I stopped watching Dutch tv shows and movies because the same 4-5 actors always play the main role. Koen De Bouw and Veerle Baetens, again?! They play in everything! They're great actors, but I'm so sick of seeing them. How can you possibly relate to their role if they appeared in 3 other shows on tv in the same week?
Belgium is a small country, but there must be other talented actors to hire for lead roles? *sigh*
It's indeed ashame that they seem to leave so much talent out of movies in Belgium. As you indicate, most actors in the movie, have played in so many other movies and/or series in the Belgian film history.
I however did the effort of watching the entire movie, and I certainly liked it. And you can say a lot of our Belgian actors, but the least you can say is that the ones you mention are talented.
Oh, so this sort of thing DOES happen in countries other than America (where I live). I had to chuckle when I read your posts because I didn't think it did. For starters, I saw this last night at the Chicago International Film Festival, so they were total unknowns to us.
I sympathize - Americans grumble "oh, not him again!" whenever a major studio film is released. Will Smith - Michael Douglas - please, aren't they rich enough?
I enjoyed this film last night - but I kept asking myself if I'd like it just as well if it were an American film. Don't know.
I do know there would have been a couple of sex scenes and the soundtrack CD would have been comprised of songs that weren't good enough to be included on a proper album, so they're used there. Most of the songs on said soundtrack CD would be played in excerpts over the credits.
As I watched the film and saw the leading man's face I thought there might be a chance he could cross over to American movies and be cast as the villain (they always are - anyone with an accent other than American usually gets cast as the bad guy). The actor kept reminding me of a young James Farentino with a pinch and a dash of Jason "Father Karras" Miller.
Maybe there's a lesson for those on both sides of the pond -
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.
He does look like Jason Miller! I think the script would need a major rewrite for an American market. America is the retributive society in the world - our incarceration rate is 9 times that of Germany and 15 times that of Japan. Despite having only 5% of it's population, we have 25% of the world's prisoners. Recommended changes are as follows... 1) due to a technicality, De Groot gets only life without parole instead of the death penalty for the murder - society is outraged 2) Luc determines to get himself locked up with De Groot so that he can have some mano-a-mano justice 3) since he already has a couple of parking tickets, he steals a box of Cracker Jacks and gets 10 years under the "three strikes" provision (4 De Groot's lawyer Ms. Teugels visits him regularly and winds up falling in love with him. She arranges for conjugal visits (5 having spent the majority of his life locked up with other men, De Groot can only get it up for anal sex, which suits Teugels fine (6 Teugels tries to smuggle some lube into the prison but it is mistaken for a "toothpaste bomb" and she is sent to Guantanemo for a long stretch. Now De Groot is really p'oed 7) A death match is arranged in the private for-profit prison where both men reside and cable rights are sold for millions 8) the warden offers Luc 5 million and a reduced sentence if he agrees to throw the fight since the betting is heavily in his favor and fortunes can be made by betting against him (work in progress).
Leave the gun, take the cannoli...
hahah
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