timvdm

Science Fiction was really a surprise. Not only did the film exceed all my expectations but it also showed that small countries can still deliver children films that can easily compete with their American competitors. Even if they have only 5% of their budget. A strong script that is very original but still has a touch of Signs and a very suspenseful atmosphere that sometimes reminded me of David Lynch. The soundtrack is great: finally the composer of Paul Verhoeven's classic The Fourth Man showed his talent again. Great performances by local stars Koen de Bouw and Wendy Van Dijk.

A remake is logical but I still think the original will not see any problems to travel outside of Belgium.

Tim.

Dick Maas once was seen as one of the most promising young directors in Holland. The Stephen Spielberg of the low lands. The Lift was an original film that showed a lot of promise. But Maas never succeeded to live up to that promise. But at least most of the Flodder films were successful but since Do Not Disturb even that is gone. With Down Dick Maas proves to be a director that used to be able to duplicate the work of others in an interesting way but now can only duplicate his own work in a dull way. He basically completely copied The Lift changed the Dutch cast to an uninteresting English speaking cast and just spend more than 10 times the original budget. There is nothing new in this film and the original is 100 times better. The style of filming is old fashioned and it looks like Mr Maas stood still for the last 2 decades.

No cigar.

Tim

Saw Soul Assassin in Cannes and was actually surprised. After Leak and Costa it looks like the Dutch have finally mastered the art of making genre movies. Unlike the last Dick Maas movie Do Not Disturb it looked new and dynamic. Plot idea was interesting but development of the story was a bit thin. But the film made up for it by the look of it, the pacing, the music, the sound and great editing. Even though some of the older people might not appreciate the film the same way. As far as the actors are concerned Skeet was decent, Kristy Swanson gave one of her better performances and Serge-Henri Valcke was one of the better bad guys I have seen lately. All in all a very fast moving action pic but not for the old of heart.

Tim