As the first viewer to comment on this film from the United States, let me say I found this film highly entertaining. I apologise for my ignorance on French-Flemish relations in Belgium, but having viewed "Hop" without that baggage (but with subtitles), I can report that the film is beautifully acted and photographed. Lead Kalomba Mboyi is an instant star playing the resourceful and understatedly brilliant Justin. Strong pacing, surprises, and even suspense punctuate a story that proceeds from the mundane to the almost unbelievable. I did not recognize this as an overtly political film, but as smooth entertainment. My fellow Americans will probably enjoy "Hop" more than the Belgian commentators seem to have.
11 Reviews
Awesome work of art!
editorguy20 December 2005
I was thoroughly entertained by the story, and impressed by the beautiful look of the film. The director obviously took great care to give us powerful images that were truly works of art in themselves, in my opinion. So, to learn that it was shot with video rather than film truly amazed me. I also found the story to be well crafted, with a nice balance of comedy and drama. The actors were very believable, and I feel that Kalomba Mboyi, who played Justin, did a superb job, as did Jan Decleir, who played Frans. I highly recommend the movie for a refreshing change from the kind of films that most of us normally see. Hats off to Mongrel Media for bringing us these good quality independent films!
Great Belgian movie
declercq-johan26 December 2003
Two greatest Belgian actors playing in this movie, Jan Decleir and Antje Deboeck. The story about illegal african people beeing send back to Africa. I liked the movie. The story is not realistic but very well played. Very nice movie to watch and to think about our way to threat people staying illegal in western countries.
Amazing
orcagurl27 May 2004
I don't usually get a chance to go to film festivals, but i am so glad I went to see HOP. This is an excellent film and a refreshing change to the ones Hollywood likes to churn out.
I knew nothing about this movie when I went into the theatre, but I loved it. It was funny, and not slapstick or any of that stupid 'Dumb and Dumber' or 'American Pie' crap. It was genuinely funny. I don't know why people keep saying that the story line was terrible, the ending was predictable, yes, but isn't that true with almost all Hollywood movies? Hmmm?
You gotta love the characters. They are so real, and the director and screenwriter were quite clever in revealing a lot of their history (like between Gerda) without making it ham-handed and melodramatic. The acting was very good.
I think its the pastoral and simple touch to the film. It still has a bit of that light quality, and yet some poignancy to its make. It is definitely a film worth watching and your only concern will be actually finding a theatre that will screen it.
I knew nothing about this movie when I went into the theatre, but I loved it. It was funny, and not slapstick or any of that stupid 'Dumb and Dumber' or 'American Pie' crap. It was genuinely funny. I don't know why people keep saying that the story line was terrible, the ending was predictable, yes, but isn't that true with almost all Hollywood movies? Hmmm?
You gotta love the characters. They are so real, and the director and screenwriter were quite clever in revealing a lot of their history (like between Gerda) without making it ham-handed and melodramatic. The acting was very good.
I think its the pastoral and simple touch to the film. It still has a bit of that light quality, and yet some poignancy to its make. It is definitely a film worth watching and your only concern will be actually finding a theatre that will screen it.
Being black in Belgium
Red-12525 September 2009
Hop (2002), directed by Dominique Standaert, is really two films that are patched together in the same movie. The first third of the movie depicts two undocumented immigrants from Burundi who live in Brussels. Dieudonné, (Ansou Diedhiou) and his son Justin, (Kalomba Mboyi) have a quiet--if marginalized--life in a working-class neighborhood. It's clear that father and son love and respect each other, and that they're both intelligent and resourceful human beings.
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Dieudonné is arrested, and Justin ends up living with an alcoholic anarchist--Frans (played by Jan Declair) and his housekeeper, Gerda (Antje de Boeck). The interactions among the three are complex and interesting.
At this point the plot moves in a different direction, and becomes essentially a caper film-- can this unlikely trio actually free the boy's father from imprisonment and deportation.
The acting is uniformly excellent. Both Decleir and de Boeck are veteran Belgian actors, and they are highly competent professionals. (de Boeck may be a little too attractive for her part, but she conveys intelligence and compassion extremely well.)
Mboyi and Diedhiou are both newcomers, and they are extraordinarily talented. They look and act like father and son, and it was hard to remember that they were really just two actors doing a fine professional job.
