Amsterdamned (1988)
Fun filled thrill
31 October 2002
Like I say in my comments on "De Lift", this is particularly funny for Dutch-aholics. A lot of the scenes are references to Dutch famous people, or will later become references to those.

The Bond-like chase through the canals of "Amsterdam", is one of the most famous scenes, and is up to Hollywood standard. Huub Stapel is again the best choice for the leading character "Eric Visser", charming, tenacious, and this time single. The comic relieves are numerous in this movie, but the best to me are the scenes where Stapel's daughter Anneke and her friend Willy try to find the killer through telepathy. And luckily Dick Maas doesn't resort to an old Hollywood trick, and let them solve the whole thing.

Unfortunately, the whole industry in Europe is only interested in making "interesting, and challenging" movies. Movie making in Europe should be about the art, not about the money, according to the critics. The result, however, is that most movies from Europe are either depressing to the point of throwing yourself from a tall building, or completely incomprehensible, or just boring. There are a few great exceptions to the rule, and this is certainly one of them.

For those who saw it in 1988 in a theater, and happened to be in a theater that (as is usual in Holland) puts in a break half way through the movie, so they can scam you out of your money selling over priced drinks (okay different story), you might remember one of the best finishing touches to a movie ever seen: the hand that shoots out of the water, holding a strawberry ice cream cone! That actually had me about 5 inches of my seat.
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