One of the best war films in years.

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2008)

Absolutely stunning war flick from Paul Verhoeven. The movie is set in Verhoeven's native Holland in the latter part of WWII and tells the story of a lone Jewish woman hiding from the Nazis. Eventually her cover is blown and she must embark on a deadly voyage to escape the country. Of course all does not go so well and a bevy of horrific events unfold. What follows is an unflinchingly realistic film completely devoid of CGI and Parkinson's like shaky camera. Instead the film relies on a lot of authentic WWII equipment and paints an excellent picture of the period. Moreover, the movie uses more squibs than just about any contemporary film I've seen and even features some Lucio Fulci like gore. I'd even say this film contains what are perhaps some of my favorite action scenes of the decade. The highlight of which is relatively brief, but exciting shootout. Also of note are some pretty liberal doses of nudity (the lead Carice van Houten being extremely sexy). Not to say that I only look for violence and nudity in my films, but It's rarely something I'd complain about it. I also really enjoyed hearing the variety of languages used in the flick. I'd say The 'Black Book' about ties with The 'Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' as my favorite film of 2007 (though it came out in 2006 in some countries). Much better than Verhoeven's earlier war flick 'Soldier of Orange', and quite possible his best film to date.