Really Surprised!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Six years after this was made and I visited Netherlands (which I do on a regular base) I found this for 1 euro at a famous Record Store (you can guess which one). Somehow the story attracted me and I was right, it was a good flick.I can't tell how the business is played in the world of taxis but I can guess that this showed how it works. Of course it's a flick and things are a bit exaggerated. But still after a while you really get into the character of Dennis (Frank Lammers) and you can see that his dream about having a limo service isn't going to work out. So he is in desperate need for money and makes a few mistakes. The downward spiral starts.I found it well made and the use of the typical music coming from Amsterdam (André Hazes style)did give it an extra feeling. And the ending was okay too. I can understand that people not living in Amsterdam can't understand what's going on and that may be a reason why it never will be picked up widely even as it has English subs. By which I mean, no special (CGI) effects or big explosions, just here and there a fight...Peggy Jane de Schepper (Elize) as seen in Costa (2001) does shows a jugg if you are a quick viewer.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Usually I like Dutch movies, but this one not so much. I like the concept of a real event poured into a dramatized film. The start of the taxi war was described nicely and I liked the way the brothers and the other taxi drivers were portrayed, quite realistic although a bit stereotypical.I didn't understand however why the loan shark thugs approached him in a similar fashion three times. I got the point the first time. And there was a mob trashing a car in a similar fashion twice.The subplot was unnecessary and made me dislike the lead character even more after due to his fault his brother ended up in the hospital while he was banging his wife. Besides that, the lead character was way too ugly to believe a woman that beautiful would have an affair with him.

NIGHTRUN (Dana Nechustan - The Netherlands 2006).I missed out on this film in cinema, but having been a taxi driver for many years, I still had to catch this one. I followed the conflict in the Amsterdam taxi world a couple of years ago (mostly in 2000, when the new taxi-law came into effect) with great interest, so I gathered this one was worth a look, all the more because of the film's enthusiastic reception, but what a disappointment this was. I could hardly believe what I saw. It really gave me a bad taste. The story revolves around main character Dennis (Frank Lammers) who loans a large sum of money to start up his own business. Naturally, he engages himself with the wrong people and gets himself into debt and all kinds of trouble with malicious characters in the taxi business. All this is set against the background of the tumultuous developments in the taxi branch in 2000, the year when a new "taxi law" was passed with the consequence that every idiot with a car and drivers license could become a taxi driver. The hitherto insanely expensive (and hard to get) taxi permits, sometimes acquired for hundreds of thousands of guilders with lent money, became worthless overnight. Director Dana Nechustan and writer Franky Ribbens chose to make this as a human drama, rather than an account of the taxi conflict itself, but storywise the conflict ultimately is the sole drive for every action Dennis takes. It soon raised all kinds of questions with me and I kept asking myself; why is he going through all this trouble in the first place? The choice for a more human approach could have been a wise choice, if all the other characters weren't this collection of grossly inflated stereotypes. The taxi drivers are all racist idiots, muscle men or just plain stupid. Even main character Dennis and his brother (Fedja van Huet, not for a moment believable as a lower-class Amsterdam car mechanic) come off as little more than caricatures. The story is kept going by Dennis' utterly stupid and ultimately annoying self-destructive behaviour. There are some outside forces at work here to make his life miserable, but there were moments I hoped some of the bad guys could beat some sense into him. I doubt if this was the makers' intention. The actions of Dick Grijpink and his TCA-related bad guys are nothing more than a logical response to Dennis' stupidity. He's just so incredibly dumb and stubborn in his actions, I couldn't relate to the character at all. Very little he does, makes any sense.The film confirmed what I already knew, as most tourists visiting the Dutch capital probably learned as well.Don't take a taxi in Amsterdam, unless you absolutely have to.I have a weak spot for Frank Lammers, but this film stinks.Camera Obscura --- 3/10

I am in awe. Normally not a big fan of Dutch films, went to this one because my date is a taxi driver, and being the good girl I am, I agreed to go see it.Wow. The acting, the cinematographic, the music, the setting, the dialogs...it just all came together beautifully. The end was a bit of a shock for me (though any other ending wasn't possible, but the main character is so likable and so real that you just don't want it to end this way and you'll stay in the dark who did it. Just go see! Come on, why are you still sitting there? Go! Go! And let me know what you think of this movie.