Reviews

At the moment Americans think the tipping culture is getting out of hand.

A long time ago people from other places of the world already reached that conclusion. But instead of learning from it, those people got shamed; such monsters for not tipping enough (WHEN IT'S YOUR EMPLOYER WHO SHOULD BE PAYING MORE).

And now here's an episode that takes the notion of an out of control tipping culture, but turns that into Homer going crazy with it. The final kick in the head comes with a happy song about how one shouldn't tip in Europe.

First: Europe isn't a country. It's a continent made up out of many countries, each with their own economy. But even in the most wealthiest countries, serving staff doesn't make big money. You may definitely tip them, it just doesn't need to be an insanely high amount. And you might only get shamed about it (behind your back) if you didn't tip after being extremely demanding.

The writer(s) of this episode have no clue, and it's rather offensive and possibly damaging for European serving staff.

The logic is completely absent in this episode. Out of the blue there's a place called "Little Europe" near Springfield?

Homer doesn't seem to mind one bit about leaving his family behind in massive debt and living his own new life elsewhere?

Marge forgives him without motivation to do so?

Next episode this debt is simply gone? I know this animated show has a rigid permanent status quo, but this episode abuses that.

Also in The Netherlands there are no laws yet against using a screenplay that has been written by artificial intelligence.

Looking at Game On's screenwriter Paul de Vrijer it's clear he has written quite a number of films and episodes for tv-shows that receive more than a 7 or even an 8 on IMDb. One can't say the man has no talent for writing.

And then suddenly there's this 2-star production with his name on it. It doesn't make sense.

The same can be said about the overall plot of Game On. It is beyond logical, the story and the fact this was realised and released in the theatres.

There really need to be more Dutch genrefilms, but so far Dutch filmmakers can't seem to understand how to make a decent one. Game On is shamefully illogical, and bit off way more than it could chew with a tiny budget. No, you can't fix everything in post.

In my opinion. The script for this film was written by AI. Because if not, then one can finally say that man has no talent for writing.

Also for non-Dutch speaking viewers: there are phrases in this film that are not Dutch but Google-translated into Dutch, to the point where it's not even proper grammar anymore.

When the show started it was fun and had a cool concept.

By the end, the characters will have behaved like stereotypical dumb people in horror films and the rules of the show's universe are broken. All because it suits the lazy writing.

The idea that there are magic keys is fun. Throughout the three seasons more and more keys show up, making it all less special and basically convenient for whatever conflict is coming up.

Characters start to make poor decisions in tense moments. Not because that's who they are, but only to make a scene more exciting. It harms their likeability, and the show in general.

If, like me, you can't just drop a show the minute you start disliking it, then maybe never start watching this in the first place (if you've not seen it yet).

It's been twenty years since I've seen "Sweet Home Alabama", the 2002 romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon.

I've seen Kwestie van Geduld, and I asked a friend what she thought of it. And she's more familiar with Sweet Home Alabama, and reminded me that this is quite a blatant remake that doesn't market itself as being a remake. So that makes it a rip-off.

Young woman from the city goes back to her rural home town, and finds out she still has feelings for her ex. The premise is the same, but so is almost everything else. There are even a few scenes that are copied literally, like a bar scene in which she gets drunk and starts insulting her former friends and the town in general.

It would have been fair to mention this is the marketing, instead of pretending it's an original film.

The trailer and IMDB synopsis for this film tell you very little.

I went in knowing only that, and that made the experience fantastic. What an exciting and creepy story.

I read a few reviews here, and saw that they spoil a lot. It's up to you, but my advice is: don't read the reviews, and go see the film. I'll only tell you this: it's not a family film or a comedy. But for the rest, any adult viewer has nothing to worry about, and odds are that you'll find this film interesting.

It's a calm film, but not slow paced. Looks good, great acting. It's worth it going in with only what the trailer showed you. It's based on a true story.

"Three best friends band together to defend their valuable mining company from monstrous aliens looking to plunder and exterminate", says the IMDB summary.

The film won't offer you that.

It's like those 1950's scifi-B-movie posters that showed epic images that never actually appeared in the film itself.

Still, since this is a South African film, I went in thinking this film about foreign beings stealing all the goods from an African mine was going to be a layered story in the form of a fun scifi film.

It is not.

Although nothing is brilliant, the cinematography, acting, and CGI is at least adequate enough to make it a waste that the story is boring and flat. The plot doesn't start until after an hour, and the climax is 10 suspenseless minutes. I find it sad to say since people put work into this film, but this is one that is highly likely to be a waste of your time.

