If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

One of the motifs in thrillers is that a person's past comes back to haunt him. Michaël R. Roskam's Academy Award-nominated "Rundskop" ("Bullhead" in English) follows this motif but adds a new dimension. Matthias Schoenaerts's Jacky is a steroid-fueled cattle farmer. Making a deal with a beef trader, he soon comes across a friend from his younger years, which brings up several unpleasant memories.I read that this movie is based on the murder of Karel van Noppen, a government livestock inspector who was investigating illegal practices. Basically, it's a look at the ugly things that take place behind the idealistic image of Belgium that we usually get. To be certain, there's a scene from Jacky's past that will really make your blood freeze. But unlike the Hollywood movies focusing on crime, this movie isn't about high action; it's all about the characters and how they deal with events from the past. I recommend it, and I hope to see more of Roskam's movies.

"Bullhead" is a dark, convoluted Belgian drama, an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, which succeeds almost entirely on the rugged shoulders of Matthias Schoenaerts. His fantastic performance creates a memorable character named Jacky, a muscled loner filled with amorphous rage that spills over in unexpected moments. Jacky is a steroid using cattle rancher who works out an arrangement with some meat-trading Dutch mobsters, only to try and back out when an investigating federal agent is gunned down.It is this sequence of events forces him to revisit a horrific incident from his childhood 20 years ago, as well as the people who were involved in that pivotal moment of his life. The back-story of Vanmarsenille's anger is revealed in flashbacks to his adolescence, when his life is forever altered. Most films feature a character that must face and overcome, and it is just the opposite in "Bullhead."Jacky has become expert in the use of hormones over the course of his life. He gobbles pills, stabs himself with needles, and throws punches in the air like De Niro in "Raging Bull" (1980). The sight of Jacky curled in the fetal position in his bathroom, or shadow boxing in front of a window after he has just injected himself with hormones gets a little repetitive, but it's always dramatically shot. These moments also serve as a window to Jacky's true self. His jittery attempts to reconnect with his childhood crush--a vibrant woman named Lucia (Jeanne Dandoy), who now runs a perfume store in the French-speaking part of the country, are truly heartbreaking because he is so clearly uncomfortable in his own skin. Jacky constantly has some type of chemical rushing through his veins, so you never know when he's going to explode. He's dangerous, unstable, and intimidating- yet you can't help but feel sympathy for the guy. "Bullhead" contains the elements for a simple story of personal tragedy, and yet at times it becomes messy and overbearing. A hazily sketched-out story line involving a dead cop, beef traders, and "the hormone Mafia underworld," with Jacky loosely connected to them all. At the heart of this story is a man and his obsession, and his destructive inner demons, which he has never been able to control. With Schoenaerts' impressive performance, you get the feeling that would be more than enough for this film. Roskam's habit of elliptical storytelling abandons motivational explanations, and the narrative makes the viewer work harder than usual to understand contextual issues. That being said, it is a fine directorial debut for Michaël Roskam, and Matthias Schoenaerts is now no longer under the radar.

This movie is about the exciting intrigue of illegal growth hormone use in cows...and centers on a ball-less main character who uses this hormone expertise and connections to inject himself with testosterone which he lacks. Apparently the police are out to stop the growth hormone use and a cop gets killed. There is a long sequence involving a BMW 5 series and tires that was obscure but by that time I couldn't care less what was going on and couldn't make myself rewind or whatever it would take to understand things.My God have they exhausted every possible story line to come up with this???I liked the comment that said this movie looks like it was shot with an old Nokia phone camera....not only that it is endless following some very rural looking Flemish hicks engaged in this less than exciting crime and cops which are hard to tell from the hormone boot leggers.After about 30 minutes you decide this thing is hopelessly slow and boring.Strangely this movie seems to have made all the international film festivals---the main character whose privates don't work has a crush on the sister of the guy that did it to him...Character development unfortunately fails and you don't give a s!@t about the protagonist or any of the characters in this boring thing. I think the problems with it are it is so visually uninteresting and so slow moving that some how you just don't develop any rapport especially with the muscle bound protagonist who injects some testosterone and then starts shadow boxing every 10 minutes. There must be an hour of film showing close ups of his face with what looks like a broken nose.At about an hour I fast forwarded it to the very end to see what happens...The main character injects and takes every known steroid then turns into the hulk attacking the police and is shot.DO NOT RECOMMEND

However I will have to agree that it packs enough intensity and dark, heart-wrenching material to qualify as a contestant for the foreign film category. On the surface, it is about a shady deal gone wrong but the film chose not to focus too much on the details of the underworld and the ensueing investigations, hence I would not categorise it as a crime film.Instead, what makes this film worked as a successful character study are the back stories of certain characters, and how recent happenings intensifies the after-effects of the past. On another note, Matthias truly excelled in his difficult role as a torn-apart man whose emotions are dictated like those of an animal due to his conditions. My only main issue is the pace, As i feel the film could deliver more than what meets the eye if it could have been slightly faster.