Wonderful character development!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I can't help myself: I greatly respect Dick Maas. He directed three self-penned movies to Dutch box office success in the 80s, all three fast-paced, original stories permeated with a typical Dutch brand of humor. You could make a case that Maas is the Low Countries' equivalent to Luc Besson or Quentin Tarantino, even if his work doesn't come close to a quarter of their production values - or their international recognition.With its faux-English title, touristy Amsterdam settings and serial killer/hardboiled cop storyline, "Amsterdamned" (1988) was made with an eye on international success. As always, Maas' direction is instinctively entertaining, doesn't waste time and doesn't mind sacrificing logic for pace and shock value. It results in trashy 80s fare. Personally? I love it. Don't expect "Seven" or "The Silence of the Lambs", but enjoy the lewd sex scenes, speedboat chases and blood stains. Time will fly; Maas and lead Huub Stapel know what they're doing.But does "Amsterdamned" work for an international audience? Only if you're prepared to appreciate the irreverent, self-deprecating sense of humor as part of the movie's charm. Maas' shtick as a writer/director is so fundamentally Dutch that his international ambitions were probably doomed from the start. But let's give the man his due: he wrote his own stuff, put his own money on the line and drew big crowds to the theaters, creating popular culture at a time when other Dutch directors were busy adapting 19th-century novels.

Slashers were everywhere in the 80's, so they might as well come from Holland. The variation of the day is that this killer is mostly active in and around water, but then again that's just throwing Jaws in the mix. Rather than having the standard teenagers trying to convince us that they in fact are scared, the padding here is a detective story. Our hero spends ages trying to find out who killed all these people(all of them with a knife, so nothing to see there), and then it is revealed it was someone we didn't know anyway. Exciting times. The most brilliant scene, and I don't negotiate about that, is the boat chase. I could watch that all day. I couldn't believe how welcome it was between the monotonous slashing. You tend to wonder about the motive for this killer, but all is resolved. Toxic waste. Fair enough. This slasher is just utterly mediocre.

The speedboat chase in the Amsterdam canals in this film is actually being done before in the 1970 film 'Puppet on a Chain'. I always thought how original it was to have such an out of the ordinary, yet in Amsterdam obvious chase, but apparently it is less original as I thought. In the 18 year older 'Puppet on a Chain' the chase is as vivid and dynamic as in Maas' film, although one detail in Amsterdamned should catch the viewer's attention. Just like in Puppet on a Chain, the villain almost crashes his boat into an oncoming barge, a thrilling moment. In 'Amsterdamned' this barge has a fanfare band, conducted by 'actor' and Holland's famous Oscar-winning documentary director Bert Haanstra. It makes the already exhilarating scene more colourful, and provides it with a light touch. This detail encapsulates an often noticeable and important difference between English and Dutch film-making if you ask me; It seems that in Dutch films a doses of ridiculing of a serious action or scene is indispensable. Fact of the matter is that the 'original' film, Puppet on a Chain, is more believable because of its absence of this ridiculing. However, Amsterdamned is entertaining, mainly due to the over the top ridiculing of scenes. Take for example the typically Amsterdam scene of a police car crashing into a barrel organ, upon which the owner, with absolutely no respect for authority, starts to swear and scold at the police officer, calling him a "Eikel" (dickhead)! It is Amsterdam in a nutshell.

One of the most popular movies from the Nederlands made by one of the most popular directors from the Low Lands. A thriller about a serial killer who finds his victims in the canals of Amsterdam City and the cop who's trying to catch him. Original, ain't it? OK, it's not Truffaut, it's not Hawks or Von Trier, the dialogs are such a mess, and the situations are hackneyed to the nausea but, what can I say? I like this movie! I watched it first when I was 9 or 10 and it has kind of a nostalgical meaning from me. Anyway, you may have a nice pop-corn bag and a bottle of Coke, embrace your girl and turn the lights off. The best of it all: the very spectacular boat-chasing all around the canals of Amsterdam.*My rate: 5/10