A Masterpiece!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

a good story, great ambitions of director, a shallow movie.and everybody is innocent. because desire to create a blockbuster was so great but details are ignored. to present a page of history is not an easy mission. and it is first sin of this project. a huge mountain and an army of Liliputans. and, for make the business more complicated - usual 3 D which, in this case,a real burden. it is not a bad film but only smoke of expensive cigar.because,wanting to tell all, it fails to provide anything. old clichés, dusty characters,great adventure without any crumb of emotion. so, second sin of movie is to create expectations. the last sin - Doutzen Kroes. beautiful, charming, she is only chain for too heavy pendant.

Doutzen Kroes is beautiful, yes. She is even beautiful enough to carry the entire movie, but not on her push-up bra alone. Director Oerlemans put her in the film to give the male audience a reason to buy a ticket. I did not (I watched on DVD), and so I missed the 3D-effects. Just like I missed the polar bear. Turns out I haven't missed anything at all. The original story is exciting enough, but Oerlemans manages to make it a child's tale, and a boring one for that matter. The reason is in Oerlemans' view towards his audience. He produces so much crap with his Eyeworks-company that he is convinced all people want to see is crap. Just look at the pictures provided with Nova Zembla on IMDb to understand who Oerlemans considers to be his biggest star: Oerlemans himself. All Oerlemans ever does, is promote himself, hoping that one day we will believe him. The media hype in The Netherlands when Nova Zembla was launched was utterly embarrassing. Look at Arnie go! Look at Arnie with the real Spielberg-beard! One Big Oerlemans-commercial, broadcast every evening for weeks in a row. I am very sorry for all the (good) actors in the movie and for Doutzen Kroes and Semmy Schilt, who are not actors. Just as Oerlemans is no director.

this movie had so much promise: -a famous story from dutch history -several well-known experienced dutch actors and a famous model trying her hand at acting. -nice scenery of amsterdam and nova zembla, in 3D no lessunfortunately all of that potential was wasted: -the story is messy and most of the scenes feel disjointed. if you know the story you'll notice all the parts that are missing or incorrect, if you don't know the story you'll just be confused. -the dialogue is horribly written. the acting is terrible, most off these actors have done way better in the past. and don't get me started on doutzen kroes -the 3D was of the universally-hated post-production kind (shot in 2D, then digitally converted to 3D, instead of filming with a 3d-camera). no doubt done to save money, but they needn't have bothered: good 2D looks way better than bad 3D (though i'm a big fan of GOOD 3D)and wtf did this movie start with the shot of them in a boat with a dead polar bear if that scene is nowhere in the movie? seems like this is a director who wants to include *every* scene that has been shot.and why did everybody on board apparently forget to pack their gloves and a warm hat?

Luckily Oerlemans dared to finally choose a serious subject for a film after his two ridiculous and degrading movies about a small village near the Meuse riverside (Maaskantje). I was very surprised to hear that Nova Zembla would be in 3D, because most 'normal' movies (not animation-films I mean) are not totally in 3D and the effect doesn't blow me away at all. The 3D effects of Nova Zembla are not impressive at all, even for my low expectations. Although the moment of the ice bear-attack is a little exiting, most shots of the bear remind me of my last visit to the Zoo when I was little and will not be remembered as breathtaking. Now let us talk about boobies, because I had an overdoses of boob in the first quarter of the film that in my view didn't add anything to the story whatsoever. Enough about the technical aspects of the film. Let us focus more on the story that Oerlemans is telling us. In primary and middle school in the Netherlands, the subject Nova Zembla as the beginning of the exploration era with the 'Golden Age' as paramount moment is a well known story. But it is a little old and dusty. Oerlemans lures both adults and children to the cinema and teaches us about the explorers of the sixteenth century in the most vivid way possible. We see the men with beards and strange clothing boarding a relatively small vessel full of faith and confidence in the success of the expedition. At the island we see them suffer but still confident that they will get back alive after the winter darkness. Apart from some individuals that do not survive, most of them do in fact what brings an kind of happy ending to the film. Thank you Reinout, for renewing this old story about those brave men.