Today's Review: Ramon en het Paard van Sinterklaas

Here's my first review for FilmTotaal. Same business, different employee.

http://www.filmtotaal.nl/recensie.php?id=45825

The first Flemish Sinterklaas movie is definitely modeled after the Dutch formula. Which is not surprising, since until so far, the Flemish kids had to make do with the myriad of Dutch Sinterklaas titles. And those proved succesful enough to finally convince Belgian producers to develop a Sinterklaas product of their own. And since only one Dutch Sint movie is produced this year - usually it's two, sometimes even more - why not return the favour and release it in Holland? They need not have bothered. Not that Ramon en het Paard van Sinterklaas is particularly bad (though it's certainly not a good family film that wins the hearts of all family members, as it's really only fun for kids), but it doesn't add anything to the slate of Dutch movies covering the topic, other than certain long running characters in Sint's Flemish entourage that the Dutch kids aren't at all familiar with. And most of them aren't so much fun to watch they'll stick in kids' minds for very long.

Aside from that, the film feels very much like its Dutch counterparts. Sint and co. are preparing for their trip up north, something goes awry - in this case, Sint's horse and its attendant are kidnapped - but all ends well and the festivities can procede as they always do, full of mirth and merriment. Add to that a cast of supporting characters (but no children, interestingly enough) to spice things up a bit and you have a thirteen-a-dozen Sinterklaas flick. In Holland, it's good to keep the kids occupied for a good 90 minutes. However, there's so many side characters in this film, that it ends up nigh two hours in length. Too long for the parents, and as it turned out at the press screening where the target audience was represented as well, also quite a challenge for the kids to sit through without getting overly restless. So there at least is a difference with the Dutch method: the Flemish take their time. Other than that, if it wasn't for the accents and the presence of Antwerp, you'd hardly think you were watching a foreign Sinterklaas picture. I would have preferred something more distinct from the Dutch takes on the subject.

The big question on most parents' minds of course is: how are the Belgians portraying Zwarte Piet? It's a white guy in make-up, the blackness explicitly stated to be the result of crawling up and down chineys, just as he was always supposed to be. Good approach. However, thicker layers of soot might have been applied, since this particular Piet (and there's only one of him here) obviously hadn't seen a chimney for months. Which might as well be true, as I doubt he's doing much chimney diving at home in Spain. Nevertheless, when you call a well established character Zwarte Piet and the first reponse he gets from a child is 'is that Zwarte Piet?' because there's so little black on him, you know you're confusing kids needlessly. I'll say no more on the matter than that I applaud the Belgian intentions but their execution still leaves room for unnecessary debate.

Today's Mini-Review: The Big Lebowski

Big Lebowski, The

Rating: ****/*****, or 8/10

Outrageously zany, off-beat comedy the likes only the Coen Brothers can provide. Life is tough for the pot smoking all-round slacker Jeffrey Lebowski, more commonly referred to as “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges in one of the most defining roles of his career). Sharing his last name with a millionaire, he's victimized by thugs who mistake him for that rich man (who owes them a debt), a situation which finds his beloved rug in ruin after having been urinated upon by the perpetrators. When he visits his namesake to try and get him to pay for its cleaning, he soon gets more than he bargained for as he finds himself caught up in what appears to be a kidnap of the wealthy man's trophy wife, but swiftly explodes into a bizarre, inexplicable potpourri of events beyond anybody's control or understanding, thanks to the involvement of a host of wacky, maniacal and thoroughly enjoyable characters, ranging from feminist/nihilist artists and pornographers to White Russians and generally random folk annex narrators. Yet all The Dude asked for was a clean rug and an opportunity to win the local bowling alley's competition he trained so hard for with his two best buddies (John Goodman with severe anger management problems and Steve Buscemi who can't take a hint when he's asked to shut up). The Coens don't ask you to make sense of it all, they just want you to roll with it (pun intended), as The Dude does himself. Nevertheless, despite this absence of a clearly defined plot, or more likely because of it, The Big Lebowski proves all kinds of fun. The pair of directors used the same tactic a decade later with Burn After Reading to similar results, proving them the masters of this subgenre of 'nonsensicomedy' (for the record, I just made that term up and I hope it catches on). In both cases they were aided by an impressive cast of character actors and/or movie stars who felt like doing something different for a change, in The Big Lebowski's case including Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Julianne Moore and Sam Elliott. Though the film was met with moderately tempered critical reviews and disappointing box office results back in 1998, time has proven the Coens right, as it has since become a widely accepted cult classic with serious tendencies towards an eventual, seemingly unavoidable shedding of the moniker 'cult'. When Burn After Reading came along in 2008, the majority of both audience and critics finally understood this type of film, and that movie did much, much better business accordingly.

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

USA/UK: Polygram Filmed Entertainment, 1998