Guess this is well made, if you like endless jump cuts, black and white grainy shots that are almost impossible to see (and understand), music that assaults the ears, and characters that are very difficult to like.
This film took a dive only 20 minutes in, after I discovered what Goof and Hugo, the two Amsterdam hustlers, were up to. Basically, they not only exploit young female tourists, but all but ruin them in the bargain (they steal their money and rip out the first pages of their passports to 'prove' they've made a conquest). This obnoxious stuff becomes a 'contest' no less. They do all of this with such glitz and chutzpah that I became really irritated -- both with the characters and the filmmaker, who somehow (and enigmatically) tried to almost romanticize grossly reprehensible behaviour.
When you base a movie on the dreamlife of scumbags, there's a good chance you're not going to have a sympathetic audience.
Even the ending is 'cutesy,' for God's sake. The scumbags find happiness with a dog. Just what in the world was the filmmaker trying to convey here? That lack of any moral sense is rewarding, that it's a gratifying life choice? If this is the point, about 98 per cent more irony needs to be injected into the 'story'.
Most of the film was just zip-zip, whiz-bang irritation for me. Even the 'plot,' if that's what it's called, is derivative, altogether too familiar, and, well, pretty stupid.
Maybe I'm too old and not 'hip' enough to appreciate this nonsense. Instead, I felt a lot of pain for the victims of these shitheads.
This film took a dive only 20 minutes in, after I discovered what Goof and Hugo, the two Amsterdam hustlers, were up to. Basically, they not only exploit young female tourists, but all but ruin them in the bargain (they steal their money and rip out the first pages of their passports to 'prove' they've made a conquest). This obnoxious stuff becomes a 'contest' no less. They do all of this with such glitz and chutzpah that I became really irritated -- both with the characters and the filmmaker, who somehow (and enigmatically) tried to almost romanticize grossly reprehensible behaviour.
When you base a movie on the dreamlife of scumbags, there's a good chance you're not going to have a sympathetic audience.
Even the ending is 'cutesy,' for God's sake. The scumbags find happiness with a dog. Just what in the world was the filmmaker trying to convey here? That lack of any moral sense is rewarding, that it's a gratifying life choice? If this is the point, about 98 per cent more irony needs to be injected into the 'story'.
Most of the film was just zip-zip, whiz-bang irritation for me. Even the 'plot,' if that's what it's called, is derivative, altogether too familiar, and, well, pretty stupid.
Maybe I'm too old and not 'hip' enough to appreciate this nonsense. Instead, I felt a lot of pain for the victims of these shitheads.
