iRehén

I looked forward to viewing this film. I enjoy foreign films. American tv is over produced and the writing is often not stellar. But European films and episodics tend to be gritier and more realistic. Grounded acting and real looking people who are not overly groomed. But Ihostage felt American, especially the constant music which turned it into melodrama and sentimentalized the story. The dialogue was often over written, as though they were explaining info to a not very bright audience. Dog Day Afternoon this is not. The great acting of Pacino, Cazale, Durning, etc. Reminds one how far films can go. Although I enjoyed ihostage overall, i certainly hoped for more.

As a Dutch guy, iHostage hit differently. I remembered the real story from the news, and seeing it dramatized was both fascinating and frustrating. The movie is suspenseful from start to finish. There's a constant feeling of unease, especially because it's so grounded in something that actually happened.

What stands out is how it highlights the failures of the Dutch police response. You want to believe these situations are handled professionally, but what the movie shows is a lack of preparation and decisive action. It's sad but, unfortunately, realistic. The story itself is well-acted and well-paced. You stay locked in because you know this isn't fiction-it's a reflection of real incompetence. Definitely worth watching, especially for Dutch viewers.

Overall I liked learning more about this real life event. However, the actual movie wasn't the best as most other commenters have mentioned. Perhaps the lack of emotion in the voice dubs did it an injustice.

Some things weren't necessary - pizza for the cops, the one who didn't like leaving his wife and kids behind to go do his job.

I did enjoy seeing behind the scenes for an operation like this. And the way they worked together with different units to keep the guy distracted and keep everyone informed.

Wish there was more back story instead on the perp, the main hostage and the 4 in the closet.

I love how so many people on here are complaining about the fact that there was no explanation about the hostage taker's motive, his Arabic name, the little details there are about the hostage, etcetera. Meanwhile this movie is based on real events and it's simply a mystery what his motives were (because it was never found out, duh!). The hostage taker literally had a Syrian ethnicity (news flash: people with around 180 different ethnical backgrounds live in the Netherlands and many have very thick Dutch local accents, because they were born and raised here). The hostage decided to stay anonymous after the event, so there is little known about him, except that he's from Bulgaria. So they made a movie about facts. They followed the literal storyline as much as possible. But it's not sensational enough? It needed a bit more drama, or... well, lies? Reality can't have plot holes, just missing facts.

Oh and for the ones saying: I'd rather have watched an actual documentary, with actual statements from people who were there. So..? Go do that then. That documentary already came out over a year ago. You can't blame anyone for not knowing, except yourself. Some people don't like documentaries. Now they can watch this movie and also learn about what happened that day.

A suicide bomber takes a hostage in an Apple Store.

This was based on a real event. Maybe this is riveting to Dutch people, but I found it a bit lifeless in spots. The story is interesting, but the parts that involve the hostages sometimes feel like cheap dramatic reenactments on a TV show. These scenes could have been nail-biters. The intensity just wasn't there, though.

The scenes with the police were better, I thought. They got to move around more and didn't have to constantly act terrified. More scenes with the police might have helped the movie move along a bit. Some of the scenes with the hostages were tense, though, and I thought they handled one scene in particular well, where there was a potential medical emergency.

We never really learn a lot about any of the characters, and the drama isn't exactly the most intense thing ever. It's an adequate time-passer on Netflix, though. As a bonus, the English dub is pretty good.