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Reviews
Leef! (2005)
Random pieces of drama
I expected a lot from this director and the screenwriter, their previous cooperation on 'Cloaca' led to a masterpiece. This film however is a big disaster. It contains too many dramatic events spread over too many characters. Everybody in this film is totally wasted, the dialog is purely psychological jadajada and serves no function in telling a story that connects the different characters in a plot. As a viewer it is impossible to connect to one of the characters for longer than 2 minutes, their problems are merely unbelievable entertainment that just goes in with your popcorn but does not have any meaning. What also puzzles me is why they did not work with the same Director of Photography as in Cloaca, as it looked fantastic. Leef! however has a bleached out look, Using very hard light on the faces of the characters, I guess the idea was to enlarge their mental status by making them look more tormented, not very interesting to look at though.
Het schnitzelparadijs (2005)
Very questionable script, but probably funny and entertaining for most of us
if you want to enjoy this movie, you shouldn't be bothered by a questionable script with some of the most cheesy romantic dialogue imaginable, a high-school-sitcom-cliché-over-the-top-romeo-and-Juliet-plot, a story with a lot of loose ends and very questionable acting of the two lead roles. It is however successful as a comedy, funny and entertaining, with a lot of fast paced almost Ali-G reminiscent kind of impersonations and food-fight action fun with some fast edited sequences with loud music. Just shut down your brain and don't think too much when watching this film and you will probably end up enjoying it.
Oesters van Nam Kee (2002)
Not as bad as i expected
the critiques for this film were terrible. having read the book (which I personally think is terrible too) i was surprised. The film is not terrible. Although this 'feature film' looks a bit too much like a tv-series and the script and dialogues and acting are not good at all, in general i found the film to be entertaining and not boring or annoying as everyone said. There is even one really great thing about this film: The soundtrack by Arling & Cameron.
Soul Assassin (2001)
a flashy hightech style film but not really
The opening titles are a direct Matrix rip-off, this is the start of a film that wants to appeal to the same audience but doesn't really know how. The plot is not bad, there were times when i was really sucked into it but the flashy slowmotion/highspeed scenes with ugly heavy metal music really threw me back to reality. Some of the actors did really wel, Derek de Lint was a fantastic CEO psychopath. Skeet Ulrich and Kristy Swanson were directed a bit more rough than they would be in American films which is good. The only real problem is that this film was edited and mixed like a fast and furious action/special effects film. But it's not, the film actually is a thriller that would require subtle tension build up and timing and focusing on the character's motives. But it is quite an entertaining film overall, I've seen a lot worse Dutch productions here lately.