TBS

I love this movie! The acting is great and the plot is very good. Theo Maassen plays a strong main character which draws you in. You begin to like him, but he plays is very subtle and you feel his edges from the beginning. It's a guy you're not sure if you can trust him or not. Was he wrongfully convicted or is he the beast that others perceive him to be. It gives the movie a strong foundation and he maintains a great performance throughout. A couple of others in the theater weren't able to totally separate his movie character from his career as a comic, resulting in some laughs in the audience in some strange places in the movie. Nothing to blame on Maassen though, he did great. The girl in this movie is brilliant. It's the first role of Lisa Smit (only 13 or 14 herself) and she plays her character very well. She is a typical teenager, with all the problems and issues that girls have at that time in their lives. The plot of the movie had a nice pace and the tension is built up nicely. There is never a dull moment and almost all plot twists are believable. Only problem I had was a strange scene involving a group of journalists. The way they behaved seemed a bit contrived and purely there to help the story forward. They didn't fall in the current Hollywood trap of making a movie too long, it's perfect as it is, an hour and a half of pure entertainment.

First of all, this movie is very well acted. Since this is a dutch movie, I never had heard of the actors before, but seeing them here, proves that they do have what it takes to lead any other movie, too. And it's shot as raw and real as a movie with a theme like this can be shot.

Speaking of which (theme), this movie is anything but easy viewing. But it's pretty ambiguous. Maybe for some it might seem pretty straight(forward), but the ambiguity lies within, what the viewer is supposed to feel in any given moment of the film. Again, Kudos to the actors, who do their best. The script is pretty slick too. Recommended viewing, if you can handle it!

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.

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.