I just wanted to praise Kristin Chenoweth, and the cast and crew, for delivering a single take shot (zero editing) for a complicated musical number (loads of fast spoken lyrics) with Kristin Chenoweth as the lead.

I don't know how many takes it took to nail it, but eitherway they've succeeded at some point. Very well done, and it's possible not every viewer may have noticed that it was all one take because it went so organically.

Great job, I was very impressed!

Also, this is old-fashioned musical filmmaking. Minimal editing, and let the star do the work. Nice to see that spirit captured.

Nothing bad to say about the rest of the episode, I enjoyed it, everyone does a good job.

If you're Dutch and born before 2010, you know filmmaker Dick Maas. On average, he may not have huge international succes. But in The Netherlands he's had multiple hit films, including the number one biggest boxoffice succes "Flodder".

This documentary shows his past and works its way forward to Dick Maas's most recent film "Prooi" which became an unexpected hit in China. All his films, his tv- series, and his own studio, come to pass along with some details that were never shared before. It also shows that if you're up for making bigger screen stories, The Netherlands isn't very welcoming or cooperative (Dutch director Paul Verhoeven didn't flee to Hollywood for the warm weather).

At the end of the film you have a good sense of what kind of man Dick Maas is, and his personal growth as a filmmaker.

Four people who think they're funny and entertaining to watch conclude that so many people have claimed to have experienced something paranormal, but no one has ever captured any visual material that hasn't been debunked.

And that premise is what caught my interest, since I'm always interested in how people take a simple situation and elevate it to something paranormal.

The "documentary" is 1 hour and 40 minutes long. Even though I had a strong dislike for the crew in this and the "experiments" they were doing, I stuck around. But when 1 hour and 20 minutes in they were interviewing an extremely sensitive-to-ghosts person who didn't even register the presence of a ghost when everyone (including the extremely sensitive-to-ghosts person) later claim they all clearly heard footsteps just outside the room, I just skipped to bits at the end for a few short clips to see what the "filmmakers" had concluded.

So there's supposedly a ghost just a few meters away from them, but the extremely sensitive-to-ghosts guy doesn't sense a thing until he's told by others that there was something there.

Even shorter: in a "documentary" that's asking the question if ghosts are real or not, they only interview amateur paranormal investigators and mediums, and a "professional" parapsychologist.

They do not interview any actual scientist who can easily dismiss every evidence so far on the existence of ghosts.

That's like making a documentary about whether the existence of the mythical cake-pooping unicorn is real or not, by interviewing the people who claim to have seen it, and the professor with a degree in the mythical cake-pooping unicorn who will tell you most sightings are lies but the thing really does live somewhere.

Have you maybe seen the definitive filmed proof of ghosts that this documentary provides in the end?

No?

That's because there isn't any.

Is that the conclusion these "filmmakers" draw?

No. There were 3 that were believers to begin with, and they still believe. And there's that 1 guy who was a non-believer. But now, thanks to his own documentary that did not document any ghost, he too has become a tiny bit of a believer in ghosts.

And all four of them are, now more than ever, definitely convinced that they are super quirky.

Do not see this film.

It does not confirm the existence of ghosts.

It does not professionally deal with debunking.

It only does what every other crappy "reality" TV show on ghosts does.

Why the low rating?

So far I've seen two episodes and I really liked both of them very much. To me it's a kind and well written show. Also fun to have one show that does three plot lines in one episode, and stays with a story until that's finished before moving on to the next story. And every story is a one-shot. The main characters get involved with guest characters as they have their own troubles. They're just short bites of peoples lives. Love Bites.

I hope the quality of this show will remain as high and fun as it is now. And it definitely deserves a higher rating!

I was already reaching the end of my teen years, when I accidentally discovered this show on TV. It drew my attention and I watched it 'till the end. And of course, every next episode. This is such a fun TV show, it's great for kids and adults!

A little girl is the lead character. The setting is some small village in Holland, 1960's. This town follows strict etiquette rules, everything has to be neat and proper. That's why the queen has decided she will visit the number 1 home. And that's between the little girls house, and her evil neighbor. The competition starts. There's just one problem: the little girls aunt arrives from France to stay over. She's already a lively person who rather has a good time, than clean up. And she's married to a French inventor.

