Black Book
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven had a stellar career in Holland.
Then, films such as his Academy Award nominated ‘Turkish
Delight’ (1973) and his highly sexual thriller ‘The
Fourth Man’ (1983) aroused Hollywood interest. His American
career got off to a good start with the sci-fi thrillers ‘Robocop’
(1987) and ‘Total Recall’ (1990), culminating
with the seminal sexy murder mystery ‘Basic Instinct’
(1992), but, after the spectacular failures of ‘Showgirls’
(1995), now a ‘camp’ cult-classic, and ‘Starship
Troopers’ (1997) his Hollywood ‘period’
came to an abrupt end. Back home in Holland, and working in
his familiar Dutch language, Verhoeven has created a superb
espionage movie that should do much to ‘kick-start’
his career again, at least in Europe. ‘Black Book’
is a slick and stylish movie set in Amsterdam at the end of
World War II. A Jewish woman, who narrowly survives the slaughter
of her family as they attempt to escape to the liberated south,
joins the Dutch resistance. At their request she infiltrates
the Gestapo Headquarters, and starts a sexual liaison with
a high-ranking officer in order to collect ‘intelligence’.
However, as events proceed, Rachel finds herself seriously
attracted to the officer, and, at the same time, finds that
she can no longer trust anyone, and must fend for herself.
As the war escalates to its inevitable climax, so too does
Rachel’s attempts at espionage. Verhoeven’s vision
of a war ravished Amsterdam is nostalgic and romantic. The
style of the movie evokes a similar response to Hollywood
movies of the 1940s and 1950s dealing with the same subject-matter.
In a way, ‘Black Book’ can be regarded as a ‘tribute’
movie, for its re-creation of this genre is immaculate. Newcomer,
at least to International audiences, Carice Van Houten is
terrific as the ‘vamp’ Rachel. She displays a
sexuality which is mesmerizing. The performance of the Leading
Lady is essential to this film, and in this regard Van Houten
never fails to please. Much as he did for Sharon Stone 15
years ago, Verhoeven has launched a new sex-siren, and Carice
Van Houten’s career should now be followed with much
interest. Paul Verhoeven’s skillful war movie does much
to repair his shattered reputation, and hopefully puts him
‘back-on-track’ for even more compelling movies
to come in the future.
Primeval
People who like frightening movies about rampaging wild beasts
are going to love Michael Katleman’s bloodcurdling ‘flick’
‘Primeval’. Inspired by recent and true events,
Katleman’s movie tells the story of a team of TV-journalists
who travel to the small Central African nation of Burundi,
caught in the middle of a bloody civil-war, to document and
possibly capture a ferocious crocodile, which has been responsible
for the deaths of over 300 people. Anyway, as the journalists
tramp through the jungle searching for their quarry, they
are tagged by a group of nasty rebels, who have their own
reasons for putting the journalists out of the way. Made in
the good-old-fashioned style of a ‘Jaws’ movie,
Gustave the Crocodile takes care of his predators one-by-one,
while the rebels decimate what is left of the rest. The plotline
of the movie is fairly predictable, but the whole thing is
put together with a certain amount of panache, which makes
for entertaining viewing. Also, the movie isn’t as violent
as you would expect. The director employs that established
technique which adheres to the idea that ‘suggestion’
can be more effective than ‘visualization’. Often
Katleman ‘cuts-away’ at a grisly moment, allowing
the audience to surmise what eventuated rather than depicting
it in its full gory detail. This directorial style results
in a movie which is surprisingly suspenseful, scary and sometimes
a hell of a lot of fun.
Mr. Brooks
Kevin Costner is normally associated with roles of a noble
and heroic nature, therefore, it comes as a bit of a surprise
to find that in Bruce A. Evans’ film ‘Mr. Brooks’
he has elected to play an addictive thrill-seeking serial-killer.
The movie is a piece of predictable ‘schlock’,
but it does contain a ‘twist’ that manages to
keep interest alive through most of its running-time. Kevin
Costner, as Mr. Brooks, has an evil-genius alter-ego, which
is visualized by William Hurt, in a portrayal that is typically
bizarre. Together, Costner and Hurt have a rather good time
as they squabble about ‘Whom’ and ‘Why’
and ‘When and ‘Where’ they will ‘bump-off’
their next victim. Nonetheless, this attempt at ‘black
humor’ doesn’t save the movie from being ludicrous,
but it does give both actors the opportunity to turn in pretty
good performances. It is quite fascinating to watch Kevin
Costner successfully play against ‘type’.
Next
The plotline of Lee Tamahori’s action movie ‘Next’
is absolutely outrageous and utterly preposterous. Nicolas
Cage plays a small-time, sleazy, Las Vegas stage magician,
who possesses a ‘gift’ to be able to ‘see’
two minutes into the future. Cage uses this skill in the local
casinos to obtain extra cash, until he comes under the attention
of an FBI Special Agent, who wants to put his talent to work
tracking down some terrorists who plan to ‘nuke’
Los Angeles with a rather big bomb. Really! I do not lie!
Nicolas Cage presents another robotic action-hero performance,
while Julianne Moore is all ‘spit and polish’
as the relentless FBI Agent. Meanwhile, Jessica Biel, as Nicolas
Cage’s unsuspecting love interest, appears suitably
bemused at the ‘goings on’, as well she should
be. The story is incredibly ridiculous, but the movie does
have one thing going for it, and that is director Lee Tamahori’s
amazing flair. The movie has an immense amount of cinematic
style and flamboyance. As Tamahori zips between the ‘now’
and the ‘next’, making full use of Nicolas Cage’s
ever reliable two minute precognitive ‘warning system’,
it is very easy to loose track of what is cinema ‘reality’
and what is cinematic ‘future’. That being the
whole subliminal point of this silly movie.
Wild Hogs
It amazes me that actors of the status of John Travolta, William
H. Macy, Tim Allen and Marisa Tomei would consider doing serious
damage to their careers, by appearing in this tedious and
inane movie ‘Wild Hogs’. The film concerns a group
of irresponsible middle-aged men, who climb onto their motor-bikes
to ‘live out’ the American Dream of ‘going
on the road’. This movie has made a huge amount of money,
and that’s pretty amazing as well!
