter Days (2003)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A promiscuous gay party animal falls for a young Mormon missionary, leading to crisis, cliché, and catastrophe.

Director: C. Jay Cox
Stars: Steve Sandvoss, Wes Ramsey, Amber Benson
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Maximilian Brückner ...
Ecki
David Rott ...
Sven
Lisa Potthoff ...
Susanne (as Lisa Maria Potthoff)
Rolf Zacher ...
Trainer Karl
...
Rudolf
Dietmar Bär ...
Vater Gerd
Saskia Vester ...
Mutter Renate
Mariele Millowitsch ...
Wirtin Elke (as Als Gast Mariele Millowitsch)
Markus John ...
Tom
Billey Demirtas ...
Ercin
Andreas Schmidt ...
Jürgen
Michael von Burg ...
Martin
Max Hopp ...
Steffen
Edesson Batista De Jesus ...
Ronaldo (as Edesson Batista de Jesus)
Charly Hübner ...
Horst 'Hotte'
Edit

Storyline

Fair-haired Ecki, the baker's son, has grown up the golden boy of his home town. All that changes the instant he and his soccer teammates discover he's gay. Now the object of scorn and ridicule (and finding himself unceremoniously kicked off his team), Ecki travels to the city of Dortmund to recruit an all-gay soccer team to return and prove to his town and his former soccer mates who the best men are. As first-time-out Ecki searches blindly through gay watering holes for players, his parents endure a rash of derisive gay jokes from the townies, leaving Ecki's gruff father to hope for a change in his son's orientation while also considering closing down the family business. Written by statmanjeff

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

soccer | gay | teammate | gay joke | goalie | See more »

Taglines:

Jeder gibt sein bestes Stück. (Everyone gives his best part.)

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Sport

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, nudity and language | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

|

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

7 October 2004 (Germany)  »

Also Known As:

Guys and Balls  »

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$7,425 (USA) (28 April 2006)

Gross:

$28,194 (USA) (2 June 2006)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (DVD)

Color:

See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Goofs

When the door of the lift opens to reveal Ecki and Sven kissing, Ecki is wearing a shirt, though he is previously seen to have removed it in the lift. See more »

Quotes

Sven: That's not edible. It's decoration.
See more »

Crazy Credits

In the ending credits, each actor's name is placed on the soccer grid where his position was played in the movie. See more »

Soundtracks

"Bend and Not Break"
Written by Christopher Carrabba
Performed by Dashboard Confessional
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
In Many Ways, This is Yesterday's Lunch - But a Fun and Endearing Replay!
24 September 2006 | by (United States) – See all my reviews

Director Sherry Horman and writer Benedikt Gollhardt have not introduced any new ideas in 'Männer wie wir' ('Guys and Balls') - team sports dependent on camaraderie, outsiders getting the last laugh, coming out stories with sports as a background, homophobia to the max, and stereotypical depictions of gay men - but they have created a movie that has enough charm to get past all of the above. It is that kind of movie that makes you groan 'Oh no, not again', but then ends up making you feel warm and sentimental despite yourself! Ecki (a very charismatic and hunky Maximilian Brückner) has grown up in a rural town, the son of a baker, and a committed soccer fan since childhood. Now as a young man he is sought after by his girlfriend Cordula (Melody Sitta) but is unable to respond to her advances. As the popular goalie on his soccer team he is hailed until quite by accident he is discovered in warm embrace with a teammate: the teammate and the team trash him for being gay, his father (Dietmar Bär) throws him out of the house, and poor Ecki departs for Dortmund to live with his sister, swearing to his team that he will return with a gay soccer team to defeat the homophobic jerks.

Ecki and his sister Susanne (Lisa Potthoff) pair off to find gay team players and find them they do, in the strangest places (this is where the film sags due to the stereotypes the director elected to cast). Ecki creates a solid team, falls in love with his sister's co-worker nurse Sven (David Rott) and despite some minor setbacks, the team boards the bus to return to Ecki's hometown to face off the enemy home team. Yes, it ends as you would imagine, but along the way the writer and director manage to make a few healthy comments about being true to yourself and your convictions.

Despite everything predictable about the film, the actors - Brückner, Roth, Potthoff, Bär, Carlo Ljubek, Saskia Vester et al - bring a homespun credibility to the story. This is one of those films that requires forgiving its shortcomings to just enjoy the ride.


4 of 4 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Pleasantly surprised JacobSF
with english subtitles? blondiemar
DVD ist da! EnchantedAngel
Song on the bus SirWeasley
Is Maximilian Bruckner gay? willbrimmer
Song in Trailer? gapvolley_828
Discuss Guys and Balls (2004) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?