Moordwijven

What a piece of junk this movie is.

First, it takes about an hour to even start with the storyline. You could easily skip 1 hour and not miss a thing.

Secondly, the acting is terrible! Are these experienced actors? They sound like students in a high school play.

Thirdly, the dialogs are inane. There are plenty of kids' movies with wittier dialog.

Lastly, the humor is bad as well. There are two kinds of jokes in this movie: slapstick (when getting out of a car, the door hits a guy and he falls in a canal) and misinterpretation (somebody asks a question, but it is answered in a different context).

Bad, bad, bad. Not all Dutch movies are this bad, believe me!

This film is a quality production that takes a poke at the plastic lifestyles of the 'nouvo riche'. Three 'cute' but bored housewives spend way too much time worrying about their bodies and appearance.

This is evident by the pre-occupation of the girls with plastic surgery and Botox injections! The plot to kill their husbands is a funny adventure through the minds of three 'not so bright' amateurs trying to figure out how exactly do you kill someone when you've never done it before?

The film is reminiscent of the blockbuster 'First Wives Club' where a similar plot unfolded, except revenge was merely the removal of the husband's lifestyles!

An excellent film, bright and light hearted comedy. A pleasure to watch and listen too. A delightful change from the usual 'super clean' and emotionless boring American dialogue.

Great 'sight gags' and plenty of unique Dutch humour. Even the spoken English is a laugh!

It could do with English subtitles though, as this would appeal to a wider audience and distribution.

This movie is so bright and shiny it may just give some people seizures. I guess that's a deliberate choice of the makers to indicate the characters' decadence, but man does this movie look vile and unpleasant. Apart from that well, it's still not very good. The plot about stereotypical rich women trying to kill their husbands while delivering pseudo-funny superficial dialogues has been done already, and often with better results. The ways in which they keep getting away with everything are highly unbelievable, when one of the characters is electrocuted they just naturally assume it's suicide after roughly two minutes of investigation. The plot is infested with implausibilities like that, and it's pretty annoying. Speaking of annoying, the nudity in this movie is incredibly gratuitous even by cult director Dick Maas' standards. It takes a special kind of director to make me feel annoyed by breasts, but there you have it. And then there's the ending. Man I hate the ending, compared to this ending the rest of the movie almost makes sense. Almost. While Dick Maas' "Flodder"-trilogy is definitely a guilty pleasure I'd recommend to anybody, "Moordwijven" is just a total dud.

Several other reviewers compare this movie with AbFab. Sure, there are similarities, but I am sorry Dutch humor doesn't come close to British humor. Nothing we Dutch produced comes remotely near the quality of Fawlty Towers' in class, style, subtlety. Dutch (and Flemish) movies are neither produced nor marketed for an international public which is also related to budget and quality.

Enough of that, lets talk about Moordwijven (Killer Babes)!

The cast, even the supporting roles and many of the small roles, is comprised of famous Dutch actors and actresses. Were they worth their dimes? Yes. The acting is solid. If anything, the problem lies in the script and style; not the actors. Bracha van Doesburgh in particular did an ace job as the lead character. Hadewych Minis did what we expect from her, and Sanne Wallis de Vries I know as a comedian from TV. I don't find her funny, and I don't like her way of acting. Somehow doesn't strike me as authentic. I am not sure if that is my preference, her quality, or a mix. I suspect the former! It wasn't a big deal either way.

Forget the acting for a moment. Did I dislike every single character in this movie? The 3 women? Their husbands? Yes. We're not meant to like the characters, we're meant to laugh at their behavior and the mistakes they make. The humor got me through the first hour. I don't laugh easily yet I laughed. I concede I was entertained.

Was the plot boring? Yes. On the horizon of a boat one can notice the weather from miles away. The plot is driven by jealousy and suspecting husbands of cheating. Slowly but surely the viewer figures out the truth behind what the ladies suspect. Albeit, as explained, without giving a rat. Fortunately, it isn't relevant as the fun in the plot elements lies in the details. There's always something, even though it is a small detail, which is surprisingly funny. Where something like Fawlty Towers builds a joke upon a joke which becomes funny^2, in Moordwijven you may only find certain aspects funny and the rest meh.

Was the story implausible? Unrealistic? Over the top? Yes. Without giving spoilers I can say it is a huge wink, and an entire subculture is ridiculed. I'm sure there's a special name for this sub-genre of comedy I am not aware of.

The above Q&A sounds cliché? Allow me to explain. You may know Dick Maas as director, writer, producer of movies like Flodder and more recent Sint. Together with Moordwijven they contain that typical style Dick Maas stands for. In script, directing, the supporting music, the humor. Everything! Flodder is an old movie and is -for me- youth nostalgia therefore difficult to compare. A contrast: Flodder is about a bunch of slackers living in a rich neighborhood whereas Moordwijven is about a bunch of posh and rich folks.

Sint, due to the thriller and (over the top) pseudo-horror is a more grim movie but the dark comedy resembles the one in Moordwijven (the pseudo-horror however is not; there are very few thriller elements in Moordwijven). For me, none of Dick Maas movies are highly enjoyable because I am not a fan of his style, nor of comedies in general. I'd prefer a thriller with some (dark) humor in it, like Loft, any time and there the jealousy and cheating theme does work for me.

TL;DR Having seen Moordwijven on TV once with some friends would be more than enough for me. Movies like these are ace to watch in a social environment (in contrast to a heavy movie such as say Antichrist), family friendly and OK even for teens. If you appreciate Dick Maas his style and take Moordwijven at face value (a typical Dutch comedy) then I highly suggest you to make it part of your collection. If you're not familiar with any of his work instead go watch his crown jewel Flodder first (tho less suitable for teens).

This movie sucked in a way you don't see often. Luckily I watched this movie on my CRT screen instead of my HT beamer, so I did not spend any valuable bulb hours on this so called 'movie'.

I expected much more from Dick Maas, I cannot believe that there was budget to produce this movie, who in earth wants to invest in this beforehand, with such a poor script. Probably enough people were tricked and have seen this movie in the theatre making 'moorwijven' investment wise a success, I cannot imagine that the costs of this disaster where that high...

• The story is very poor and not really original, I think Dick Maas was inspired by some dutch television series, like Gooische Vrouwen for instance.

• Very bad acting (if there was any)

• Special effects sucked big time, a character was shot in the hand, not only was it very obvious that the hand was a dummy, but also the size of the hand compared to the character was so out of proportion that it was (almost) funny to watch, although crying of my waste of time was more appropriate.

I do not recommend to see this movie at all, In fact we should forget that this movie has ever been made.