Verhoeven made big-budget cheese his personal trademark, he just wasn't always successful. When it turns out right his oeuvre offers solid entertainment, but too many of his films fall flat on their face. Explore at your own peril.
Movies
Showy and kitschy showbiz drama that has a little extra because of Verhoeven's over-the-top direction, but fails to excite beyond that. The acting is pretty bland, the story is boring and the film could've been 30 minutes shorter. It's not a terrible film, certainly not as bad as its reputation, but it's not very noteworthy either.
I'm pretty sure I'd seen this film before as a kid, but I didn't remember much of it, apart from the scenes that have become part of our cultural memory. It's a Verhoeven though, so I figured it would be nice to give this one another go and see if it was still worth something. The result was a little disappointing I'm afraid. There's quite a bit of nudity and the murders are pretty direct (for a Hollywood film), but that's about it really. The film itself is a very basic cop thriller, with a rather plain "did she or didn't she" plot that Verhoeven drags out until the very end. I found it hard to care about the final twist, which is never a good sign. Performances are rather weak (Douglas in particular is prone to some serious overacting) and the film has that rather cheap 90s cop thriller look. The soundtrack isn't very helpful either. The pacing is fine though and the film never gets too slow or boring, but in the end there's not all that much appeal left for a 2 hour film.Read all
A Dutch classic and one of Paul Verhoeven's first feature films. I'd never seen the film before, nor read the book, so I had no idea what to expect. I wasn't all that surprised to get a somewhat raunchier romance, what I didn't expect was the rather crummy and stilted execution of the thing. When Olga picks up Eric on the side of the road, it's love at first sight. The two get into a car accident and Olga disappears from Eric's life, but he can't forget about her and looks everywhere until he finally finds her again. They get married and for a while, things go well, but then disaster strikes. The performances are horrible, the dialogues are hideous, and almost half of the film is made up of nonsensical interludes. The romantic angle works relatively well regardless, but that too gets stunted in the second half. It's a pretty rough start to Verhoeven's career, but at least the film got his name out.Read all
