Taped

I came into this movie just because I read that was filmed in Argentina, Buenos Aires. To my surprise, I found an excellent movie, very well acted, and with a very good script. It left me breathless for a couple of minutes, never knowing what was going to happen later on. It reminded me Mission Impossible, where you try to figure out how they will overcome their almost impossible missions. Well, here is the same. They are trapped, and you don't know how they will manage to escape from the police. The story begins as a common couple crisis. Infidelity, recriminations, plans to overcome the crisis. But suddenly the run into lot of unexpected troubles..... I strongly recommend watching this movie. You will enjoy it.

I was very impressed by Taped. It was fast paced and kept me interested the whole time. It had some plot flaws here and there but they were minor and easy to forgive. Also the drama part (the beginning) was not that great (seemed a bit like the typical Dutch schooled overacted drama stuff).

I absolutely loved Barry Atsma's acting in the action scenes (which is 90% of the movie). Very powerful and convincing! Likable but tough. He must do more action/thriller movies! They should cast him for the Hollywood remake, that would be awesome.

Susan Visser's performance was OK I guess. Her character was a bit annoying at times but I guess that's not necessary a bad thing as some people just are like that :). It was refreshing to see her do action stuff like this but I do think her talent lays more with the desperate housewife kinda characters (which she is most known for in Holland) because she can show of her subtle comedy talent.

As usual, I was watching this movie at night in bed, waiting to fall asleep. Bad move. Not that there were any scary/horror parts, I simply got caught up in the story so much, I was too pumped-up to sleep.

The entire story encompasses two Dutch tourists in Argentinia. Some parts of the movie are shot with their hand-held cam; the remaining scenes - amongst other things, by necessity - are shot from 'normal' movie cameras; for instance when they get arrested and questioned. It works together nicely.

We start out on a regular vacation, with a couple arguing about their personal life. It may drag on a bit and feels a bit like a filler, but because of this we get a 'personal connection' with the main protagonists, which we wouldn't have had if the movie started out with the real plot immediately.

This 'personal connection', together with the realism created by taping part of the movie with a hand-held, gets even more real with a plot that I could see happening in real life, which is: they accidentally tape a dirty cop committing a murder, and get chased by him and his partners.

You can really feel the pressure and the feeling of helplessness - foreign speaking tourists being chased and having nowhere to turn to, be it cops, airports or hospitals - throughout the movie.

My only issue is the out-of-place and pointless rehashing of some personal issues near the end - if it was to underline the psychological distress, it was redundant - and the nice but 'deus ex machina' ending where some technology is conveniently accessible and compatible. I can't tell any more in order not to spoil the ending, but you'll understand what I mean after the movie.

In all, a recommended reality thriller.

Imagine watching an entire movie while muting the sound. Or watching a gorgeous color 3-D movie in black-and-white. That was the experience of watching "Taped." Although subtitling was enabled, all that was translated were the few English phrases. The rest came out as "speaking foreign language." I could see Barry Atsma was acting his heart out but it was lost on me as there was no context provided. If you're still Determined to watch it, do yourself a favor and fast forward, watch the murder, chase, capture and the finale. Without translation, the rest is a waste of time for the English part of the world.

I don't know why we have to have so much movies filmed with handycams nowadays but I find it rather annoying. Most of the time it kills the story completely to me. With this one the story stays intact but I still think it would have been much better without the filming with a handycam. But as the storyline concerns it is a good movie. Everybody knows that in South American countries it can be very dangerous as tourists and even the police is not to be trusted. And this is what the movie is about. Very nice played by Barry Atsma and Susan Visser. Fast action thriller that gets you as soon as the actual action starts. I wasn't bored for a second. I just wished they would have filmed it with a normal steady camera though.