For the caper part of the film, Standaert brings in the glamorous Alexandra Vandernoot as the tough, competent Police Commissioner Taminiaux. Her role didn't really call for much screen time, but when you've managed to sign a beautiful, nationally-famous actor to co-star in an independent movie, you'd better be prepared to work her into every possible scene.
The famous Belgian football hero Emile Mpenza is mentioned throughout the film, and he has a cameo part at the end. The movie has several clever touches like that. It's definitely worth seeing, and, in my opinion, it's much better than its dismal IMDb rating of 6.8 would suggest.
I think Hop will work very well on DVD. (Belgium is a wonderful tourist destination, but it doesn't have much scenic grandeur that would require a large screen.) We saw it at the Alan Lutkus International Film Series presented by SUNY Geneseo.
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Dieudonné is arrested, and Justin ends up living with an alcoholic anarchist--Frans (played by Jan Declair) and his housekeeper, Gerda (Antje de Boeck). The interactions among the three are complex and interesting.
At this point the plot moves in a different direction, and becomes essentially a caper film-- can this unlikely trio actually free the boy's father from imprisonment and deportation.
The acting is uniformly excellent. Both Decleir and de Boeck are veteran Belgian actors, and they are highly competent professionals. (de Boeck may be a little too attractive for her part, but she conveys intelligence and compassion extremely well.)
Mboyi and Diedhiou are both newcomers, and they are extraordinarily talented. They look and act like father and son, and it was hard to remember that they were really just two actors doing a fine professional job.
For the caper part of the film, Standaert brings in the glamorous Alexandra Vandernoot as the tough, competent Police Commissioner Taminiaux. Her role didn't really call for much screen time, but when you've managed to sign a beautiful, nationally-famous actor to co-star in an independent movie, you'd better be prepared to work her into every possible scene.
The famous Belgian football hero Emile Mpenza is mentioned throughout the film, and he has a cameo part at the end. The movie has several clever touches like that. It's definitely worth seeing, and, in my opinion, it's much better than its dismal IMDb rating of 6.8 would suggest.
I think Hop will work very well on DVD. (Belgium is a wonderful tourist destination, but it doesn't have much scenic grandeur that would require a large screen.) We saw it at the Alan Lutkus International Film Series presented by SUNY Geneseo.
A cute and cuddly version of terrorism
planktonrules29 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Technically, this is a pretty well-made film and the use of black and white film was very striking and effective. However, with all the death and mayhem in this world caused by terrorism, who would even think of making a film that comes up with a convoluted justification for terrorism by giving the terrorist a cute face?! Well, that's exactly what this well-made but morally bankrupt Belgian film has done. The first half of the film is a setup to have the viewer come to like and care about a 12 year-old illegal alien whose father was arrested by Belgian authorities. The young man is on the run and desperately wants his father back--but the problem is, the dad has already been deported to the Congo. So, naturally this cute, bright and precocious boy (with the help of ex-anarchist Jan Declair) thinks up a scheme to use dynamite and cell phones to blow up and kill innocent Belgians. AND, the creators of this picture want us to care about this little thug???!!! I initially DID find myself really feeling sorry for the kid. Sure, he and his dad broke the law by staying illegally, but they seemed like such decent folk I wanted them to somehow be allowed to stay. But to glorify the kid who uses terrorism to get his way?! Gimme a break. First, the amoral little jerk wants to blow up the ATOM from the old Brussells World's Fair (complete with tourists inside), but the "nice" old ex-terrorist, Declair, convinces him to go after other targets that will not kill innocents, so the kid picks a dam (which, I assume would flood and kill perhaps hundreds or more). And, miraculously, in the end, the kid, his father, the ex-terrorist and his lady love all hug and live happily ever after!!! What a sick fairy tale with no particular redeeming value. Regardless of whether the motives are initially right or wrong, terrorism is evil and wrong. The same can be said for films like this small independent film that try to somehow excuse evil (after all, it seems that in the film the Beligian Police are evil from trying to enforce their laws so it's okay to murder the masses). I think I'm gonna throw up.
