De Premier

Erik van Looy is one of Belgiums most beloved celebrities. He hosts the popular show De Slimste Mens (The Smartest Man) and is famous for his eccentric laugh. As a moviemaker his biggest succes were Loft and The Memory of a Killer, with the Belgian Robert De Niro: Jan Decleir.

This movie however triumphs in stupidity and cringeworthyness. The plot is full of holes, the protagonist acts like a wooden stick, and dialogues seem to be written by five year olds. I watched this film twice, it even being worse the second time around.

The only positive part about the film is the performance of the driver, who is able to bring a little smile on your face once in a while.

3/10, for Stijn Van Opstal. Without him, it would be 1/10.

"The Prime Minister" is the type of fast-paced crime/thriller that delivers copious amounts of action and suspense, however, it simultaneously also requires an almost complete suspension of disbelief on behalf of the viewer. If, and only if, you manage to turn off your skepticism regarding the overall story and the near-ludicrous plot-twists, the film will provide fantastic and non-stop entertainment. In case you swear by realism, don't even bother to press the play-button.

Writer/director Erik Van Looy is, in Flanders at least, a well-respected and much-loved media figure. He's the host of the most popular quiz on prime-time TV, appears in the panel of several games and talk shows and the films he directed ("De Zaak Alzheimer", "Loft") rank among the biggest blockbusters in history. His American adventure to direct a remake of "Loft" perhaps didn't work out as successful as he might had hoped, but he certainly returned to Belgium with a typically "Hollywoodian" idea for a crowd-pleasing and intense thriller. Our national pride in acting, Koen De Bouw, stars as the Belgian Prime Minister. There goes the plausibility already, in fact, because this country never had such a charismatic and eloquent prime minister. On his way to a European-American summit in Brussels, he is kidnapped and learns that his family - wife and two children - are held hostage, and that they will be executed if the Prime Minister himself doesn't agree to murder the American President during their private meeting in the afternoon.

Great aspects include a handful of totally unexpected but seriously vile and brutal execution sequences, the clever references towards actual Belgian politicians and the sadistic role of Stijn Van Opstal as the driver. I previously only knew him as an adequate but inconspicuous supportive actor in local TV-series ("Tabula Rasa", "Met Man en Macht"), but he deeply impresses here as the downright evil and unscrupulous terrorist who enjoys torturing, humiliating and provoking the Prime Minister and his PR-assistant. Even with a fair portion of suspension of disbelief, there are still a couple of major defaults. Van Looy unnecessarily adds melodrama to the plot with a typically cliched twist regarding the Minister's private life. And, surely, the climax could have been slightly better? I appreciate that Van Looy didn't turn his protagonist into a bona fide action hero, like Harrison Ford in "Air Force One", but there must have been other options to avoid such an anti-climax?

De Premier is the first film by Eric Van Looy since 'The Loft', the American adaptation of his own 2007 'Loft'. With 'The Loft' being trashed by American critics, there was a lot at stake when this picture came out. But Eric Van Looy successfully dealt with the past criticism and made an intense, suspenseful thriller, maybe even superior to his 2007 success of 'Loft'. From the first, rainy, shot of the movie on, the tone is set. You immediately feel something bad is about to happen. And the tone of the movie never changes, which is a great accomplishment. Van Looy mentioned that with 'De Premier', he wanted to make his own 'Jaws', meaning that every scene of the movie leaves you in suspense. He succeeded. Koen De Bouw, the Belgian Prime Minister, forced to kill the U.S. President (Saskia Reeves) gives a good performance. He portrays the PM in a credible way, balancing his character between helplessness and resourcefulness. The stand out performance comes from the menacing driver, played by Stijn Van Opstal. He drives the PM around and makes sure he sticks to the plan that was forced up on him. De Premier is almost perfectly directed, with some thrilling scenes, among which a bloody bathroom scene, but has one major issue: the story. First of all, kidnapping the Belgian PM to assassinate the U.S. President isn't the most credible story. But that's OK, since it made me want to watch the movie. The problem with the story is foremost the ending. The ending could have worked, if it didn't completely contradict previous events. With contradict, I don't mean to point out a plot hole or anything of that kind, it's rather that the ending doesn't match the overall suspenseful and menacing tone of the movie. The movie also tries to explain why the Belgian PM was chosen to assassinate the President and came up with some clear arguments. I just didn't buy them. If it wasn't for the great directing throughout the movie, I might have felt cheated by the ending. Nevertheless, this movie is most certainly worth your time, you'll enjoy the suspense but don't expect a satisfying climax.

I so wanted to enjoy this.

I loved Koen De Bouw in Professor T and after being a bit let down with him only being a support actor in Red Light, I found this which was from the same era as P. T. with him looking rather similar.

Eventually, I found a version with English subtitles which was a help (perhaps they were hard to find as some of it was in English anyway).

Seeing a few guest stars from P. T. was a boost but the film itself was a let down and a beyond credibility but at least, unlike many films and TV shows here in the UK, it wasn't plastered with political correctness (so tired at mandatory same-sex relationships and a higher than average number of ethnic minorities in shows these days).

The music brought some suspense but unfortunately it didn't reflect the poor scenes on screen. So disappointed. Off to watch The Team now. Koen has a small role but hope his character has gravitas.

The good: high pace, exciting, 2 hours of hard suspense. Decent (but not overwhelming) acting performances. Dark, grim atmosphere throughout the whole movie. I didn't get bored for a second. Many similarities to De Zaak Alzheimer, but with an even higher tempo.

The not so good: bad, sometimes even corny plot twists. Certain things were just too unrealistic and could have been done better. It seems to me that either they had to cut the movie to fit within 120 minutes or they were out of money. The ending was disappointing, compared to the rest of the film.

It does make me think about how a situation like this would play out in real life. Let's hope that it never comes to that.