Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Brilliant and touching

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The film follows the lives of two young Dutch hustlers, Hugo and Goof, who inhabit Amsterdam's backstreets, getting stoned and preying on female backpackers for fun, thrills and self gratification.The youths are 100% anti-heroes; their hustle is to seduce female tourists into bed and then steal their cash. However, the pair have a sick 'game' going on between them too - that is to rip-out a page from the girls' passports so to prove to one and other that they have made a sexual 'conquest'. A wall in the apartment they share is plastered with passport pages - without regard for the problems they cause to their unsuspecting 'victims' by depriving them of their official documentation.The film is a fast moving black-comedy urban drama. It is very much in the style of "Trainspotting" and "Run Lola Run", accompanied by a heavy dance soundtrack and many moments in the film feel like a music-video, to very good effect. It is merry-go-round ride through a dangerous cityscape of naive fun-seekers preyed on by scumbags - but it somehow retains its comic edge, even though the storyline is dark, the activity not humorous nor admirable. This is because we see the story through the eyes of Goof and Hugo, and as such the movie works on this level - for had it been through the eyes of their 'victims' then it surely would have been a very different film.As Hugo and Goof continue their deplorable 'game' and are in effect just a pair of low-life wasters dressed in trendy clothes, Lara, a Russian girl, comes in to their lives - and everything changes for them! Lara is equally as deviant and manipulative as both of them. Goof quickly falls in love with Lara and Hugo becomes jealous and fearful of the danger she poses to the dynamics of his best-friendship, partner-in-crime relationship with Goof.As the boys relationship begins to crack, they begin to distrust each other - and Lara works out what their 'game' is and what their hustles are. She has hustles of her own and can navigate her way round the Amsterdam 'backpacker underworld' as easily as they can. A disastrous love-hate triangle then develops and reaches break-point consequences after Hugo rapes Lara - to 'prove' himself the dominant personality and take her as his own 'conquest' - and Lara then seeks vengeance on the pair climaxing in the story's edgy, fast paced finale.

Guess this is well made, if you like endless jump cuts, black and white grainy shots that are almost impossible to see (and understand), music that assaults the ears, and characters that are very difficult to like.This film took a dive only 20 minutes in, after I discovered what Goof and Hugo, the two Amsterdam hustlers, were up to. Basically, they not only exploit young female tourists, but all but ruin them in the bargain (they steal their money and rip out the first pages of their passports to 'prove' they've made a conquest). This obnoxious stuff becomes a 'contest' no less. They do all of this with such glitz and chutzpah that I became really irritated -- both with the characters and the filmmaker, who somehow (and enigmatically) tried to almost romanticize grossly reprehensible behaviour.When you base a movie on the dreamlife of scumbags, there's a good chance you're not going to have a sympathetic audience.Even the ending is 'cutesy,' for God's sake. The scumbags find happiness with a dog. Just what in the world was the filmmaker trying to convey here? That lack of any moral sense is rewarding, that it's a gratifying life choice? If this is the point, about 98 per cent more irony needs to be injected into the 'story'. Most of the film was just zip-zip, whiz-bang irritation for me. Even the 'plot,' if that's what it's called, is derivative, altogether too familiar, and, well, pretty stupid.Maybe I'm too old and not 'hip' enough to appreciate this nonsense. Instead, I felt a lot of pain for the victims of these shitheads.

"Watch out ...... these guys are dangerous" This poster displayed in Amsterdam warns visiting tourists that all is not well in the streets of the big city because Hugo and Goof are abroad with intent to rob female backpackers after having a night of sex with them. Their technique seems faultless. Show a little kindness to the visitor by suggesting suitable accommodation for the night and hey presto! the takings are soon in the kitty. That is, until silly Goof falls in love with Lara from Siberia.The situations are quite amusing and the repartee between the two guys quite witty. It's a nice twist when Hugo's mother keeps telephoning him on his mobile at the most inappropriate moments. "Not now, mother, I'm on day shift!" The pace of the film is just right although I think the use of the blurry black and white segments interspersed with the colour is somewhat overdone. Sudden bursts of white flashes and out of focus characters do little to explain what is going on. The music however blends nicely with the action and pushes the story along. The writers make attempts to lift the film at the end by inserting a comic scene after the credits. Here they are, Hugo and Goof, stumbling across the snowy waste land of Siberia calling for Lara at the top of their voices which indicates I think that despite all their cunning and devious behaviour neither one of them has much between the ears.

This is a surprisingly good movie from the people who brought us the Dutch movie Zusje. Although Zusje was a big hit (especially for a Dutch movie) in the Netherlands, this film has had a short cinema rotation due to lack of success. I wonder why. To me Siberia is as good as the first film by Westdijk. Reading the plot makes you wonder if there's any plot at all. The basic story of Siberia seems a bit simplistic at first: two guys (Hugo and Goof) get their kicks from sleeping with female tourists and robbing these girls from their money and passport the morning after. When they meet Lara from Siberia their lives change and their friendship is put to the test. This may seem quite a standard tale, but it's not because of the way the story is told. In it's dynamics and sound it's a bit similar to Lola Rennt: a lot of camera movement, thundering beats in the exiting soundtrack by Junkie XL and as a viewer you can feel the adrenaline as if you're in the movie too. There are blurry black & white shots to make several scenes even more intense. This is one of those movies that have a look and feel of a music video with the way it's directed, but it only accentuates the emotions and actions in Siberia. And although the idea is not knew, Siberia is intriguing and fresh. The acting is terrific and the dialogs are great and sometimes very funny (Hugo gets dressed in the morning after sleeping with a tourist girl, when the girl wakes up: "Hugo?..." "Yes, I Go", Hugo replies). Warning: the film has a very nice ending, after it seems to have ended...!!!Definitely 9 out of 10 for me.