Floris

Although the original Floris series was on the air way before my time, I have watched these black-and-white episodes on video several times because they have their nostalgic qualities (even if you don't particularly like Rudger Hauer, which I don't). I had been looking forward to "Floris the movie", because I sincerely hoped to find in it the same nostalgic qualities, mixed with all of the achievements of modern-day cinematography.

Alas, I have been deeply disappointed. Shallow, silly, tasteless and without a proper plot to support the actors. What total, utter crap!!! Not a bad idea to have a female version of the original Sindela, but where is the romance à la Burt Lancaster in his pirate movies? And what's with the shitty outfit - can't we do better now that film business in the Netherlands has matured? No, no, no, I know some of the actors could have done better. A missed opportunity, to say the least.

I'm 42 of age.

I grew up with the original Floris series. We hurried home every Sunday to be in time to see the next episode on Dutch telly.

Floris (and some other events) made me love Knights, history, horse riding and sword fighting.

That's what I'm doing nowadays (not full-time) for a living. doing sword fighting demo's at medieval events, practicing horse riding (also as Napoleonic cavalry) and making steel suits of armour in my workshop.

So seeing this movie was somehow like a "must".

And My God, how disappointed I was yesterday evening. This movie has nothing to do with the original. This movie has nothing to do with the Middle ages. This movie has nothing to do with acting. This movie has nothing to do with sword fighting. This movie has nothing to do with armouring. this movie has no humour in it. This movie has no spirit. This movie is a waste of money. This movie is a waste of time. This movie is crap.

OK, we (my girlfriend and I) were bored and considered stopping the DVD halfway, but I really wanted to know if they succeeded to ruin the movie completely, and Yes, they did.

Please, give me money and I will make a far more better version of Floris.

I will hire a lot of reenactment groups as extra's to make a good 15th century military impression, some good actors, write a plot full of real action - not the soft cheese-throwing stuff and so on.

A movie like this should have: A hero, a creep, a babe, a battle, a pursuit. 1 to one sword action (creep vs. hero) and a tournament of course. Humour is also very important, but has to be real humour.

I am a great fan of the original Floris from 1969. I was very pleased when the announced that there was coming a new Floris. But this product is terrible. The bad characters are completely over the top and has noting to do white the middle ages at all. When the film was in in the movie I did see some pieces and was already afraid of the product. Now I have rented is in the videostore, and I am very glad that I didn't bought is. What a wast of time and money. I really hope that there will be no sequel on this film. Or it hat to be white a complete new crew an part new cast. The only realistic role is that of Victor Lowe, Floris the father. He is the only normal people in the whole move. Other Karakters like Van Rossum Jr. is more a Harry Potter figure than a Floris figure.

Jean van de Velde has proved with All Stars that he is capable of making a good comedy film. In my opinion he has reached his peak with this film in this genre.

I could never dream that I would cry during a Dutch film, cry with laughter I mean! This film wasn't meant to copy the original Floris films and that is a good choice. The writers have written a story that hardly refers to the series, except for the beginning.

Van Rossum sr., Sergeant sr, Grote Pier and of course Floris all have offspring. After father Floris escapes from his enemies and hides the relic (a nail from Jezus' cross) they were after, young Floris is captured to convince his father to give the relic to the evil Hertogin van Gelre. But with the help of Pi, the peaceful Floris jr. escapes and decides to help his father and prove he is worth carrying the name of his father and grandfather.

The relic was hidden in a cheese and is by accident (and without knowing) in the hands of one of the 4 evil sons and daughter who are hired by the Hertogin van Gelre after their fathers failed.

Together with Pi he travels to each scoundrel to look for the relic and during the adventures a lot of (Dutch inside) jokes come along. I totally started crying out of laughter after the scene with the SM soldiers. A lot of scenes also made me grin and laugh. All actors prove there is hope for Dutch comedy, which I had given up after a lot of dumb comedy shows on Dutch TV. Thank you Jean van de Velde for giving me a great evening at the theaters.

About Floris I draw a comparison with The Pirates of the Caribean which I personally found a very bad movie with Johnny Depp (and he is not a bad actor at all) as a drug addict queer Pirate. Floris is technically not bad at all and so was The Pirots. So I don't think this is the worst movie of Jean van de Velde (director). Slowly dutch directors climb to a level of British and American filmmakers. Nice special effects and perfect light and a good cast. That characters like Floris Sr (Rob Lowe) are flat and clumsy is understandable. Because again the bad script(s) (p.e.: the Beach with Leo diC; bad script and also bad book) gets me on my nerves. And the following explanation is only understanding by Dutch people but the script has a high 'Bassie en Adriaan' value. Al those proverbs, stupid jokes refer to the modern times, or in the break of a play advertising for soap to clean clothes, no, no, no not funny. It makes it ridiculous and childish. A big chapeau for Pi (Birgit Schuurman) who has never acted. And Floris jr. (Michiel Huisman) has the same charisma as the old Floris (Rutger Houwer) at that time. You can not use modern music in a movie about the Middle Ages it's horrible and makes it unreal. Once in a while I recognized the old Floris music which made the old Floris movie just more exciting and could be better used in certain scenery's. And when there ever will be a continuing story of "Floris in China" please may I read the script first?