A bad story and a bad movie
silverauk11 October 2002
Justin (Kalomba Mbuyi) is convincing as a teenager who wants to defend his father (Dieudonné) who has to be expelled while he has no residence-license and that is one of the few good things of this movie. He is given shelter by Frans (Jan Decleir), an old revolutionary who is making bombs (!) and who is setting him up against the authorities. This movie may be conform to the Belgian politically-correct standards but is not showing the real language situation in Belgium with the Flemish and the French-speaking part and it is not the first Belgian digitally made movie (that was: "Jouissance des hystériques, La - Opus 4 (2000)". The director Dominique Standaert should have made a documentary and not a movie as he is not capable of telling us a good story. I got the impression that the director wants us to feel compassion with the situation of the people living illegally in Belgium. How good this intention may be, that is not enough to make a good movie.
Excellent movie!
Chromium_530 June 2004
I am so glad I have finally found a local theater that shows indie
movies. It is very refreshing.
This particular movie was so lighthearted and entertaining that you
can't help but love it. Of course, I know nothing about Belgian
politics--in fact, I'm not even 100% sure I know where Belgium is
(somewhere in Eurasia, I think)--but I was still able to enjoy it. It
has great photography, acting, and characters. The story is a little
out there, but it's a movie, so who cares? That doesn't make it any
less fun to watch. I think it was well worth my time. 8/10 stars.
movies. It is very refreshing.
This particular movie was so lighthearted and entertaining that you
can't help but love it. Of course, I know nothing about Belgian
politics--in fact, I'm not even 100% sure I know where Belgium is
(somewhere in Eurasia, I think)--but I was still able to enjoy it. It
has great photography, acting, and characters. The story is a little
out there, but it's a movie, so who cares? That doesn't make it any
less fun to watch. I think it was well worth my time. 8/10 stars.
Glorifying Terrorists
mrvirgo23 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Content wise this is without a doubt the worst movie I've ever seen. Glorifying illegal aliens and Communist terrorists. What could possibly go wrong with a movie based on that? Plenty. I knew the movie was going to be dripping with politically correct leftist views but when the twelve year old protagonist builds a bomb using two cell phones, I was sure the movie was going to go down hill from that point. I wasn't wrong. How anyone can give this movie more than a 1 beats me. I guess there are plenty of effete snobs on this website who drool if their warped point of view is glorified, but unless you've had a lobotomy you can't give this crap any credit for what it is. Rubbish.
Don't mind me, it's only terrorism
fablesofthereconstru-124 July 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"A father can't be deported without his son," reassures a Weather Underground-type academic to his Pygmy charge, speaking as if he'd seen too many Hollywood films like "Double Jeopardy", in which laws are made up out of thin air to help the narrative. While Ashley Judd was granted the right to shoot her allegedly dead husband within the jurisdiction of the law, it turns out that Frans(Jan Decleir) was wrong about the boy's father, a Congoese illegal in Belgium who indeed can be deported to Africa without his son. Lucky for dad that Justin(Kalomba Mbuyi) happened to stow away in the truck of a bomb expert who helped blow up American multinationals in the eighties. Although retired, Frans keeps sticks of dynamite in his library for old time's sake, I guess, as if awaiting the arrival of somebody like Justin(a wronged person with a score to settle) to come along. This Pygmy lad doesn't need a mentor like Frans, because it allows the former anarchist to emerge from the underground and pass on his dynamite sticks like batons for a new generation of radicals.
"Hop", to a great degree, miscalculates the audience's built-in predilection to sympathize with a young protagonist such as Justin, especially when this bright and articulate soccer enthusiast strides into that science museum like Pygmy Dynamite with detonation on his mind. It's one thing had Justin reined in his anger towards the foreigner-hating Belgian nationals, but he sets off the bomb without consideration for the potential fallout of his actions, the collateral damage that results in an act of violent self-determination. Frans averts catastrophe by deactivating the incendiary device, then chastises the boy for disregarding the apolitical position of the camera-snapping happy Japanese tourists.
