Not as good as it's made out to be

Rating: 6/10 (4 November 2007)

I had absolutely no problem with "Black Book" as a trashy, but entertaining little spy movie that is set during WWII. It is not a quality movie, though, and really doesn't deserve the high rating it has gathered on IMDb.
Although the story is supposedly based on "true events" it never seems very realistic on screen. The dialog is so rushed, it's laughable at times. At one point the characters are basically saying the following lines to each other without even pausing to breathe:
Character 1: When you break into the German prison, I want you to free my Nazi friend along with our comrades.
Character 2: No way.
Character 1: Then you'll have to do the whole thing without me.
Character 3: Well, we don't have a choice then, do we? Get the guy out of prison.
I don't know who's to blame for this. Verhoeven as a director, the screenwriters who wrote such crap, the actors who stumble through their lines either without any emotion at all or with totally exaggerated expressions on their faces, but this scene (and many more) just seemed plain silly.
Speaking of the actors: none of them is very good, especially leading lady Carice van Houten hands in a rather mediocre performance.
The main problem probably lies with Verhoeven, though. The man has never been a great director. Mind you, he's made some great movies, but then for every good one he's made he also produced a turkey. The thing is that even Verhoeven's good movies seem a bit trashy. If they fitted the story, if they served as some kind of media criticism, these trashy elements actually enriched the movie (as was the case in "RoboCop", "Total Recall" or "Starship Troopers"). And then there were movies that had a storyline so trashy that Verhoeven's style helped to ham them up even more and drive the whole project against the wall ("Basic Instinct", "Showgirls", "Hollow Man").
Now, for a story like "Black Book" none of Verhoeven's antics were needed, but he still hams up the movie by pacing it up too much, showing nudity every 5 minutes, making characters act and react unbelievably and adding silly twists and turns. The "Black Book" that lends the movie its title isn't mentioned until late into the movie and even though it's supposed to play a huge role in the final outcome, we never learn how it actually served as a key to the ongoings anyway and quite frankly, we couldn't give a damn about this book.
So, even though "Black Book" is entertaining enough for as long as it's running, its flaws already become apparent during the first viewing. This should definitely not be considered high quality cinema.