De dominee

"De Dominee" is based on the life of a real dutch gangster,Klaas Bruinsma! In the movie he is called Klaas Donkers! I have my doubts that events presented in the movie have something to do with what really happened! But that doesn't really matter! Because it failed to grab my attention! This movie bored the crap out of me! It lacks substance and style! The substance part could have been forgiven if the acting was any good and if the director tried to do something original! Without the substance you at least have to bring some style or decent action! Don't we need to be entertained? It would have helped if the director had seen more gangster movies! It is obvious that he didn't! Otherwise he wouldn't have made this the way he did! This movie got a lot of publicity because of a little scandal surrounding Klaas Bruinsma and a member of the Dutch Royal family! This scandal has nothing to do with the movie what so ever! Without it "De Dominee" never would have been successful! I am sure of it!

Positives: interesting take on the rise and fall of Dutch crime lord Klaas Bruinsma, with strong performances by Frank Lammers and Marcel Musters in supporting roles. High production values, nice art direction, obviously a labor of love of sorts.

Negatives: ham-fisted storytelling, clunky dialog, utter miscasting of Muller and Janzen as the leads.

Overall: I could care less that the writers invoked their artistic license to re-imagine Bruinsma's life, but they should have gone ahead and cast a lead capable of projecting larger-than-life ambition. The opening and climax are OK, but the 110-minute running time feels like 220. Muller is not a bad actor - it's just that he's completely devoid of a dark side.

The movie is pretty good, as long as you haven't read the book or don't know the real life of Klaas Bruinsma. There are many changes in the film. Like people are being killed that weren't in the real life. The book only speaks of 9 liquidations and I don't know how many there were in the movie, but more then 9.

Overall the movie is pretty good. The acting is believable and Chantal Jansen surprised me. Though she isn't a tough bitch as his wife in the book...

Well if you haven't read the book I recommend the movie. If you've read it... don't go to see it as you will be disappointed...

The movie was okay, the kind you rent on DVD on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Bur surely not worth the 9 euro's i had to pay to see it at the cinema! Acting was average at best and pretty bad at times. It's nice to see the locations in Amsterdam. Art direction was good, as was the music. The story was a bit boring, nothing much happened really. You just follow the main character, Klaas (Bruinsma), from the start of his criminal career to his demise and violent death years later. The plot you can see coming like light years ahead, no surprises there. Although i predicted what was to happen i still don't yhink it makes any sense. I'm curious what others think about this movie... 6/10

Tragedy, Betrayal and Intrigue... this film has a healthy dose of all of these. Not knowing of Klaas Bruinsma I considered this movie to be very well done. After reading up on him I could see how some, with the wrong expectations, could be disappointed after seeing this. It isn't really as accurate to the life of Klaas Bruinsma as some wanted it to be. Personally I think the right amount of artistic liberty was taken to give Klaas some redeeming qualities and to make the movie interesting. If you sit down expecting a movie "inspired by" or "loosely based on" Klaas Bruinsma then you should walk away gratified. The direction was excellent, the acting was excellent and the story was for the most part good. If I had to find something to criticize this movie for it would probably be that they jumped from him being a mid level dealer to a big time boss without much transition in between. This is very minor though. Anyone who does a little bit of reading on the real guy and rethinks the movie can fill in the blanks with a little imagination.

While I wouldn't give this a masterpiece/perfect/excellent rating of 9/10 or higher (which I would give to movies like The Godfather or The Usual Suspects) I think this film was above par. Solid 7 or 7.5/10. :) I hope this Director continues making films.