Floris

Jean van de Velde has proved with All Stars that he is capable of making a good comedy film. In my opinion he has reached his peak with this film in this genre.

I could never dream that I would cry during a Dutch film, cry with laughter I mean! This film wasn't meant to copy the original Floris films and that is a good choice. The writers have written a story that hardly refers to the series, except for the beginning.

Van Rossum sr., Sergeant sr, Grote Pier and of course Floris all have offspring. After father Floris escapes from his enemies and hides the relic (a nail from Jezus' cross) they were after, young Floris is captured to convince his father to give the relic to the evil Hertogin van Gelre. But with the help of Pi, the peaceful Floris jr. escapes and decides to help his father and prove he is worth carrying the name of his father and grandfather.

The relic was hidden in a cheese and is by accident (and without knowing) in the hands of one of the 4 evil sons and daughter who are hired by the Hertogin van Gelre after their fathers failed.

Together with Pi he travels to each scoundrel to look for the relic and during the adventures a lot of (Dutch inside) jokes come along. I totally started crying out of laughter after the scene with the SM soldiers. A lot of scenes also made me grin and laugh. All actors prove there is hope for Dutch comedy, which I had given up after a lot of dumb comedy shows on Dutch TV. Thank you Jean van de Velde for giving me a great evening at the theaters.

To me this movie was a nice little surprise, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. The movie is fun and adventurous and surpassed my expectations on several fronts.

The movie is cleverly written by Gerard Soeteman who manages to put in some good jokes and funny witty dialog. Soeteman also was responsible for writing all of Paul Verhoeven's Dutch movies and the TV-series "Floris" starring Rutger Hauer on which this movie is based. Of course this movie is nothing like the black & white TV-series from the late '60's that launched the career for both actor Rutger Hauer and director Paul Verhoeven but than again, this movie doesn't pretend to be like the TV-series. The movie is set in a different time-period and even though all of the characters are meant to be granddaughters and grandsons of the original characters from the TV-series, this movie and its characters feel good and original on its own. It's like all the characters had gotten a modern refreshing remake. The villains are deliciously stereotypical evil, dumb and just totally over-the-top. Yes, the movie does also feature a love-story but in this case it is totally not distracting at any moment and is handled nicely.

This movie has Dutch written all over it. I mean when persons are fighting in a mill while they are throwing cheeses at each other, you know you're watching a movie set in The Netherlands. Also of course weed is a thing not to be missed in a Dutch movie, this one included. Most of the jokes are 'inside jokes' that I'm sure only Dutch adults will notice and appreciate but I seriously laughed out loud at some moments. I think an international audience will not appreciate this movie as much as Dutch people will.

The story is simple so that also the young ones will be able to follow and appreciate this fun adventurous movie. The fights and sword fights might be a bit of a disappointing thing of the movie but all the fun characters and the cleverly written jokes compensate for this and make you forget the weak story and the just totally ridicules moments. I enjoyed this movie from start to finish and was pleasantly surprised by it all.

Another thing that surely surpassed my expectations was the acting. Especially Michiel Huisman, Victor Löw and Daan Schuurmans were truly excellent! I truly enjoyed their performances in this movie. It's quite unique for me to say that I enjoyed persons acting performances in a Dutch movie, so I think that says a lot about this movie!

Even though it is notable that this movie hasn't got a major budget, the movie stills manages to create a little epic feeling, due to the nice and beautiful settings. It gives the movie a wonderful adventurous feeling and atmosphere.

(especially towards the Dutch people here) You should give this movie a chance! It really surprised me how incredible lighthearted fun this movie was. Fun adventurous entertainment from start till finish!

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Although the original Floris series was on the air way before my time, I have watched these black-and-white episodes on video several times because they have their nostalgic qualities (even if you don't particularly like Rudger Hauer, which I don't). I had been looking forward to "Floris the movie", because I sincerely hoped to find in it the same nostalgic qualities, mixed with all of the achievements of modern-day cinematography.

Alas, I have been deeply disappointed. Shallow, silly, tasteless and without a proper plot to support the actors. What total, utter crap!!! Not a bad idea to have a female version of the original Sindela, but where is the romance à la Burt Lancaster in his pirate movies? And what's with the shitty outfit - can't we do better now that film business in the Netherlands has matured? No, no, no, I know some of the actors could have done better. A missed opportunity, to say the least.

About Floris I draw a comparison with The Pirates of the Caribean which I personally found a very bad movie with Johnny Depp (and he is not a bad actor at all) as a drug addict queer Pirate. Floris is technically not bad at all and so was The Pirots. So I don't think this is the worst movie of Jean van de Velde (director). Slowly dutch directors climb to a level of British and American filmmakers. Nice special effects and perfect light and a good cast. That characters like Floris Sr (Rob Lowe) are flat and clumsy is understandable. Because again the bad script(s) (p.e.: the Beach with Leo diC; bad script and also bad book) gets me on my nerves. And the following explanation is only understanding by Dutch people but the script has a high 'Bassie en Adriaan' value. Al those proverbs, stupid jokes refer to the modern times, or in the break of a play advertising for soap to clean clothes, no, no, no not funny. It makes it ridiculous and childish. A big chapeau for Pi (Birgit Schuurman) who has never acted. And Floris jr. (Michiel Huisman) has the same charisma as the old Floris (Rutger Houwer) at that time. You can not use modern music in a movie about the Middle Ages it's horrible and makes it unreal. Once in a while I recognized the old Floris music which made the old Floris movie just more exciting and could be better used in certain scenery's. And when there ever will be a continuing story of "Floris in China" please may I read the script first?

I'm 42 of age.

I grew up with the original Floris series. We hurried home every Sunday to be in time to see the next episode on Dutch telly.

Floris (and some other events) made me love Knights, history, horse riding and sword fighting.

That's what I'm doing nowadays (not full-time) for a living. doing sword fighting demo's at medieval events, practicing horse riding (also as Napoleonic cavalry) and making steel suits of armour in my workshop.

So seeing this movie was somehow like a "must".

And My God, how disappointed I was yesterday evening. This movie has nothing to do with the original. This movie has nothing to do with the Middle ages. This movie has nothing to do with acting. This movie has nothing to do with sword fighting. This movie has nothing to do with armouring. this movie has no humour in it. This movie has no spirit. This movie is a waste of money. This movie is a waste of time. This movie is crap.

OK, we (my girlfriend and I) were bored and considered stopping the DVD halfway, but I really wanted to know if they succeeded to ruin the movie completely, and Yes, they did.

Please, give me money and I will make a far more better version of Floris.

I will hire a lot of reenactment groups as extra's to make a good 15th century military impression, some good actors, write a plot full of real action - not the soft cheese-throwing stuff and so on.

A movie like this should have: A hero, a creep, a babe, a battle, a pursuit. 1 to one sword action (creep vs. hero) and a tournament of course. Humour is also very important, but has to be real humour.