Renesse

What a disgusting, immoral and sick premise for a movie. Is there not enough sexual immorality and obsessiveness around without this filth?

This is the perfect little movie for those who love raunchy sex comedies filled with hormone-driven teenagers trying to score with the girls and lose their virginity (it's basically a genre in itself these days). Of course, when these kinds of movies got popular in the US, it was only a matter of time before the Netherlands would follow. Only I hadn't expected it would take 17 years after the first American Pie, when the genre had seen its heyday long ago. That shouldn't be a reason not to enjoy it, though.

The premise is basically timeless nowadays anyway. They tried to update it a bit by including an annoying wannabe-rapper friend who only talks in street language (half of the new talents in the Netherlands are rappers these days) and also by casting Li'l Kleine (one of those famous rappers) in a small cameo. A funnier addition involves the nerdy intellectual character with his pretentious books and VR-goggles, who is just as eager to score but remains very civil about his desires. The funniest character, though, is the witless cousin who seems stuck in the 1990s, and scores with most of the embarrassing jokes.

It's mostly a one-joke movie, the joke being about four guys out of their element as a group of nerds among a beach community full of cool kids, and their attempts to score often failing painfully. It's more of a sexy comedy than a pure sex comedy, since even the more risqué jokes don't contain nudity. There are bodies and bikinis all over, but this movie is almost noteworthy for having more male skin than exposed female parts (no schlonging, though). It was probably aimed at young teenagers and we don't live in the 70s anymore, when a Dutch movie without a full frontal was almost considered prudish. The number of gags involving Farrelly-like bodily humor for which the genre is (in)famous are also quite limited, only a few jokes may cross the line between tasteful and tasteless, and the emphasis is more on witty dialogue and situation humor.

Movies like this only work when you get the feeling that the characters aren't all that bad underneath that testosteron-soaked behavior, and this movie is no exception. The casting is one of the strong points of the movie anyway, featuring almost exclusively fresh faces (except for small cameos of Li'l Kleine and Peter Faber). A special mention for the central couple consisting of straight man Niek Roozen and his object-of affection Yasmin Karssing. Two unknown actors, but they are so cute that it gives the movie a bit of heart among all the skimpy bikinis and cleavage.

One obvious complaint that could be made is that the movie doesn't really add much to the established genre. During the course of the story, it is not hard to predict the outcome, and some of the gags are quite predictable too. At the conclusion, the screenwriters threw in a rushed-through happy end with a minimum of effort, as if they knew it is part of the genre anyway, so they needn't bother with ending the conflict in an emotionally satisfying way.

That said, this movie's most redeeming quality may lie in its modest running time of a mere 77 minutes. It has a decent number of jokes, and is therefore the ideal kind of unpretentious comedy to watch when you only have about 1.5 hours to spare, with an optimal joke-to-running-time ratio.

The film is dutch, you know, from Holland aka the Netherlands in Europe. The Danes live in Denmark, also in Europe. But they have nothing to do with this funny movie. The theme is not really original, but you will get a nice view into the beautiful country of tulips, windmills and wooden shoes, although this little kingdom attracts these days a different kind of tourists.

I cannot understand the featured review on IMDB which condemns this movie as peverse. This is a silly, irreverent parody of teenagers who think about sex 24/7 but rarely if ever get any.

This movie has absolutely no nudity, but from the opening frame sets the scene of teenagers in their first heat of puberty.

There were some genuinely funny set pieces and the movie was not without its social messaging, but even these were kept light and in context.

I gave it an eight because it made laugh out loud at times, and even though some reviewers may think it is not as slick as a Hollywood production, maybe so, but I laughed more in this than any of the American Pie movies, that mostly depend on nudity and crudity to gain a laugh.

Like I said more Lemon Popsicle than American Pie, but much much better.

Ever wondered what would happen if the danes decided to make an American Pie grosse out-esque comedy? Well basically this is it, and it isn't entirely terrible.

Following four young guys going to camp to get laid and as you can imagine nothing goes quite to plan.

The good is that there are certainly laughs to be had and our lead characters aren't entirely unlikeable.

The bad is that a lot of it has been done before only considerably better.

I enjoyed myself watching Renesse, it was dumb but harmless as the genre tends to be and I got out of it what I expected.

Surprisingly the film contains no T&A and though it does contain dirty jokes comes across unusually innocent in its approach.

If you like this genre and don't mind subtitles this is a harmless piece of world cinema. It won't win any awards and is fairly forgettable but certainly has it's charms.

Disclaimer: No pies, danish's or other baked goods were harmed in the making of this film.