Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Whether consciously or not, this movie is about the decay of adult authority and the rise of our narcissistic consumer culture, in which impulses and self- gratification are the highest good and everything else be damned.The movie starts with two teenagers, a girl and a boy, setting off a bomb in their parents' bedroom for no apparent reason. Their two younger brothers (aged around 5-6) continue to annoy the parents.The parents then try to discipline their daughter for having sex with her tennis instructor; their older son for looking at his sister's breasts; their younger children for throwing food into their parents' faces. This only makes the children more mean and vengeful.The adults in the movie look like bumbling fools, especially the father. He's a pilot in the Dutch army and works with US officers, but instead of battling the Soviets in the Cold War, he has to fight a war against his children at home.When the older children discover that their parents want to send them to a reformatory, they put their sleeping parents into a car, dump them in the woods, return home and barricade the house.The father brings some of his army comrades to help him force his way into the house. But the children have found one of his father's guns and the adults flee in panic.In the end, the drunken father breaks into the house at night with an axe (this was directly inspired by "The Shining"). The four children flee in a car. Their parents pursue them, also in a car, but get buried in concrete by accident. Nobody learns their fate, they seem to have disappeared. The children go on to lead chaotic and eccentric lives.The movie has a dream-like, nightmare-like quality about it. The problem seems mundane enough -- disobedient teenagers -- but one is left with a depressing sense of helplessness and confusion. I'd give this movie a 10 if it was a condemnation of our nihilistic consumer society, but it seems the makers were welcoming the changes and made this movie as an artistic warning to older people. Therefore I give it a 5. I liked to see the Netherlands in the mid 1980s and the actors are pretty good.

This film can strictly be seen as child pornography. The girl playing the daughter in the story was only 14 at the time and is seen mostly topless. There is also a sex scene in the shower.. According to a famous Dutch lawyer you can be find with 78000€ or 4 years in prison when in possession of this video… The first half of this movie is quite nice. But the second half is so terrible you wished you had not seen it. The whole movie is half comedy, half drama. From the start the adult actors play comedy but the kids act very realistic, as far as the script makes it possible (which is not very far). The real stars are acting in the daughters (age 15 or 16?)t-shirt, the director has done everything to show them at their best. At least the half of her scenes "Madelon" is running around topless or in t-shirt and white panties. For certain that was one of the reasons it was such a big hit in Holland

Ok , It's not a work of art and sure , the Dutch movie-industry has a lot more to offer than this , but we are talking about the same year that 'Police Academy' was released in the theaters.'Schatjes' and the sequel 'Mama is boos' was just one of those movies that was fun to watch, especially as a Belgian Dutch-speaking viewer. And when it comes to slapstick , I bow for the folks from the Low-lands. All WE had so far was 'Gaston en Leo' and 'Urbanus' (no offence to his one-man show talent of course).I give it a 6. My highest score in this genre.

Schatjes is a good example of the poor level of the Dutch cinema in the 80's. The acting is very weak, there's almost no story and the script is missing every form of reality. There is a lot of sick slapstick into it which will make no one laughing. It's hard to understand that this film makes one million Dutch people go to the cinema while a lot of good movies from my country are ignored by the audience. If you are still going to watch the movie be prepared for the ridiculous ending.