10s Movie Review - Rendez-Vous

Director: Antoinette Beumer
Genre: Thriller
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Loes Haverkort, Mark van Eeuwen, Pierre Boulanger, Peter Paul Muller, Jennifer Hoffman, Eva Duijvenstein
 
Description: Simone (Loes Haverkort) had a dream and achieving it didn’t seem that difficult. Or so she thought.

Review: The third novel by Dutch author Esther Verhoef is her first psychological thriller, turned into film by director Antoinette Beumer. Loes Haverkort plays leading character Simone. She is married to Eric and has two children. She is trying to find happiness with her family in France, where they renovate her late mother’s house and turn it into a bed and breakfast. For a thriller, there hardly is any tension.
When Simone runs into Michel, a handsome and charming French construction worker, she feels attracted to him. She goes after him, hesitating only briefly whether she is not putting all her family happiness at risk. It is also clear that Simone’s relationship with her mother was difficult. And she has a hard time adapting to France. Fellow Dutchman Peter helps her and Eric, even taking over the reins of the renovation. While Simone has a passionate affair with Michel, everything around her threatens to end in disaster.
Beumer obviously couldn’t decide what should be the main part of her book adaptation. Does it revolve around the messy practices surrounding the renovation and getting used to a strange environment or should Simone’s amorous explorations come first? There is an attempt to surround the village environment and the many Dutchmen who live in France with some mystique. But school mothers crying in cars, strange utterances at fairs, and the interpretation of the rich everybody’s friend and benefactor Peter hardly make a lasting impression.
The biggest shortcoming is the hardly plausible characterization of Simone. She is a woman who screams independence, but doesn’t actually make any decisions independently. Simone herself seems to realize what she is doing.
This combination of misjudgments in both the plot and character development is the final deathblow to this weak thriller. That doesn’t even feel like a thriller up until the last 20 minutes or so.

Rating: 2/ 5

10s Movie Review - Dames 4

Director: Maurice Trouwborst
Genre: Comedy/ Drama
Runtime: 90 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Hannah van Luntren, Jennifer Hoffman, Sarah Chronis, Tibor Lukácx, Henry van Loon, Ko Zandvliet, Huub Smit, Sophie van Oers, Renée Fokker, Elisa Breuger, Guido Pollemans, Martijn Hillenius, Ludwig Bindervoets, Hugo Maerten, Sanne Gloria Verboom, Jurjen van loon, Kristen Denkers, Rixt Leddy, Guido Schilperoort, Walter Bart, Tessa du Mee, Maaike Martens, Ozlem Solmaz, Peter de Witte, Chris Peters, Jadi Gerritsen, Harry Hooijberg, Ryanne van Dorst, Wouter van Couwelaar, Gijs Hoffs

Description: Immature thirty-something Wyne (Hannah van Lunteren) starts a women’s amateur soccer team in hope reconnecting with her settled-down best friend Nanda (Jennifer Hoffman)

Review: They do wear soccer outfits and on a good day they know on which position they play. But this soccer team, with women in their thirties, doesn’t really know how to play the game or how to arrange everything.
Like other Dutch films “All Stars” and “My Name is Joe”, “Dames 4” isn’t really about soccer at all. It’s the red thread through the story, that connects the characters. But it’s actually about Wyne and her best friend Nanda. Nanda is serious, can’t wait to settle down with her long-time boyfriend and is even thinking about having children. Wyne never grew up, loves her single life, doesn’t want a family life and can’t stand the fact that everyone around her is having babies. So when Wyne sees she is losing her friend Nanda, she decides to start a soccer team in order to keep spending time with her.
Apart from Wyne, none of the characters really have any depth and we don’t get to know them very well. Most of them are stereotypical or even caricature-like characters. The writing is witty at times, but overall a bit lazy and filled with sex jokes.
I didn’t like the direction Wyne eventually went in. It felt out of character and as determined as she was the entire film, that’s how quickly Wyne eventually choose her future path and set all her hopes, dreams and principals aside. It was like looking at a complete new character, it didn’t fit her.
It's a short film and a lot has to be told. “Dames 4” didn’t fully succeed in doing that right.

Rating: 2,5/ 5

10s Movie Review: Hartenstrijd

Director: Janice Pierre
Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 93 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Jennifer Hoffman, Tibor Lukács, Eva van de Wijdeven, Oscar Aerts, Georgina Verbaan, Anniek Pheifer, Loek peters, Willeke Alberti, Cees Geel, Murth Mossel

Description: A lovelorn police officer (Jennifer Hoffman) and a womanizing bar owner (Tibor Lukács) get into a romantic game of cat and mouse as they both attempt to take their love lives in new directions.