The whole 60's style is done well, there is a funny song in each episode, and the message is "what's the use of strict etiquette rules, if they kill all the fun?". There isn't much chance to see it again on TV in a rerun, so let's hope you can get it on DVD. It's just 1 season.

I saw this film on the first day it was released. I was glad it finally came, it would have been earlier. I had bad expectations, but as a Dutch horror fan and maker, I hoped it wouldn't be that bad.

But no matter how low my expectations were, the film was worse. It starts with the screenplay. Barely a story (the first half hour is mainly slowly walking through hallways with flashlights), uninteresting characters (you don't care if they live or die), and awful dialog. For no reason this story takes place in Scotland. Which leads to a Dutch actress talking half Englisch/ half what's-supposed-to-be Scottisch. Very funny, not intended to be.

Every horror scene is just one familiar from other American/Japanese films, badly imitated. The only things that are okay for Dutch standards are the score and the visual effects (not all of them). But this does not a good movie make!

I find it common sense that the makers had to search far and wide for investors, since this is obviously a piece of crap. And then comes the news that Tarantino's company is interested in making a remake. I'm sorry, but we can do much much better than this, when it comes to Dutch horror. Do NOT let this be the representative film for Dutch horror in the new millennium.

I feel that nowadays this film is outdated. Sure, the lift's bell-sound is still cool, and the wide shot of the three lifts in the lobby while the girl is playing with her doll is very exciting. But that's pretty much it.

There are so few suspense scenes, and the whole mystery of the lift's background is not interesting enough. The reason why the lift goes haywire in the beginning of the film is actually hilarious, and it wasn't meant to be.

If it weren't for lead actors Huub Stapel and Willeke van Ammelrooy, in 2006 this would be an abomination. Still, we need more horror flicks in this country!!!

After 20 minutes it was clear: this film is so bad, you're actually ashamed while watching it. Especially when you're Dutch.

The humor is for 80 and older, the story...what story? Sure, there's something about one old geezer stealing a old broad from some other geezer, but it's just scene's that follow each other up in an unplanned script. There's a big sequence after one hour, which feels like the climax, yet it goes on for half an hour more.

The audience actually all gasped when the lead character looked up at the camera to ask his wife in heaven who the man standing by her grave is, and a woman's voice (Nouchka herself) answers that she'll take a look. And then the camera flies over the graveyard...Did the directors 3 year old grandchild come up with this idea?

What a waste of 2 million euro's to make this film. It could have been invested in a good one. And on the "De Vriendschap" main page, it says that if you liked this film, you should also see "Anderland". Who put that there? There is no connection what so ever between these 2 films. "Anderland" is for instance a good film.

I read about the film here and saw the high rating it got, just a couple of hours before I saw it in the theater. I kinda already knew it wasn't going to be worth the 9 stars it got here at that time. Did the cast and crew rate it themselves? I think so.

Because I didn't like it at all. The drama was much too easy, as it often is with Dutch art-house cinema. The first 20 minutes are okay. Interesting scenes, good acting (which remains). Then the turning point comes (that's not a spoiler, right?). Normal people start behaving as art-house character weirdos for a moment. The rest of the drama turns into slow scenes and long depressive looks. And a few minutes after the twist you already know how this story is going to end. So all that remained for me was being dragged through the rest of it. Good acting kept it from being totally boring and cliché. I'm happy its only 83 minutes.

In the first 10 minutes: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

Half an hour later: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

An hour later: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

And finally in the last half hour they actually do something about it, but I wasn't interested anymore. The rest of the film is filled with the life of the sisters themselves. But personally I thought all of them were quite annoying, so I couldn't have cared less. And that ol' Dutch provocative sex comes through as well. Filmmakers don't seem to notice the majority of the Dutch saying they're getting pretty fed up with all that.

I have no idea why this film was nominated for an Oscar, since it has very little interesting to offer. "Character" which won an Oscar before was absolutely worth it. See 'm both and see the difference.

And if you're not a martial arts fan, this is such a crappy movie, it should be a cult hit. The dialog is beyond cliché, the sets are visibly cheap, and the Chinese main character speaks English with a Dutch accent! So, when I saw it for the first time, I had a great time. And I've seen it several times after and it's still funny. Thank god the director took himself so seriously. The original screenplay was less than 60 pages, because time is filled with long martial art scenes. And the classic ones, so no wires. There were plans to re-release it as a cult film, but eventually they just released it on DVD. Too bad, because it would have been great as an audience participation flick. Even the producer would have wanted it that way. But there's still that director who thinks to highly of this huge Dutch flop.