Competent, Involving, but Overlong

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2011)

"Black Book" yet another production concerning WWII Nazi struggle - this time the setting is Holland. Yes this genre seems to continue to pump out movie after movie, however, this Paul Verhoeven film turns out competent and involving despite a patience-testing 146min runtime. The villains, heroes, and especially heroine (played exceptionally by Van Houten)are well defined and very well acted. As expected from a Verhoeven production, you get graphic nudity, sex, and violence all wrapped in, but probably too much gratuitously graphic, and at one point -SPOILER- he goes too far with a humiliation scene towards the end. Despite that, the best aspect of this movie is the suspense and spying throughout the middle third of the movie. There's supposed double-crosses and plenty of action to back up as well. I mostly enjoyed it and recommend it for those with patience.