jappegood

Verlengd weekend is about two workers of a closed down factory who hold their boss hostage in his mansion. The movie is shot on a very low budget, even for a Belgian one. But- as the producer said in the advance screening-it doesn't show. Jan Decleir is as great as ever, and so are the other actors. The writing is full of funny one liners, maybe one to many, but hey, it's a social comedy (dixit Koen De Bouw. Expect some laughs, even some the scriptwriter didn't intend. I enjoyed this movie, but it was very hard to overcome the very irritating cheap keyboard music by Fonny De Wulf. He gets the award for ruining a perfectly good movie, especially the beginning (very Flikken-esquire) and the end (melodrama anyone?). If only they had spend more on the music...

Of course, this isn't great citizen kane style cinema, but this movie is fun to watch, especially if you are in the target demographic like me. This is a typical teen/college movie, minus the grossness of movies like American pie. If you liked "Better luck tomorrow" (also distributed by MTV films), then I think you will like this one. I have to say that "better luck tomorrow" was a much, much, better teen scam/heist movie, but this one rolls along merrily. The script isn't really well done, but it has a few good jokes, like "If they make it into a movie, I wonder who'll play me...I hope your hung like a horse." Scarlet Johansson is great, as always, even with this auto-pilot acting.(like in eight legged feaks, but tha's what I like about Scarlet. She switches from camp/kitch/crap to great movies without any difficulty) The movie is perfect for when you're way to stressed because of your exams at college, like me today.