Review: Romcoms mostly follow a certain path. Lovebirds trying to be noticed by the other, they find each other, due to a misunderstanding they lose each other and eventually they end up together. And that final moment is often during a dramatic race against time. This is the format it apparently needs, but it’s the execution and its details that makes the difference. In the Dutch romantic comedy “Hartenstrijd”, we follow a bet which will bring two different characters closer together.
Tina is a motor cop, who believes in true and eternal love and always hopelessly clings herself to men. When her boyfriend breaks up with her, her world crashes and Tina claims she is done with serious relationships. She moves in with her best friend Fleurtje and makes a bet with her that she won’t be in any serious relationships for at least a year. Tina thinks she can do the ‘no strings attached’ routine and have meaningless sex with men without getting feelings. So she starts to casually date Sven, a guy that is known for his smooth talking and sleeping with women without dating them or let alone be in a relationship with them. Sven just made a bet with his best friend Dennis, that he can go on five dates with the same woman without having sex with her. And Tina is his project.
The whole idea behind “Hartenstrijd” is the big difference between Sven and Tina, how they view love, relationships and dating. And this movie is, like most romcoms, very predictable. A lot of tossing and turning between the two, before eventually reaching its core. Tina and Sven are very stereotypical, almost caricature like. Tina is a dull and clumsy woman, who can’t live without a man in her life. Sven is a playboy, who objectifies women. Jennifer Hoffman and Tibor Lukács are both not very comfortable in their roles somehow. It’s the supporting characters that catch your eye. Like Eva van de Wijdeven as Fleurtje, I loved her sass. And Aniek Pheifer as Sven’s pregnant friend, giving him advice wherever she can. And I really enjoyed the scenes with Tina and her co colleagues.
If the roles were a bit more realistic, you could actually care about the leading characters. “Hartenstrijd” has its moments, it’s not all bad. But it’s the small jokes and moments. It’s not cohesive and feels unfinished.

Rating: 2/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 114: Bro's Before Ho's

Director: Steffen Haars, Flip van der Kuil

Genre: Comedy/ Romance

Runtime: 88 minutes

Year: 2013

Starring: Tim Haars, Daniël Arends, Sylvia Hoeks, Henry van Loon, Jennifer Hoffman, Theo Maassen

Description: Because of a bad marriage of their parents, two brothers Jules (Daniel Arends) en Max (Tim Haars) made a pact never to get into a relationship with a woman. Therefore, they live a party-life in which they sleep with a different girl every day. However this changes when Jules starts to date Anna (Sylvia Hoeks) and Max falls in love with her. Can their bromance overcome this love triangle.

Review: When they could play Duckhunt for hours, life wasn’t that difficult for brothers Jules and Max. Their father tells them never to get into a relationship with a woman. The brothers decide to live by that life lesson.

Max wakes up ten minutes before work, gets into his outfit without showering and slowly shuffles to the video store next door. His diet: coffee, candy and chocolate. He hardly has any clients, but Max likes the life. His adopted brother Jules isn’t doing any better. He is an assistant manager at a local supermarket, but instead of managing the place, he bangs every female co-worker. Jules and Max live together with their roommate Rene. Rene acts like a ‘bad ass gangsta’, but is in a relationship with his stuck up girlfriend and he’s whipped. A life that Max and Jules despise. At night the brothers go out and take home girls. Max always settles for the ‘less pretty friend’, because Max always gets the hot chicks. But then the beautiful Anna walk into hi video store. Their brotherly bond is tested when he falls in love with Anna, but she starts dating Jules.

Directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil brought us “New Kids Turbo” and “New Kids Nitro”. The decision to make a romcom is a pleasant surprise, but I can understand the male fans weren’t jumping of joy. With “Bro’s Before Ho’s” they made a romcom that is also watchable for guys. It’s filled with crude jokes, bad language and sex.

Tim Haars plays the likeable Max, not spectacular but he wins over your sympathy easily. Comedian Daniël Arends, as brother Jules, is more solid with his arrogant attitude and dry humor. Henry van Loon play roommate Rene. Sadly it’s only a supporting role, because he is hilarious. It sometimes feels awkward and uncomfortable, but he’s a guarantee for laughs. Sylvia Hoeks, as Anna, adds some feminine spice to the film. Which is needed, because the movie has a high testosterone level and is very juvenile. The biggest problem of the film is the lack of originality and a cliché overkill.

For a Dutch comedy “Bro’s Before Ho’s” was better than expected, but it’s nothing new.

Rating: 2,5/ 5