koen-elze I just wanted to add, that Van God Los is a truly happened story, about a gang in the Dutch city "Venlo". They murdered lots of people, especially elderly people, and robbed them at their houses... and tortured and slaughtered them... It took the police quit some years to catch them, but luckily they're behind bars now! It happened in 1993 and 1994. In 1997 18 guys were convicted for more than 250 criminal acts of violence. The precise number of killings is not discovered, but many. Only 7 murders were proved, but I must mention (as I'm Dutch) that the Dutch really sucks. About 10 % of the crime delicts are solved in Holland are solved by the police... The guys were convicted to sentences ranging from 10 years to life, with mentioning that punishes for crimes in Holland are too little, as everybody in Holland agrees. The "Bende van Venlo" (gang of venlo) marks a black page in Dutch history.

TheOtherFool Van God Los, a crime story loosely based on the 'gang of Venlo', has some interesting elements. First off, the acting is rather good, and Gernandt truly shines as 'bad guy'. When having to play a more social character who wishes to become father, the problems arise just there. Keep on type-casting him for the bad guy, he can do that just fine.Secondly, the movie keeps focussed on it's main story and doesn't wander off. This way it's high paced and it's what the movie needed.The other actors convince as well and the story is sad, compelling and tough to watch at the same time. Too bad though the movie isn't wrapped up too nicely, the end scene when Stan wants to die was silly at best.But overall, a decent flick. We've seen worse around these parts of the world. 6/10.

jacco-1 To start off; i liked this film, particularly Tygo Gernandt's acting was plainly brilliant. The sorry thing about dutch films is, that mainly stage actors appear in dutch productions. Obviosously dutch directors find it very difficult to direct acclaimed theater actors, let alone telling them that stage acting(e.g. articulation and exaggerated physical expression) is a big no-no film acting. The southern dutch accent is very well performed by Tygo en Egbert, however most of the other actors 'slip back' to a pathetic attempt, particularly the ( here I go again) stage actors. The directing and the editing of this movie were very undutch and therefor very strong, the acting however........ three great actors can never compensate 10 mediocre to sloppy actors. Conclusion: A more dedicated and disciplined director combined with a less conservative casting director could have lifted this flick to a higher level and in the process would have put dutch film-making on the map.

ThunderStrike I've seen quite a lot of movies, also quite some Dutch ones. Most of them suck quite heavily or are far too commercial, therefore i didn't expect much from Van God Los. But i was wrong.The movie is very catchy, as it is being told from the perspective of Stan, a young Gymnasium student, who dislikes school and is mostly found being out on the streets. His parents don't care for him much, so he is quite left alone. Then he meets Maikel and they become very close friends. They start with some small illegal businesses, but end up being hired killers.The story being told from a main character perspective, with commenting on Stan's thoughts, is quite unusual for Dutch movies and almost gives it a Hollywood feeling, with links to movies like the Godfather series. This makes the movie very impressive and really gets you into the main character and his feelings.When the movie ended, i almost felt the urge of applauding for it, but since the entire cinema was silent, so was i. It was clear to see that this movie made a great impression on all viewers, it was a long time ago i heard so little noise when all people left their seats. This movie is in my opinion already a (Dutch) classic! A must see!