SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

groggo Alex van Warmerdam is a wickedly mischievous director who seems to specialize in the theatre of the disconnected, which is appropriate. Disconnection is a prime motif in society. Most things we do, see and say every day don't make much sense.Aside from writing and directing, Warmerdam is also a wonderful actor given to playing overwhelmed characters who are never really sure why they're alive. In one of his previous films (the unsettling 'Little Tony'), he directed himself as a stone-faced, harassed and bewildered farmer beset by a brutish wife determined to have a child at any cost. It was way off-kilter in its darkly comic exposition. In 'Grimm,' this iconoclastic Dutchman takes us on a disjointed, other-worldly ride that lacks a traditional narrative arc. But this 'journey' has so many interesting (and inventive) comedic and dramatic riffs that you can't help but be drawn into it. It is never dull because we simply don't know what's going to happen next, up to and including a nomadic donkey, an involuntary kidney transplant, and an absurd showdown in a Spanish ghost town between a guy with a shotgun and another with a bow and arrow. This film is quirky and fresh, and keeps you off balance. Aside from unexpected bursts of gallows comedy, it can also be dark, with malicious and disturbing set pieces. Warmerdam shows us brilliant cinematic contrasts between the gloom of the Netherlands forests and the blaring brightness of the Spanish countryside. The dichotomy between light and dark is very evident in this film and very evident in Warmerdam's predilection for dark/light humour and quasi-surreal drama.Throughout the film, Warmerdam reminds us that this is a modern fairy tale (hence the Grimm title). Things don't naturally follow, characters are 'transported' illogically, relationships just magically happen, and epiphanies abound. Halina Reijn as Maria and Jacob Derwig as her brother Jacob are terrific playing siblings involved in a lovingly incestuous relationship that is so casual it never really speaks its name. This is Warmerdam at his mischievous and satirical best: haven't we, with our overactive, dirty little minds, always suspected there might have been more to the Hansel and Gretel story than two lost kids courting danger in the forest? Incest, of course, is taboo, and you would never see it in a Hollywood flick unless it was done as high drama or tragedy. But Maria and Jacob really do love each other in the true sense of love. In the Netherlands, the mind is a bit more expansive.

Deoglood I love foreign films, really. When actors can perform in their native language, it seems to draw me into the plot all the more. However in this case, it doesn't help. There are a few good, humorous aspects in this film, and a ton of potential, but right up to the credits I found myself waiting for the plot to wrap itself up or conclude. I cannot tell you how much I regret watching this film. The camera work was good, the acting was good, and even the concepts seemed very good, but too much was covered without really hitting my sweet spots. How can it be so promising without delivering? But the real bummer for this movie was the flavor throughout. It was like watching a really long episode of Seinfeld. Can anyone be so without common sense and not accidentally drown during a rainfall? The two protagonists are dumb as sticks, and it was actually worse than watching a teen-horror flick where the blond bimbo decides to leave the relatively safe locked room and wanders aimlessly through the axe-murderer-saturated woods. At least there was suspense. Please somebody help me forget this movie, I've be negatively influenced by it and have forgotten how to eat with forks and knives.

Ari Sheinwald Yet another stab at making a contemporary adult (as in intended audience not porn) version of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. Past efforts have gone in two directions - a focus on the psychosexual dimensions as in Neil Jordan's IN THE COMPANY OF WOLVES or emphasize the trashy, lurid aspects as in Matthew Bright's FREEWAY. Or do both like in Francois Ozon's LES AMANTS CRIMINELS. GRIMM hints at both but ends up going in neither. It's just way too restrained for its own good. Weird but not strange enough, dark but not dark enough, lurid but not lurid enough, the film ends up being pointless and tedious. Opening with clear Grimm Bros inspiration as our two protagonists are abandoned in the woods by their father, the film quickly abandons its early premise (as well as its promise) and loses any focus as they arrive in Spain. A sure sign of a problem is the best thing I can say about the film is its inspired choice of a set - the use of an abandoned Wild West ghost town leftover from Spaghetti Westerns.

stensson This is about a passionate loving couple, being brother and sister. It is definitely incestous and rivals of different kinds are killed. It's absurd, it's a little Bunuel sometimes and mostly funny.Probably this is supposed to be a modern Grimm tale, but including sex. There are no real human beings here, like in Grimm. Like Hansel and Gretl, the brother and sister are alone in the world, with no parents to lean on. They leave Holland and come to a strange dreamlike Spain, where they meet another brother and sister, evil and crazy.There certainly are scenes here you will remember, but most of all you will remember the dark humour, which makes you laugh at totally wrong places.