johannijenhuis

I had so much fun watching this movie. Quite a few characters at first, but they are all played by well known actors so you get familiar with them quickly. Whether in their teens, twenties, thirties or fifties, all characters are trying to fight their age on party island Ibiza. Visually thrilling, but it's the comedy scenes that I liked best. Lex is hilarious as the old rock star that approves of his daughter having sex with her sister's husband. Irma (in her fifties) comes to the island to read books on the beach but meets good looking Jim Bakkum (in his twenties). She never intended to be a Cougar but their romance unfolds in a loving way. Sanne Vogel is adoring as a party-planner that falls in love with a rich soccer player whose friends enjoy spraying expensive bottles of champagne over the party crowd in clubs. "Verliefd op Ibiza" kept me excited every minute.

When I was a kid, I was told that the legend of Saint Nicolas was over a hundred years old. I started to fantasize what it must have been like, when the Saint Nicolas took the naughty children on his ship to Spain. Seeing this film was like watching my own dream. The story of Bennie Stout who wants to be a naughty kid on purpose so he can visit his dad in Spain touched me. The last 20 minutes of the film are emotional (yes, I did cry) and the first half hour is plain fun. The mid part connected me to Bennie's hopes and dreams. It is a fun film for adults and kids alike. Art direction is lush, child performers are excellent and the comedy duo "Plien & Bianca" can be seen in two fun parts.

COSTA is a series you can't really take seriously: all stories and events are bigger than life. With PISTA, they took things a step further. The screenplay uses the structure of "It's a wonderful life", with Georgina Verbaan being the Angel to set things right. It is a screenplay with a broad imagination. It shows that it was shot with a limited budget (the green-screens of the actors'skiing look pretty bad), but I enjoyed most of the dialogue.

Acting is okay, a good thing that most of the original stars of the movie COSTA are in it. (daan Schuurmans is missing, tough). Silvie Meijs later gained stardom as the soccer wife of of, what's his name.. Rafael van der Vaart. Now plays for Hamburg.