TBS

Wow, I am impressed. I watched the movie at the premiere in Rotterdam and it really hit me like a hammer. The film isn't about shootouts ans cold blooded murder. Its more a tension, you don't know what is going to happen next. Standup comedian Maassen carries the movie without being funny, although there are a few comic relief moments. Lisa Smit plays a perfect naive 13 year old. Together they search for the truth. Is the man innocent or not? I see a remake in this. The director Pieter Verhoef made also Dennis P. and Van God Los, he is really into crime. But in his movies crime isn't black and white. We see also the good aspects of the criminal. In TBS we see that there are more sides to one story.

Faced with life-long detention as a habitual offender, Johan (Theo Maassen) escapes from a mental institution. Tessa (amazing newcomer Lisa Smit) happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A teenage beauty on her way home from a night at the club, Tessa is right up Johan's aisle and promptly taken hostage. The trip that unfolds is in many ways a road movie, but at the same time, it's a chamber play: There are really only two characters, Johan and Tessa, and it's mostly set in cars. Until very late, we don't know whether Johan is essentially a good guy in a hard place or a dangerous madman out for a kill. Surely he can't be both? TBS is a flawless thriller with a great script brought to life by two terrific actors that keep you on the edge of your seat. Theo Maasen's Johan is an ambivalent character not unlike Edward Norton's altar boy Aaron Stampler in "Primal Fear", but rendered with even more subtlety and wit.

I watched TBS as a Sneak Preview in Cinema... I use to go there every week... Sometimes I get very disappointed... But sometimes you're so lucky... ;)

TBS is one of the movies of the latter category... Until recently I wasn't very fond of Dutch movies... They used to have a lot of sex in them, bad acting, bad directing, low quality... But only since two or three months ago I'm starting to change my opinion... TBS is another movie that makes me believe the Dutch can produce quality... Although the plot isn't all too original (an escaped prisoner wants to prove his innocence), the subject of escaping prisoners is quite a resent subject in Holland... The end was kind of unexpected (call me naive) and makes me think this movie might just get a place in my very own gallery of honor... :P The acting is very good... Both Johan and Tessa are very convincing characters... Directing too is done well... Although the movie is not visually stunning, the atmosphere is well set...

Liked it very much... I can really recommend it...

Niels...

TBS is a movie I watched a long time ago and re-watched today - I've figured it's still worth it.

For a quick in simple summary of the movie, it works. The dialog seems a bit 'blunt', and this is a problem more Dutch movies haves. Everything else however, is seriously well done. The cameras are in the right spots, acting by Maassen and Smit is tremendously well done (I was surprised to see that this is the only 'big' movie Smit has acted in) and the story is a very good one as well.

The movie doesn't have any of the cheesiness more often seen in Dutch movies and the story is one that moves you - I myself was heavily affected by the ending, in a way few movies have managed to do (Sin City or Lord of the Rings come to mind). I really wish I would've rated the movie lower than a 9 to make my review seem less cheesy, but really, it is that good. If you've had the pleasure of hearing about this movie, then by all means watch it - you won't regret it in the slightest.

Maassen did do a good job acting and the director succeeded in taking me on a trip. For me watching this movie was enjoyable for 80%, but the main reason I eventually did not like it, was because afterward I started thinking about the question: what did the movie want to tell me? I did not find an answer. This means either I did not understand the plot, or the story just did not appeal to me. I guess the last.

For being a Dutch movie the style of this work did impress me, but I would not recommend my friends to watch it.

Nice trivia: Maassen was brought to the premier in a police car and stepped out being hand coughed.