Surprise(d)?

(T)Raumschiff Surprise – Periode 1 (2004)

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1 hour and 27 minutes, rated 5.5 by 16,000 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy.

DNA: German.

Verdict:  Crass but fun, in (a few) parts.

Tagline: Move over, Benny Hill.  

‘When the Earth is in peril, who are you going to call?’  Certainly not the (Enter)Surprise.  But well, who else can be sacrificed to the cause?

Nothing works on the good starship Surprise, including the crew, of Groans, Snotty, Smirk, and Captain Kork. The Martians are about to conquer Earth when this crew intervenes, along with the interstellar cab driver who delivered them, because the Captain refused to be beamed Economy class and he didn’t have enough Space Cadet points to upgrade to Business. In extremis the secret and untested weapon is deployed: the time travel sofa!  Sit on it and time passes? Yes, but in which direction?

It takes them three tries to get the right year, leaving behind chaos here and there in a medieval court, in the wild west, and finally Area 51, which is not next door to Area 50!  

The humour entertained the Fraternity Brothers, who have an inflatable Benny Hill doll in their room.  (Don’t ask.)

On the good side, it would be banned in Florida, and there are some good lines.  

When languishing in the slammer, the big handsome taxi driver confesses to another prisoner his failures with women, saying that to please his ex-wife he learned to dance, to play the piano, and to smile at her parents.  Whew!  Yet she still divorced him and took everything, leaving him to eat, sleep, and work in the cab.  Ah, says the other prisoner, leaning close, there are words that will set every woman’s heart ablaze, my friend. ‘What? What!’ asks the stud. ‘Let’s go shopping!’  Sure enough, next chance he gets, the stud tries these magic words, and [censored].  

One hopes there is no Periode 2.  But per the IMDb it was a smash hit in its heimat