Hardcore Never Dies

Anyone who remembers the "gabber" scene which began in Rotterdam The Netherlands will appreciate the attention to detail in this movie.

I like the fact that the director made an environment where everything was as it was in the mid 90's from the mobile phones that had bad reception most pay as you go, to old cars and even street signs as they were.

Two brothers , one a natural talent for playing the piano , the other a rascal , into partying in the Gabber scene. Gabber is Dutch slang for "mate, buddy" shaved heads and Australian tracksuits, a particular look (shaved heads didn't mean racist, this was not the case with gabbers). It was almost tribal like with the women shaving the lower part of their hair and always a pony tail, this tribe danced all night to very heavy and fast hard bass drum beats and often took speed or other drugs to keep them going.

The gifted pianist brother is working in a mundane job and meets up with his estranged brother and he sees his brothers way of life as an escape from his structured and boring life.

The movie goes on to show how a series of unfortunate events can easily spiral out of control and keeping things together is difficult enough but add to the mix all night raves, drugs and gangsters... well who knows what the outcome will be.

Some similarities from the Dutch 90's techno movie "wasted" and the Danish Pusher trilogy (I like them also) makes this a good movie to watch.

It's true Hardcore never dies.

With music you transcend your life. In classical music & hardcore. Do you choose the energetic music with edges or the music that we think is a bit more well-behaved. In this movie they seem to reinforce each other. Can you handle the temptations that the life with edges has got and can you maintain yourself on the edges of the volcano or are you slowly slipping away? Do you choose a hardcore life because of resistance to normal life and when you enter it, are you pushed away from normal life? Do people actually choose for living with the protagonist or do they end up with him because they can no longer live elsewhere? These are dilemmas that the film presents to you.

Already mentioned in previous reviews, the title of the movie suggested a close view of the Hardcore scene in the 90's. I suppose it triggered a lot of old school hardcore fans like me to see the movie. Instead, it was more of a family drama and a nice Dutch version of "Narcos from the Polder", shot in the background of the 90's Hardcore Scene. Pleasant to watch and well acting skill from the young actors who probably where not even born yet to have experienced that time. Nevertheless, musically speaking we were treated on some nice hardcore classics but I still missed some classics from famous DJ's from that time like DJ Paul and DJ Rob for instant. I do hope we will see a real movie from the Hardcore scene someday. Perhaps shot trough the eyes of a DJ from that era..

Loved watching the movie and overall acting with the typical Rotterdam 90's vibe around it. For Dutch people it might be more interesting then others. The plot was good but the storyline just didn't finish and ended abruptly. It left me with some questions I would have liked answered. Jim Deddes (Danny) was a pleasure to watch. Good overall casting. I was happy to see that there where no typical Dutch actors like you would see in a lot of Dutch movies. There is enough in this for a part two, but I think a part two would ruin it. Overall, great intense crime movie with some insight into the gabber culture.

The name really doesn't cover the load of this movie. Yes, the Dutch gabber scene acts as a glue for the story but the movie is more a coming of age and family drama.

I wasn't familiar with the actors but they did an excellent job. Especially Jim Deddes as Danny (reference to Vinyard from American History X?). He really did remind me of my brother back in the days, and as in American History X his little brother in this movie looks up to his brother while he actually shouldn't, albeit for different reasons.

The only thing that bothered me were the insanely stupid choices the Danny character made.

For international audiences, skinheads in this movie are not like American ones, it was style of the subculture like the Nikes and Australian tracksuits.

In that regard the director also did an amazing job portraying Netherlands of the 90s. So well I felt nostalgia for most of the film.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good family drama, but especially to Dutch people or the ones that liked or still like the rave scene.