Shades

Okidokie.

When Shades was first released, they marketed it like hell, or at least, so I've heard. Final result: high expectations, few adorations.

Time zap. Six years later. 'Shades' is practically forgotten; it seems to have retreated into the shadows of director Van Looy's acclaimed third film 'Alzheimer Case', a major blockbuster.

Thank god for Canvas, more or less the cultural TV station of Flanders, and its great show 'FilmFactory'. Thank god I got the chance to watch 'Shades'. No media attention, no high expectations, just me and a television set.

I loved it. Great acting, good story, good cinematics... A superb film, that hopefully can step out of the Alzheimer-shadows. Until then, enjoy this bashed but excellent cult film. Van Looy is truly one of Flander's finest.

The cast is great, directing and acting are sublime, Rourke plays himself, including dog. The sound track is even better. The dialogues are in Flemish and English, but after 10 minutes you forget this detail and the language sounds real.

Great story, a movie within a movie. Anyone who has ever been on a set will recognize the plot, subplots etc.

Why did this movie flop? Nobody made faults, not the director, not the actors etc. The main problem is the story line. Who is the bad guy and who is the good guy. They all seem equal. You can't identify yourself with Howard, Bervoets or Decleir.

Great movie, but no box office.

I've seen this movie and for a moment i was astonished. Not used to that sort of movies in belgium i would give all actors and crew all my compliments. Nice job!

I liked this movie very much. Erik Van Looy is a good director. Proof is his other movie Ad Fundum. Shades is a very special movie. You must be familar with the (Belgian) movie industry to understand most of the story. In my opinion this movie is a biography of the Belgian director/screenplaywriter Guy Lee Thys and guess what ? He's also one of the 3 screenplaywriters of Shades :-) Coincidence or....???? I had alot of fun with this movie because I recognize alot of facts and urban legends about the Belgian Movie industry in it. If you never been 'an insider' in the Belgian Movie industry you'll find this movie a bit boring maybe altrough there're some great actors in it who play very nice like Mike Verdrengh and Gene Bervoets. Mickey Rourke is okay but I saw better movies of him. It's worth a try, but don't expect an easy movie. It's a special movie and that's why some people call it a bad movie, but I do not agree with that. Not the best Belgian movie ever made, but certainly not the worst movie either. That credit goes to 'De leeuw van Vlaanderen' but that's another story.

This is probably the first belgian movie that has the "allure" of a hollywood picture, which was the director's goal after all. You could see it as a mix between "The Player"and"Silence of the lambs". The absolute + on the movie is the fact that it tells a story and laughs with itself at the same time.

the story is about a film crew which is making a movie about a serial killer, and on the set everything goes wrong. The bit of cliché "film in film" is funny , entertaining and sometimes even exciting. In short : well worth seeing !!