Cruzada: Uma Jornada Através dos Tempos

I went to this movie with 3 of my friends, and I would lie if I said it was great. Though, most of the characters and story lines in the book had been replaced and I thought that was pityful.. For example, the character Leonardo doesn't appear in the book and the entire ending has been replaced. Let me explain; the movie ends at the most inpleasent timing when your really ín the movie, and that kind of sucks. Your expecting a hell of a lot adventures more, when suddenly the credits appear on screen (great credits by the way, they look great =D).If you read the book, I would be a fool to say you should not go to the movie, since my dad is the producer :-P. Take your time to watch it, just don't get to much expectations.

I waited for ages to watch this film, because as a lover of the book (which is highly recommendable for both older children and adults, in Dutch or in translation)I was afraid to be disappointed - and I was.

The director (who made some very qualitative other movies) was aiming at a younger audience than the mid teens that the book was meant for, andfor that group, he did a good job. It's an adventure film which is at the same time quite historically accurate and informative for that age group.

For me and my contemporaries who read the book in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and who think back to it with great love, the film is an abasement.

Many plot lines were changed. Some choices are understandable: women get a bigger role than they did in the book for example, technology has changed, and some parts of the story had to be left out so that the film wouldn't be too long. Some choices are less understandable, but probably sounded good when they were argued for by the scriptwriter: the main protagonist Dolf's personality has been changed substantially, many characters have been written out, new plots have been introduced. None of it works. The plot is incoherent, very unbelievable and lacks suspense.

The acting is poor.

The costumes are completely unbelievable because they are just too clean and new. The locations are also too clean. But mostly, the props annoyed me, especially the medieval paper and books - somebody learned how to make paper by hand and then reckoned that was enough to make it look medieval.

But the thing that irritated me most was the fact that the two hundred odd extras playing the children in the crusade look like happy, well-fed, healthy children in a high budget school play rather than the ill, starving, dirty, wild, desperate children that Thea Beckman portrayed so powerfully in her book.

I'm not saying they should have starved the child actors, obviously that's impossible. Nor am I saying they should have stuck to all the original twists and turns in Thea Beckman's plot, that would also have been impossible. You see, making this book into a film... is impossible.

There were a lot of bad choices made when making this film. The casting director, costume director, scriptwriter, and of course the director himself all made some bad choices. Would other choices have made for a better film? Maybe. Would they have made for a good film? No. In the end, the only important bad choice for this film was the very first one: the choice to make it.

Ever since I first read the book Crusade in Jeans I was hoping they would turn it into a movie. And now they finally did. Dolf Vega is a rather selfish teenager. Because of him a crucial soccer-match is lost. His mum is a scientist and she's working on a time machine. Dolf is seeking revenge for his shame and wants to use the machine to get a chance to get even. But things go wrong and he's stranded in the year 1202! The moment he arrives he's almost killed and saved by some children and a young lady. They take him to the children's crusade on its way to Jerusalem. Soon Dolf uses his modern day wit and knowledge for the good of the poor hungry and sick children. Will he ever get back to his own modern life? This is a great adaption of the book. Not completely faithful but very satisfying. The young leads, in fact, everybody is cast really well. The production looks great although some scenery is obviously computer enhanced. The story is captivating and the running time is just right. The only thing that did not satisfy me personally was the ending which was not like in the book and a bit vague. Highly recommended for children and their ( thirty-something ) parents.

In the end of the sub-seventeen soccer game between Holland and Belgium, the selfish teenager Rudolf "Dolf" Vega (Joe Flynn) does not assist another player and loses the goal and the classification of the Durch team. He feels bad and when he meets his mother Mary Vega (Emily Watson), who is researching a prototype time machine, in the laboratory, he decides to return in time to fix the game.

He steals the access card of his mother and during the night, he breaks in the laboratory. However, he does not fit the correct date in the display and he is sent to 1212. He is attacked by marauders but he is saved by the young Jenne (Stephanie Leonidas), who is skilled in sling and is traveling through the forest to join The Children's Cuzade to Jerusalem. Dolf puts a milestone on the spot and follows Jenne and her friends. Sooner they join the Cruzade that is led by Father Anselmus (Michael Culkin) and a group of young noblemen. Dolf names himself Rudolf, the Duke of Rotterdam, and is assigned to take care of the children. When Dolf misses the chance to return home and is stranded in the Thirteenth Century, he follows the Cruzade and discovers the treacherous plan of Anselmus of selling the children to slave traders. But how can he convince the children that their charismatic leader is a traitor?

"Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek" is a Dutch-Belgian-Luxembourgish-German production with a pleasant and entertaining adventure. The story has flaws, the conclusion is weak, the CGI and costumes are very simple but the film is highly attractive for children and also for adults. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Cruzada, Uma Jornada Através dos Tempos" ("Crusade, A Journey through Time")

ever since I was little I was apparently a big bookworm,and Crusade in Jeans was the book I devoured the most. I think I must have read it over 40 times.... so you can imagine that I was very exited about the movie. However, that level of excitement went down when I heard that they where going to put 2 of the characters into a new one, and I was afraid what would happen to the rest of the film. Would it be a Harry Potter 1 for me, when I was annoyed throughout the whole film about everything they cut&changed, or would it be a Harry Potter 4, where there where also many things cut and changed, but everything was so wonderfully done and even replaced with some fab new stuff that it didn't matter? Unfortunately, it was a Harry Potter 1. On the whole, the look of the movie is great, and it has great actors.If you haven't read the book I think it will be a enjoyable yet confusing experience. However, for me there are 2 big disappointments. The first is all of the great characters they've cut. Yes, Jenna is a wonderful girl, great actress, but I'd rather have seen both Leonardo and Mariecke. They are not the only characters that are missing, Peter, Frank, Father Johannes and many others. I also don't see the point of someone as Vick. Anselmus is awful enough on his own, he doesn't need an evil sidekick. Also, Father Johannes opposite Aselmus showed exactly what a bad character the latter has. Johannes was on the bad side too, but he repented and the children always liked him. Also, I think the brotherly protective feelings Dolf has for Mariecke are a big part of why he's so concerned with the children of the crusade. The original characters where a big part of the book, and I feel they should have been in the film. The second is that you don't really see the change that Dolf made to the crusade. He reorganised the whole crusade, giving each child a task they themselves could choose, regardless of status. This was unheard of at that time, yet it changed the children from obedient slaves into people with self confidence and a sense of unity. In the book you can see it very well by the change in characters such as Mariecke and Peter. I think this was a very important part of the book, that Dolf brings 20th century ideas to the middle ages, yet I didn't see that in the film. Overall, visually it looked very good and the actors that do appear are very good, and even I must admit that I like the change of the "process" from before the alps too the genua shore, but I hoped they'd be more true to the book. a bit of a disappointment for a crusade in jeans fan...