Testigo ocular

This is really much more of a comedy than it is of a thriller which does not mean it is bad. The action is OK, the story is OK, the actors are OK with some minor faults here and there, but who cares. The best thing here though is that it is quite funny. Never have I seen such a dumb and luckless hitman as in this one. I believe Corey Johnson who plays the hitman called Nasty has the best performance here although he doesn't act like Oscar – worthy he surely brings the most fun to the viewers. The kid, who actually is the lead character, is OK too and she brings a Home Alone feeling to this film.

The only thing that made me a bit curious is whether people in the USA really think that Amsterdam is like the worst place on earth because I mean, how could they? Are not NY, LA and so on much worse? Or is that just something we over here feel. Well I at least can say this. I've been to Amsterdam at least 3 times and I'm still living to report to you about this film, so how bad can Amsterdam really be.

Not bad, but I've seen better.

6 out of 10

In the first 20 minutes of this flick I began to wonder if there was an Amsterdam in the U.S. Not one major or minor role in this movie had a Dutch accent. This distracted me from enjoying an otherwise interesting story set in one of Europe's oldest cities.

Distraction then led to befuddlement. The Script writer seemed fixated on Amsterdam's reputation as a purveyor of child porn and pedophilia. There was more than a couple of instants were characters made reference to their own awful proclivity.

Add to that gruesome and astonishingly gratuitous scenes of violence which were oddly incongruous (ie. the ambulance wheel rolling over a para-medic's head mashing it like an over-ripe pumpkin.)

But most of all. I could not believe Oscar-winner, William Hurt or even Jennifer Tilly and Dennis Leary could associate themselves with this strange and uneven film.

I guess no one is Dutch in Amsterdam. Was there a shortage of actors that can at least sound like they are a local? I've been to Amsterdam a few times and yeah the majority speak English very fluently but you know they are Dutch. Anyone have an accent? No!

My husband and I were drawn into this film because we like both Hurt and Tilly and because the premise of the film sounded palpable. I'll bet it was fun to shoot because per capita, each actor only had about 20 lines to memorize. They must have had oodles of free time.

The icing on the cake came at the end. "I hope rehab works for him." Ick. Gimmee a break.

Maybe Dutch isn't the world's most beautiful language, but neither is English, and it's really sad that a Dutch director makes a film in Holland were everyone speaks English. I could understand it if the director was American, but not now. Apart from that, this isn't agood movie, and some of the lines are really bizarre (f. ex the scene in the elevator:

• Malaria, moving north! - El nino, sir. Is it funny? No. And it isn't more understandable because it's in English. According to this movie, everyone in Amsterdam seems to be either prostitutes or drug atticts or both, except a few policemen and hotel managers

I'm in the middle of watching this turd on cable right now.

Despite all the good actors, all the performances are stiff as hell. William Hurt's performance is especially strange, with this bizarre southern drawl.

The feeble attempts at "humor" only serve to undermine any chance of generating suspense. Who the hell is supposed to scared of this half-wit hitman?

And the Marilyn Manson manque, oh wait, he's dead already. Good.

I'm going to sleep. Don't give a rat's ass how it ends (like I couldn't guess).