so from the guy who gave us robocop, total recall, and starship troopers we now have...a WW II thriller? it may come completely as a surprise, but this is one hell of a great movie. not to be missed by anyone even remotely interested in drama or war.

http://cinecafe.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/a-espia-paul-veerhoeven-2006/

A solid, well-paced spy thriller. Also, how freaking hot is Carice van Houten?

"This voluptuously directed epic crumbles beneath the weight of its well-oiled but mechanical plot." - Ed Gonzalez

It's quite well-made for Dutch standards, but it never becomes anything truly special. Van Houten was a great lead, but some of the other actors were so-so or downright weak (Johnny de Mol, please go away), line deliveries were often stilted and amateurish, and the soundtrack didn't do it for me. And in true Dutch style it needs to have copious swearing and, oh why not, someone being covered in shit. Classy.

Lavish take on World War II filled with dark undertones that ultimately fills you with satisfaction. Carice van Houten was a strong lead in a talented cast. Classy espionage from the guy who made "Starship Troopers", wouldn't of been my first guess.

Disappointing in that it adds virtually nothing to the WW2 genre we haven't seen before (apart from a little pubic bleaching). Watch out for numerous scenes in which a squad of Nazis machine-gun some Jews. And then a couple where the Jews do some machine-gunning while getting machine-gunned. Every scene feels like an obligatory Nazi-movie scene. The Dutch angle and the female heroine angle were both done much better in "De Tweeling" about 4 years previously. Seek out that movie instead.

Verhoeven gets back to his roots after couple of decades of making sci-fi blockbusters in Hollywood. He shows what he learn in America with entertaining but contrived narrative. He stays faithful to himself, and women in the film are fast to get naked. But also he does something that wouldn't be acceptable in Hollywood - ambiguity of war is shown in all shades of gray in scenes that are way too controversial in the context of recent foreign policy of USA.

Verhoeven is a champ, fucking hits it out of the park when he feels like it.

What was with the scat porn?

A WWII movie about a Jewish girl who's hooked on Nazi cock? Right, there are some bits and pieces of a story on the Dutch Resistance and about collaborators here as well. Ms van Houten leaves a stimulating impression both with her acting and with her T & A, but after an interesting enough beginning this technically solid movie slowly degenerates into a mess. Also, how exactly is the local SD boss a good guy? He's just trying to cover his ass now that the end of the war is near. Hello Hans Landa!

I'd enjoy this more if it didn't feel at least twice the already lengthy run time. It's really not so bad, but as with Soldier of Orange, Verhoeven just seems lacking when he keeps it straight.

I loved it.

Using WWII as a backdrop for a thriller is a risky move and, while Verhoeven does a very good job balancing those two aspects and creating a good movie, there's a bit of cohesion lacking. The bookends are awkward and the moral murkiness of collaboration is under-explored to make room for thrills and plot twists. Even so, it moves a long rather briskly, always held my attention and had some very fine performances.