Jonathan Maxwell Reeves's reviews

I already had this movie for several months in my personal DVD collection and was waiting for a good moment to see it. A movie with Elisha Cuthbert is something you must wait for until you can't hold it anymore. Next to Mila Jovovich probably the most beautiful woman in the world. I was a bit afraid and was expecting just another teen movie to be honest. I was wrong. It was nice and entertaining. This is a movie you must see with your girlfriend or boyfriend. It will tell you about true love between two people and how far someone will go to give proof of that true love. If you watch carefully you will understand the lesson the director and the writer try to tell you. Next to Elisha Cuthbert I was surprised with the performance of Chris Marquette as Eli and Timothy Olyphant as Kelly. Marquette is very funny as the would-be porn director and whenever I saw Olyphant playing a had to think back to Michael Keaton in his earlier movies for some reason. Like I wrote I saw this movie on DVD and it has some great bonus material too. Interesting audio commentary and even a very nice trivia track. The hilarious feature called 'The Eli XXXperience' is a must see on the DVD. The movie has a bit of an open ending so when do we get 'The Girl Next Door 2 : Back In Business' ? What me concerns start writing and shooting because I want more Girl Next Door (on condition Elisha Cuthbert is in it of course)

Kapitein Zeppos was and still is one of the most popular Belgian television series made for the youth. Made in b/w 4 years before I even was born and in a time the Belgian Television (BRT) still had (or wanted to spend) budgets to make good television series for the youth.

When you look back at now it all looks very old-fashioned and the filming & acting is by times very clumsy (no slang language and every dialog is in perfect theater-dutch) but still it is and stays one of the best television series (Only 'De Kat' was better in my opinion) made for the youth although the story is a bit slow by times.

It's a bit strange to see all those actors who are now 60+ (some of them are even dead) in their younger years. Senne Rouffaer (who's also the director) plays Kapitein 'Jan Stephorst' Zeppos in such a great way that every time when I see him I ask myself the question 'Why didn't they made a movie of the Belgian cartoon character Tintin with him in the part of Tintin ???'

Kapitein Zeppos is a must see if you're thirty-something like me just for nostalgic reasons.

Diamant was one of the last (maybe even the last) super-projects made with clearance of Mike Verdrengh & Guido De Praetere the so called 'twins' of VTM Belgian's prime commercial TV Network before they where voted out of the board.

It deserves the term super-project because it has everything you like, and would not expect from a Belgian production. Action,shooting,fighting,drama,some funny one-liners and of course some hot and steamy sex scenes too.

Very strong story based upon the book from Belgian's number one crime writer Jef Geeraerts and superb acting by Herbert Flack as the honest policeman Robbe Parain who gets involved in a case of diamond smuggling and takes the wrong decision. A decision from which he thinks it will solve all his problems,but actually it will only be the beginning of his problems when he ends up in the for outsiders so closed diamond business and finds thieves,forgers,contract killers and some real corrupt people on his path.

Flack doesn't play Robbe Parain,he just is IT !!! Also very strong acting by Jan Decleir and Karel Deruwe. For the fans of Ann Ceurvels : yes she goes naked as usual. There's also a black actor who's not listed in the cast here at IMDB and I can't remember his name, but he's so funny specially in a scene where he gets money from his cousin who works at the embassy.

Diamant is a mini series made for tv, but it's also available in an exclusive boxed movie version on VHS. Hard to find in the shops but if you're lucky you might find it. I still hope that one day they will bring out a DVD version with some extras like audio commentary. A kind of homage to the director Jean-Pierre De Decker who died two years ago, and diamant was his last big project.

Diamant is a must see, if you like a good thriller. +- 4 hours of top entertainment like they will probably never make again in Belgium. You will be nailed to your seat from the beginning till the end.

I liked this movie very much. Erik Van Looy is a good director. Proof is his other movie Ad Fundum. Shades is a very special movie. You must be familar with the (Belgian) movie industry to understand most of the story. In my opinion this movie is a biography of the Belgian director/screenplaywriter Guy Lee Thys and guess what ? He's also one of the 3 screenplaywriters of Shades :-) Coincidence or....???? I had alot of fun with this movie because I recognize alot of facts and urban legends about the Belgian Movie industry in it. If you never been 'an insider' in the Belgian Movie industry you'll find this movie a bit boring maybe altrough there're some great actors in it who play very nice like Mike Verdrengh and Gene Bervoets. Mickey Rourke is okay but I saw better movies of him. It's worth a try, but don't expect an easy movie. It's a special movie and that's why some people call it a bad movie, but I do not agree with that. Not the best Belgian movie ever made, but certainly not the worst movie either. That credit goes to 'De leeuw van Vlaanderen' but that's another story.

De komst of Joachim Stiller is based upon the novel of Hubert Lampo. I know the writer personally and it's hard to believe that such a charming person writes such a strange book.

Anyway, I find this movie one of the best Belgian movies ever made. I do have the television version on video (+- 180 mins) and that version is okay. Never watch the cinema version because that only has a running time of aprox. 120 mins. By cutting away 60 (sixty !!!) mins of scenes (never understood why they did this) the story becomes very complex and you will not understand the plot of the movie. So always stay with the FULL version not the shorter Cinema/TV movie version !!!!

This movie is a magic realism movie. A real fine mystery about a journalist named Freek who gets a letter one day. Now everybody gets letters everyday so not worth making a movie of this subject you think now. Strange thing is that the letter was posted more then 20 years before Freek was born. How could someone know where Freek should live more then 20 years later as a grown up ? Then more strange things happen,and one name is always returning : 'Joachim Stiller' Who is he ? What's his mission ? Is he an enemy or a friend ? Freek wants to know who that Joachim Stiller is and starts searching.

I will not tell you what happens and how the movie ends, because you just have to see it. It's an old movie, and no spectacular special FX, but it's a real scary movie in his own way. I saw this movie for the first time at age 9, and I can tell you that I had nightmares of it. Something I never had or have when watching movies.(even not the bloody and scary horror movies.)

You'll have to search in private collections for this movie because I heard (it's a rumour not confirmed) that the last master copy of this movie is lost (stolen/destroyed ???) and not anymore in the archives of the public television Station (VRT, (that time known as BRT) ) wich was co producer and so the chance they'll ever show this great movie on television again is as good as not.