Hop is an old Pygmy folktale that Justin's father relays to the Belgian authorities while he's kept in custody; it's a story about the oppressed, in which the oppressor is a lion, a male lion, with big testicles. Sometimes the oppressed, the story goes, needs to add a little pressure to the oppressor; sometimes you need to get your hands a little dirty. But here's the rub, the disconnect, that "Hop" seems largely unaware of. To blow people up with a bomb violates the spirit of the story that suggests the tyrannized give the tyrant's "balls" a little squeeze, just enough applied pressure to put the people in charge on notice of the people who nip at their feet. Metaphorically speaking, to blow stuff up, is more along the lines of castration. After the science museum incident, more terror is prompted by Frans, who encourages the boy to practice responsible terrorism rather than quit cold turkey. Acting upon Frans' regenerative activist inclinations to fight for what's just and righteous, Justin finds himself in a predicament of terrorism on a much larger scale. Unlike the United States, Belgian authorities do negotiate with terrorists, and the plane that carries Justin's father is rerouted back to Europe's airspace and beyond.
The film's treatment of this under-aged militant suggests that the young man's minority status makes his actions excusable, therefore understandable. Shot in black and white, for no particular reason, except to tint a body of water red during the boy's epiphany at the dam, "Hop" can be read as an endorsement of terroristic activity. Nothing happens to Justin. Not even a slap on the wrist. "Hop" is about as realistic about the law as "Double Jeopardy" was. Father and son reunite and get to stay in their adopted Belgian home.
Because "Hop", is probably a children's movie, a very misguided one.
"Hop", to a great degree, miscalculates the audience's built-in predilection to sympathize with a young protagonist such as Justin, especially when this bright and articulate soccer enthusiast strides into that science museum like Pygmy Dynamite with detonation on his mind. It's one thing had Justin reined in his anger towards the foreigner-hating Belgian nationals, but he sets off the bomb without consideration for the potential fallout of his actions, the collateral damage that results in an act of violent self-determination. Frans averts catastrophe by deactivating the incendiary device, then chastises the boy for disregarding the apolitical position of the camera-snapping happy Japanese tourists.
Hop is an old Pygmy folktale that Justin's father relays to the Belgian authorities while he's kept in custody; it's a story about the oppressed, in which the oppressor is a lion, a male lion, with big testicles. Sometimes the oppressed, the story goes, needs to add a little pressure to the oppressor; sometimes you need to get your hands a little dirty. But here's the rub, the disconnect, that "Hop" seems largely unaware of. To blow people up with a bomb violates the spirit of the story that suggests the tyrannized give the tyrant's "balls" a little squeeze, just enough applied pressure to put the people in charge on notice of the people who nip at their feet. Metaphorically speaking, to blow stuff up, is more along the lines of castration. After the science museum incident, more terror is prompted by Frans, who encourages the boy to practice responsible terrorism rather than quit cold turkey. Acting upon Frans' regenerative activist inclinations to fight for what's just and righteous, Justin finds himself in a predicament of terrorism on a much larger scale. Unlike the United States, Belgian authorities do negotiate with terrorists, and the plane that carries Justin's father is rerouted back to Europe's airspace and beyond.
The film's treatment of this under-aged militant suggests that the young man's minority status makes his actions excusable, therefore understandable. Shot in black and white, for no particular reason, except to tint a body of water red during the boy's epiphany at the dam, "Hop" can be read as an endorsement of terroristic activity. Nothing happens to Justin. Not even a slap on the wrist. "Hop" is about as realistic about the law as "Double Jeopardy" was. Father and son reunite and get to stay in their adopted Belgian home.
Because "Hop", is probably a children's movie, a very misguided one.
first digital Belgian movie sucks
liveheroes9 October 2002
France had Vidocq, the States had Attack Of The Clones and now Belgium has Hop. Thanks to Sony en Barco, director Standaert got his money to make his debut feature, only if he made it digitally! Well, the image is great, but the story is weak. This movie is about a young African kid who lives in Brussels with his father after they fled from Burundi, where their mother/wife was killed (or just died?). After an incident with their neightbours, they have to flee again. They are living in Belgium illegally and they know what that means. The father gets caught, but the young kid escapes and finds shelter at the home of an anarchist writer (Jan Decleir, from Daens and Character). To cut a long story short: the fathers gets send to Congo (yes, not to Burundi) and the writer and the kid threaten to blow up a famous Belgian landmark. (the kid already tried to blow up the Atomium, but the anarchist could prevent him doing so) The black and white photography is great, but that's the only thing great about this movie. The acting is soso, the story is ridiculous and the director blew the chance of showing the world that Flemish and French are equal in Belgium. They aren't of course, but still, you see two briljant Flemish actors who play Flemish characters and who talk French all the time!
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