This paper deals with the film review as a text type in German and Arabic, where the way the two cultures deal with the expression of reviewing in various aspects is examined. Selected German reviews of American survival films and Arabic reviews of films from the Arabic-speaking countries about the struggle of life are discussed with the aim of analyzing the characteristics of the text type – based on Klaus Brinker – on both sides from a situational, communicative-functional, thematic-structural and linguistic-stylistic perspective in order to identify the similarities and differences. In both German and Arabic, a struggle is at the center of the selected film reviews. The difference lies in the meaning of the struggle as a bearer and distinctive element of culture. The American films address the struggle for survival as a matter of life and death, which is characteristic of American culture and cinema, while the Arab films reflect the daily struggle of the ordinary citizen against family demands, traditions of the society and life difficulties. The film review here highlights the cultural and social context by the different speech acts as well as linguistic and stylistic features.