Rent Amsterdam (2022)

Muddled, Meandering, Starry, Expensive Mess of a Movie which promotes Fake Facts of WWI History - Amsterdam review by PV

I had great hopes for this movie BUT it was just annoyingly awful on so many levels, For a start, it was obviously very expensive and self-indulgent David O Russell movie - like the awful Wes Anderson, I am not a big fan of his films.

Worse, this is preachy woke sermonising - TELLING the audience what to think and how wrong certain views are - that is preaching. SHOW DON'T TELL. First rule of storytelling.

Too may characters in this meandering mess of a movie. Top star cast, yes.

I also worry that those watching this film will believe lots of black Americans fought in the First World War, FOR A START, the USA was 2 years late to that war as it was to The Second World War. But more than that, the USA armed forces like the nation had strict segregation - so there were black units, but there were not mixed ones,. AND in both world wars, African american soldiers were often put in auxiliary units or medical ones well away from the front lines. In a way, racism saved many black American lives that way! By the time of Viet Name, racial segregation in the US armed forces had ended, so many more black soldiers died in action.

Overall, black soldiers accounted for 773 of the 52,947 battlefield deaths sustained by USA in France during WWI, less than 2 percent of all battlefield fatalities.

The UK armed forces never ever had racial segregation BUT THEN the UK had very few black people , only 6000 in a population of 44 million at the start of WWII.

These are the facts,. It is a great shame this film is not acquainted with them and instead prefers t manufacture a fake and dishonest new truth of history. WHY DO THAT? It is a worry to think people watching this film will now believe what it shows, that the USA in WWI had loads of black soldiers fighting and dying - it simply is not true. the Navu and MArines banned blacks completely too.

There is a great movie to be made one day about the BUND, the German American pro-Nazi movement popular in the 1930s and supported by the likes of Lindbergh and Henry Ford, This is not it.

I just cannot abide the preachy woke worthy tone of so many modern movies like this - it's patronising propaganda really.

2 stars,. Just. Almost 1 star.

Offended by gruesome stuff in a supposed comedy thriller - Amsterdam review by Gwydion

For my taste, extensive and needless medical details were out of place in something advertised as comedy thriller. And the blurb on the disk I got gave no warning.

It also seemed to me disrespectful for a bunch of actors to be treating real human suffering as raw material.

If done in a different spirit, it might have been a good drama, since the central event was actually real.

Or it could have been done comically, but without showing so much suffering and death, all of it based on real events.

Clearly it does not offend many viewers. But I regard such people out of line. Making a joke of things that are not funny.

And it seems I am in a majority. It was a box-office flop.

Wonderful - Amsterdam review by NS

A gem amidst the seemingly endless regurgitated ‘reboots’ and ‘origin stories’  and multiverse superheroes of the majority of movies nowadays.

An intelligent and quirky script, beautifully shot and a great cast.

It treats aspects of U.S. history that many would rather not consider, so no wonder it wasn’t well received.

It seems nowadays that some people who don’t like something slap the word ‘woke’ on it as if ‘woke’ is an insult and its use bestows some sort of intellectual weight to those who use it.

Quite the contrary, for young people (the upcoming generation) ‘woke’ denotes nothing but good - self awareness, empathy, consideration, the ability to see other points of view, and the flexibility and courage to rethink one’s world view. Those are the core tenets of art, and this movie in that sense is a work of art.

It’s only my opinion of course, but if you like movies that make you think, then this one may be for you.