Return to the Hiding Place

irstly, the story follows the lives of students and their involvement with the Dutch resistance. For me, I felt mixed emotions from the film. The storyline appeared to have great potential for a big blockbuster that could have sat nicely next to Defiance and Winter In Wartime on the movie shelf and while I enjoyed the film, sadly, there was much left to be desired. The German Colonel (Stass Klassen), by far led the film in the acting department. His performance was solid and at times comparable to Christoph Waltz's performance in Inglourious Basterds, but sadly, he was alone in this department. John Rhys Davis held his own but really too brief a role to help the film. David Thomas Jenkins, Craig Robert Young and the beautiful Rachel Spencer Hewitt made their presence felt, but I felt their characters lacked depth and consistency needed for them to truly grow on you and take you into their world which I put mostly down to the next part. The directing and screenplay seemed to prove the greatest inconsistency and biggest let down with the film. Maybe due to low budget. At times characters were not clearly introduced or very briefly which left me as a viewer putting 2 and 2 together a lot throughout the movie. Also the story pace was up and down like a roller-coaster sometimes dragging slowly but then moving so fast that the scene changed to hours/days ahead and left me wondering where it was at until once again putting 2 and 2 together. For me this is what hurt the story/movie the most.

There was a strong element of religious notion in the film. Religious values were incredibly important during those times and quite often determined where ones stance lied with regards to helping the Jews.

But having said all this, and it will really depend on the individual, I think overall wanting to watch for the storyline itself and to see the evil Colonel Stass in action kept me glued enough. But you will leave the seat having watched this, with the feeling it could have been so much more, in paying homage to those brave souls portrayed in the film.

I have not sat through such a riveting drama in a very long time. The movie held my interest throughout the entire viewing. The stories within this story were also very well balanced and heartfelt. Knowing this was based on a true story was captivating. It was very inspirational and the characters were wonderful in their parts. I loved this movie and have and will continue to recommend it be seen when it is released to theaters, which can not be soon enough!! It is a wonderful story of Christ's intervention in very tough times and how all can persevere. A wonderful job of directing and editing, too. Truly a God-made film! Thank you for telling this story!!

Being a WW2 movie buff (totally bonkers, actually) I simply had to buy this flick without knowing much about it. Honestly, I'm very sorry I ever wasted my money on this. I had to check the credits to make sure it wasn't directed by Uwe Boll.

The story's supposedly a true one. In a script it probably looked much better than on film. Well, it couldn't have looked any worse, really. The acting is non-existent, scenography not there at all, characters are ridiculous. For example, one of the main characters insists on shouting practically all the time - even in most secret of scenes where being unnoticed is vital. There's even a scene of 4 hostages being shot by a firing squad of 3!!! Casting is dreadful, direction... Well, enough about that, I'm sure you get the picture.

In short: my fault entirely. On two accounts: for buying this movie in the first place and for insisting on watching it through (as I always do, sadly enough). Stay away from this one, you mark my words. A true story could have - and should have - been told in at least a semi-professional manner as anything less is a disgrace to the memory of true heroes it depicts. I'm sure they were great men and they deserve a lot more than this rubbish.

I'll skip the bad acting, stereotypical characterizations and sum with this: This is a piece of religious propaganda and an inaccurate portrayal of the Dutch under Nazi control and the Dutch resistance.

This movie could only be viewed in a good light by Christian fundamentalist, that care not so much for truth but rather that they are always cast as both the victim and the hero - a characterization not supported by history, let alone by the Christian church's tolerance, acceptance and sometimes outright promotion of the Nazism.

As a movie it was bad acting, mixed with some good stuff. As a piece of history, it was simply Christian wishful thinking and revisionist history.

I looked forward to viewing this movie with its theme, including Nazi Germany, and hoped it would awaken people to the world around them today. This movie fell deeply short in many areas. It uses the title of the book, "Return to the Hiding Place" by Hans Poley, and yet that is where the similarity between the book and movie ends. Read the book for yourself.

Stass Klassen as the sinister German Colonel and John Rhys Davis in the all too small role of Eusi, were a welcome presence and offset to the weak and one dimensional portrayal by many of the other actors. It was apparent which actors were theatrically trained versus movie actors and which were there as "scenery" and lacked experience and training.

This was basically a family backyard production. Looks to be a directorial debut with scant seasoned movie production professionals involved. The screenplay had some good points. The editing was a hack job. The story lines were disjointed, it was difficult to follow the characters and which storyline they pertained to and many scenes were far-fetched.

It's apparent the directors and production didn't know what they were doing. I've seen too many "low budget" quality indie films and yet their quality was far superior to this movie. It doesn't compare to "The Hiding Place" made in 1975 either.

Those who gave this film a 10 rating, were obviously involved with the making of the film, know people who made it or were in it. As such, they chose to be "overenthusiastic" and obviously, grossly exaggerated its quality. Passion of the Christ, Schindler's List & Forrest Gump deserve a high rating. This film does not. When a movie is good, be honest and say so. When it is not of decent quality, be truthful and say so! I saw this movie in one of the few places they actually previewed it. The ever changing release date, including postponing again until February 2015, and the many free previews they've done, lends more to the case that it is not a quality film worth your very valuable money and very valuable time.

Perhaps someone else will create a movie which will give those who lived courageously and stood up for the cause of humanity, the quality production their story deserves. I pray so as theirs is a story worth telling rightly.