Too much of everything

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Really Surprised!

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This movie was quite well constructed, if not a tad confusing. Then again, I tend to enjoy movies that aren't subscriptive to the standard Hollywood format that spoonfeeds you the plot like easy-to-digest babyfood.It beings by telling a story that is fairly simple to understand, about a disgruntled bus driver who has a bone to pick with Philips for their push to have consumers purchase widescreen television sets when presumably their old sets behave just as well for most of the available content in 2000.Then a sort of undertone sets in, very subtly, as if the movie is simply telling a matter-of-fact story that the audience is supposed to just understand. There is no mention nor even hints to help the audience put the pieces together, it is as if they are just supposed to "get it" As it continues towards the end, we/the audience is questioning exactly what is real and what is not.. Does the protagonist know the Head of Sound and Vision at Philips? Does he come over to his house with the host of The Quiz? Does he give him a handgun? None of this is explained, but as the plot comes to a close we suddenly might see it as merely the paranoid delusions of an elderly man on the edge of dementia, rather than an actual plot to infect the audience through widescreen television..? One main clue towards this argument is that apart from his initial audience with Wesselinck in his office, all the rest seem to be disjointed, as if the conversations are taking place inside his head.. The visit to the secret research facility for Pandora, even the shooting range with Astrid, which also seems to be housed in the same facility as Pandora..Either way, this is an excellent film, and I'm also surprised it has such low ratings. I'm giving this an 8, when I wish i could give it an 8.5. Some of the overall plot is a bit poorly presented, and it leaves the audience very confused at the end, and while this may have been the director/writers purpose, the level of disjointedness is quite unsettling.

I was very skeptic when this movie came out. The movie is based on a true story of a man who takes a building and several employees hostage because he is convinced of it that there are hidden encoded messages in Philips widescreen televisions and he demands that Phillips admits this to the general public, in a TV press conference. Only problem is...he has taken the wrong building hostage. Sounds like more than enough material to make a comedy about, so needless to say that I was very skeptic and even a bit angry when I found out that they wanted to make a serious heavy drama about this man and what drove him to his actions. But the movie ended up being far better than I could have ever had expected it to be.The movie perfectly shows the growing paranoia of the main character and how he slowly looses all sense of reality. The already unstable character (his wife has left him after more than 30 years and he has trouble at his work as a bus driver) becomes more understandable, he's a man who has got nothing more to loose and wants justice.The two main actors are really what drives this movie. Jan Decleir is a truly fantastic actor. This guy has had several big Hollywood offers already (Kubrick wanted him in "Eyes Wide Shut" and he was offered a part in "The World is not Enough" and he has played in several Academy Award winning Dutch movies.). But Jeroen Krabbé really impressed me the most. I already knew what a great actor he was of course but I had never seen him playing a better role as he did in this movie.It's too bad that the story is told in a typical 'Dutch way'. The story keeps jumping from present time to what happened prior to this man's desperate action. It feels kind of pointless that the story is told in this way and it became a bit irritating after a while.Still the movie is not worth the low rating it receives here currently. (Only a 5.3? What's up with that?) and obviously so far all the other movie reviewers here agree with that. The movie is not just good, it's great, thanks to the good directing from big talent Pieter Kuijpers and the acting of the two main actors, Jan Decleir and Jeroen Krabbé. The script could had used some more work here and there though.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

When watching the trailer I was amazed about the mediocre acting performances of the entire cast, save Jan Decleir... However, I did want to see the movie and went to Antwerp last weekend to find out if the acting was poor throughout the movie. Fortunately the story of somewhat deranged bus driver John Voerman explained my notion. This certainly is a good movie, worth watching a couple of times to make sure you grasped the true story: both in his personal affairs and hunt for the codes hidden in the black bars of widescreen television John regularly looses track of reality and his deluded mind alters the way things really are...I'm very glad I did take the chance to see it, because it's definitely worth your time. 7,5/10

I have seen this movie, because I was curious about the way the fact of the hostage was being filmed and about Jan Decleir and Jeroen Krabbé working together. The film tells the story behind the hostage taker John V. He is lonely man living in his own world. He is product of our society. Wesselinck is a self made top manager and can afford everything. He gets to know John by coincidence ( or not ). John is writing letters to Philips because he suspects the multimedia company of putting encoded messages in 'widescreen'tv-sets. John is no longer seeing his wife and children and is a bus driver. In his spare time he writes letters to Philips and watches recorded tapes of a popular knowledge quiz. When he meets Wesselinck the top man, they become friends because they are alike. Wesselinck lets John in on a top secret project which has to do with manipulation. The film takes the audience behind the screens and only reveals at the end. All the time you think it's like this and in the end there is a complete turnaround! Superb! I happened to have an interview with Jan Decleir in Rotterdam last February and he told me the movie had been made in three weeks. The cast worked very hard and the result is a great movie! Go and see for yourself!