The most hyped movie of the year is a disappointment. It’s a fun ride, but it’s not that all that spectacular. It’s like a rollercoaster that doesn’t really give you the thrills you want. Even though it has its highs and its lows. A rollercoaster ride needs to speed up all the time. When it slows down, it’s to gain power and energy to go up again. That’s not the case here.
The lows:
- “Kind of Based On True Shit”. Okay, cool tag line. But it’s very basic shit. The story has been told a zillion times before. Small criminals decide to mingle with the big league and things go wrong.
- The Typography. That movie poster title looks really bad. And it comes back in the movie.
- The visual references to video games. We get it, they love playing video games, but to make certain scenes in the movie look like part of a video game doesn’t work.
- The Narration by the main character. Annoying. The North African Antwerp accent is terrible, but it’s especially the monotonous tone in which the story is told.
- Matteo Simoni. Great actor. Totally miscast.
- The use of street slang that nobody has ever heard before. It’s going to be a challenge for those countries that dub movies and for those that need subtitles.
Good:
- The Dutch actors. Werner Kolf and Ali B. Both remarkable as rivaling gang leaders.
- The end credits. When you’ve seen the movie, you’ll understand.
- The reverse ‘how drugs got to the drug user’ scene. Could have lasted longer, but good. In fact, the visual experience is entertaining.
- Some of the one liners and dialogue. Again, especially by the Dutch.
- The soundtrack. From the EBM to the Dutch pop rap to the Moroccan club track and the instrumental score… it works.
- Antwerp! This city needs to be in more movies. Maybe in the next James Bond movie. Who knows.
- The two lawyers. They just have a cameo, but they should get a tv series.
It’s the kind of movie you watch on a cheap long distance bus ride in India, South Africa or Brazil. This is really a BAD action comedy. But shot in a really cool way. Too much trying to be Tarantino and not quite getting to the next level shit.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6438030