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EDiepenhorst
Reviews
De beentjes van Sint-Hildegard (2020)
Entertaining, subtle and humorous
I went to this movie not knowing anything about the plot but I am familiar with the humor of H. Finkers; a well known dutch comedian most known for his influences and connections from the eastern dutch 'Twentsch' area where he also resides. In fact this entire movie plays in that area of the Netherlands as well as Germany (but anyone from 'Twente' is pretty well known with the locations).
The plot is simple and the message subtle. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but it is mainly about relationships and what we look for in our partners and how these things can change over time. The movie explains this sometimes with humor and sometimes with emotion.
I like Finkers subtle sense of humor, he makes you listen to what is being said in order to catch the humor he's trying to express. It isn't in your face and the sketches all have to do with the message of the film; it has purpose.
Watching this as someone familiar with the culture I had some great laughs and could recognize a lot of the situations. It even made me realize that sometimes I act just as ridiculous as the actors. Summed up it made me a but more self aware.
The acting is great, the plot although sometimes slow is very entertaining.
The musical score was very good as well.
It is a great family film with a message, not amazing but for a dutch movie it was very good.
Aladdin (2019)
The few goods things came from the original
Aladdin has always been one of my favorite animated movies, I know it by heart and thought perhaps that this might influence my judgement. I went in with an open mind and tried my best to view this without remembering the old however I felt this movie was not meant for people who had NEVER seen Aladdin before.
The storytelling is paced, some parts are done at the same time which takes away our ability to relate and understand these characters and thus make us think they are real people. While at some points and especially at the end things get dragged out too long, by the time they do this as a viewer you don't really feel anything for the characters and just want things to hurry up already and end.
The songs are good, as in the original songs are that have been remuxed and perhaps changed an octave every once in a while. All the newer bits however; you recognize them right away as non memorable and forgot about them soon after they are sung.
Will Smith is pretty okay in the film and he's the only memorable character IMO in this entire movie. The CGI is great but the city still feels small and more like a theater stage.
I am not sure what this film tries to be; one side is a children's movie for kids that however is fast paced and unemotional and on another a nostalgia movie for kids who have seen the animated film but who are now adults and tries to lure us in with the exact same tricks and not adding anything up par or higher compared to the 2D movie. If anything the original is still a 100x better, this is an okay attempt but so unoriginal that I seriously wonder if Disney has too much money that they are spending it on such expensive CG when honestly I would rather see it spend on something good instead.