De zeemeerman

If I hadn't been the projectionist, I would have walked away! This film is absolutely the most horrible film ever made in the history of Dutch film making. The so-called special effects are prehistoric and the acting is overtly bad. If you are planning to rent this film; please do not think of it as an example of Dutch craftsmanship, but think of it as a very ill attempt to create a Disney-like fantasy movie.

The film has been credited "the worst dutch film of the 20th century" by weekly magazine "Nieuwe Revu", but unfortunately it is not:-). Far more crappy movies were made in Holland.

The film was launched as an effort to compete with Hollywoods digital special effect makers, but it contains only a few effects when the main character of the film (Tony) becomes invisible. These visual effects are quite good, but nothing very special.

The strong visual appearance of leading character Daniel Boissevain and good acting of other leads Gonny Gakeer and Frans van Deursen make the film worth to see. If you can, because after a short release it was never seen again.

Many people in Holland don't like this movie. But i found it a funny film that offers a lot of interesting scenes.

The story is not realistic and that is something that i like most about the film. Not many Dutch films are fantasy films, this is one of the few that present a fairy tale sort of story.

Most of the special digital effects are amazingly good for the time they were made.

What i liked best was the musical score. This is very good! As well as the set decoration.

Not so good: the acting of some of the minor roles in the film.

I bought the Dutch DVD which contains only Dutch audio and no subtitles (my Dutch isn't the best though).

I don't think the film is that bad. It has very funny moments, the actors are all above average and even the few f/x are really nice to see.

The story of the film is at times somewhat strange, indeed, but however the film has its funny highlights. I really saw films which were much more worse.

Conclusion: "De Zeemeerman" is a nice Dutch movie with great actors and it is not that bad as many people say.

PS: I also like the soundtrack - especially the title theme!

I am not from the Netherlands, so it is difficult for me to say where this film is among their film productions. For me, it was just a foreign comedy film. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood for comedy in bad taste. Therefore, the film seemed to me very sad, vulgar and often disgusting.

The main character is very sorry, he tries to join human society, but he constantly turns out to be an outcast, and the people who accept him constantly die. I think the author of the film is a bit of an idiot and has no sense of proportion. However, it's possible that I just wasn't set up for the right aspect to watch this movie. After all, if the main character is treated the same as all the negative characters in the film or is not considered a person for most of the film, then it will be quite fun. I saw this movie more than 25 years ago and I still feel sorry for the time spent watching it on TV. I could just stare at the carpet or switch channels until I fall asleep, but no-I gave it a chance. And I'm sorry about that. It should have just been called "The Bitter Story of an Orphan who Stinks of Fish," but no, they gave it a cool and promising title, which I bought into. Don't repeat my mistake. This film should be watched by professionals for money, or by those who starred in it or want to see the Netherlands at that time.