Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Scott LeBrun In a high rise office building in the Netherlands, an elevator repairman named Felix Adelaar (Huub Stapel) is busy trying to solve a mystery. The elevators in this place are now functioning improperly, incapacitating passengers if not killing them outright. Could the cause be some sort of human error, or is something supernatural going on? Felix works the clues in the company of an aggressive, sassy reporter, Mieke de Beer (Willeke van Ammelrooy).Writer & director Dick Maas ("Amsterdamned") deserves some credit for treating his premise with some measure of restraint. Therefore, it won't be to all tastes. It admittedly comes up a little short in the thrills department, with a slow pace and a talky script. Yet, there are fun moments, such as when an unfortunate security guard is decapitated by an elevator. Also, Stapel is an appealing working-class, Everyman sort of hero, and he has some chemistry with the striking van Ammelrooy. They receive able support from players such as Josine van Dalsum (as Felix's wife), Siem Vroom (as a police inspector), and Hans Veerman (as the boss at "Rising Sun", the electronics company working in tandem with Felix's employers).The script does possess some passing interest for the way that it touches upon the subject of technological evolution (with computers that used to fill up entire rooms now becoming much more compact, and the advent of computer chips)."The Lift" is a little light on gore and other exploitable elements, but overall it's fairly entertaining to watch. Maas does pretty well working with the limited budget, and IS expert at crafting suspense, especially the eerie and atmospheric finale with Felix in an elevator shaft. The electronic score (composed by Maas) is likewise a highlight.One of the set decorators is Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., who 28 years later, directed the prequel to John Carpenters' "The Thing".Seven out of 10.

fedor8 This movie is 5% horror, 60% boring detective work, 15% dull family life, and 20% filler scenes. It's supposed to be a horror film, but most of it is as dull as actually sitting down and watching a lift repair-man in action. Well, "action".It's as if a stuffy accountant directed this thing; even the main character is apathetic, almost always unemotional, with one facial expression (like a damn painting), going about his business with the élan of a nursing-home inmate playing chess with himself. I have rarely seen such a sleepy, disinterested-looking lead male/character. The makers of this failed attempt should have aimed for either a tongue-in-cheek approach or an all-out horror film, without the unnecessary and very tiresome detective crap and the evil-corporation conspiracy nonsense. Ultimately, the film's undoing is the writer's attempt to lend this ridiculous premise some seriousness by connecting all the silly goings-on to the real world. But there is nothing even remotely serious or realistic about a malicious lift killing people, so the obvious approach would have been to give this less exposition/plot and far more action.Will the repairman keep his marriage or not? It's exciting questions like these that turned the movie into the instant horror classic that it still is today. His wife's female friend speculates on why he's been depressed lately: "Perhaps he is having an affair?" she suggests stupidly, completely ignoring the plain-as-day fact that he's involved in the repairs of an elevator that had just killed a blind man and decapitated another. This does not enter as a possibility to explain his low mood? Straight to adultery – duh; a silly plot-device introduced here for just one reason: so that the repairman can have some family trouble – as if horror films with cheesy premises thrive on family matters as their main source of fuel. This serves as yet another needless sub-plot in a movie already choking in its own inactivity.I find it hard to believe that a building with this many accidents has people going inside it, let alone using the elevators, over and over, as if nothing had happened. This sort of story would be headline news in Holland (and elsewhere), and everyone would know about it. But this medium-level illogicality is the least of the film's problems. The fact that it's dull is what most viewers, and I, were annoyed by. Far too much talk, too much focus on the elevator repairman and even his very dreary family life.A 6.1 average? Had this been an American movie, the rating would have been half that. But for some reason non-American movies are reviewed and critiqued far less harshly than American ones. It's that silly old "exotic bonus", plus a bit of envy thrown in.

preppy-3 Ridiculous horror film about an elevator that kills people. Seriously! A man figures out and tries to find out why the elevator is acting this way...and get it to stop.How a film with such a stupid premise got made is beyond me. Let's face it--elevators just aren't scary! They can't chase after you or catch you. To avoid them you just take the stairs! Even if you can accept that it doesn't even stay true to its own premise. At one point a blind man is waiting for the elevator. The doors open--but there's no car there and he falls to his death. How exactly did the elevator KNOW that the guy was blind? Even worse we never get a plausible explanation as to why this is happening. We get lots of boring family drama and loonnggg talks about elevators. Seriously--there is WAY too much talk in this. Three times I had to rewind the tape to be able to read all the subtitles (this is from the Netherlands). This gets a three for some cool murders but, all in all, boring and pretty pointless.

PeeDee-2 Although I did not particularly enjoy "Amsterdammned" (a similar sort of film), I gave it another shot because I did not want to believe that - as the Dutch themselves often say - the Dutch cinematography in general is just worthless (however, you DO get "tits, sex and throwing up" in most films ;o) ). I have seen "Antonia" and "Character" and enjoyed them both very much. Moreover, living in the Netherlands I wanted to know what a 'cult' movie that the locals consider "the most thrilling Dutch film ever" (4 out of 5 stars in a renowned TV magazine) looks like. Well, to tell the truth, I was nothing but disappointed. Even if I overlook the shaky idea of an 'evil microchip', the predictable direction and the cheap effects, I just cannot overlook the HORRENDOUS acting of the whole cast. They were all in desperate need of some Strasberg classes... All in all, if you want to get a positive picture of the Dutch cinematography, please do NOT waste time rolling your eyes up during this flop!