Pretty Good

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A mysterious serial killer is stalking the canals of Amsterdam. He wears a black wetsuit and diving mask, and he kills with a harpoon. As the body count rises, detective Eric Visser (Stapel) is assigned to catch him. It's not going to be easy, as this particular baddie is extremely clever and crafty. Soon, the full force of Amsterdam's police are chasing down the man terrifying their beloved city. Visser must not only catch the killer, but also protect his young daughter Anneke (Dagelet) and her friend Willy (Bakker), not to mention girlfriend Laura (van de Ven of Stunt Rock, 1980 fame). Can he do it? Amsterdamned, as you might be able to surmise from its great title, is an extremely enjoyable movie with a dark sense of humor. It takes Dutch culture, everything from its red light district, to Rembrandt paintings, to Amstel beer and of course its famous canals and architecture, and injects a malevolent, murdering presence into it. That, and the idea that a killer can use the canals to kill and escape, is excellent, original and crowd-pleasing. The whole venture has a great vibe and thus is a winner.Huub Stapel as Visser is your typical quirky, unshaven cop who gets results. To our eyes he resembles a Dutch Jean Reno, or perhaps a Dutch Cobra (AKA Marion Cobretti). He also has a cool jacket and there are other wonderful 80's fashions on display as well. Writer/director Dick Maas not only uses the city of Amsterdam to its full effect, but he also loads the movie up with inventive moments and unique camera angles. This keeps the pace of the movie on track, although at times it is hard to sustain the nearly two hour running time. And even though most of the characters dubbed their own voices, if the movie had been trimmed of a bit of fat, and subtitled instead of dubbed, we'd be looking at an ultimate classic. As it stands, it's merely great. So not a huge loss there.But we see why Maas decided to dub the movie, he was clearly going for the international (and especially the American) market. And he had every right to be successful in it, as the movie has some great chase scenes, as well as its unique concept and location. So he was able to formulate a winner, and Vestron must have agreed, as they released it on VHS here.Featuring the wonderful end-credits title song by Lois Lane, we strongly recommend Amsterdamned.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

I can't help myself: I greatly respect Dick Maas. He directed three self-penned movies to Dutch box office success in the 80s, all three fast-paced, original stories permeated with a typical Dutch brand of humor. You could make a case that Maas is the Low Countries' equivalent to Luc Besson or Quentin Tarantino, even if his work doesn't come close to a quarter of their production values - or their international recognition.With its faux-English title, touristy Amsterdam settings and serial killer/hardboiled cop storyline, "Amsterdamned" (1988) was made with an eye on international success. As always, Maas' direction is instinctively entertaining, doesn't waste time and doesn't mind sacrificing logic for pace and shock value. It results in trashy 80s fare. Personally? I love it. Don't expect "Seven" or "The Silence of the Lambs", but enjoy the lewd sex scenes, speedboat chases and blood stains. Time will fly; Maas and lead Huub Stapel know what they're doing.But does "Amsterdamned" work for an international audience? Only if you're prepared to appreciate the irreverent, self-deprecating sense of humor as part of the movie's charm. Maas' shtick as a writer/director is so fundamentally Dutch that his international ambitions were probably doomed from the start. But let's give the man his due: he wrote his own stuff, put his own money on the line and drew big crowds to the theaters, creating popular culture at a time when other Dutch directors were busy adapting 19th-century novels.

Again, terror comes from the water, but don't let you be fooled, there's nothing that can be taken for granted in this eccentric Dutch horror flick. This is the third movie directed by Dick Maas, one of the most successful directors of the little known Dutch cinema, after the lucky "De Lift" (1983), awarded at the Avoriaz festival. "Amsterdamned" is a thrilling slasher that's almost a "psycho" version of the famous "Jaws", from which ironically borrows the famous scenes with subjective camera technique, underwater and on the surface. With his effective visual talent, Dick Maas (who wrote the script and composed the soundtrack, too), films a fascinating and putrescent Amsterdam, with its muddy canals and its magnificent settings. Apart from the inventions of Dick Maas' direction, the script, never banal and full of turning points, that always avoids to sink in "already seen" things, the credible acting by all the members of the cast, the excellent make-up of the disfigured maniac, shrewdly showed only in the end, are praiseworthy. This is entertainment cinema at his best. You must see it!

This movie opens with what probably is the best and most atmospheric thriller-sequence ever filmed in the Netherlands! While the credits are shown, a serial killers swims through the canals of Amsterdam, viciously lurking at potential victims that moor by the quayside. This scene is simply terrific and it somewhat feels like how Dario Argento would direct "Jaws"! Yes, it really is THAT intense and THAT disturbing. When the professional diver/maniac then comes out of the water, he brutally kills a prostitute and this means the first murder in a long series that'll terrorize the entire city of Amsterdam. Police inspector Eric Visser (Huub Stapel, with whom director Dick Maas already made the commercial successes "De Lift" and "Flodder") and his team try very hard to catch the killer but he always escapes thanks to his vast knowledge of the canal-network. With "De Lift" in 1983, Maas already proved that he was the only Dutch director of his generation capable of bringing unsettling and tense horror stories, but "Amsterdamned" is an even better movie because the atmosphere feels more realistic and the story is a lot more involving. With all the abrupt plot-twists and the extremely violent death-sequences, you could almost describe "Amsterdamned" as the only Dutch GIALLO ever made and it's perfectly able to compete with some of the better Italian efforts in this lovely sub genre of horror. Even the chilling musical score (composed by Dick Maas himself, as well) feels very giallo-like. Of course, the film isn't entirely flawless. Some action scenes (like the grotesque speed-boat chase) are just a tad bit exaggerated and the one many red herrings eventually ruin the credibility. Still, "Amsterdamned" unquestionably is one the best Dutch-spoken thriller ever and even horror fanatics across the ocean should consider importing it, if it were only for the nasty and downright shocking scene in which a severely mutilated corpse is dragged over a glass-topped tour boat filled with boy scouts. Great stuff!!