Rico Verhoeven is a Dutch kickboxer, he is part of Glory Kickboxing events and has won a lot of matches, he is well known in my country The Netherlands. I have seen him once at a Glory event I went for the first time (and also last), back when I had no idea who he was. I know he is a fan of movies and wants to make it in Hollywood.
I think his first big role (he had a small part in one of the Kickboxer sequels from 2010s) is not super bad but it suffers from terrible dialogue and non-sensical scenes like the bad guy Frank Grillo complaining to his chef about the mushroom stew. I see where they were going with this but scenes like this were done way better in other movies. The script is very amateurish, resulting in comedy when it was most likely not intended.
The acting of Rico isn't super bad but it definitely needs work. One thing I didn't like was why the film was all in English when it takes place mostly in The Netherlands? I know they want it to be for international audience but guess what, audiences can also read subtitles when necessary. I think the movie would have improved a lot more if it was part Dutch and English.
Another problem with the film is the duo cop, the woman and the guy, the chemistry is not there and I really think it was bad casting for the guy at least, the women I liked better. The male cop who is just terrible at his job and can't even fight still thinks he can fight an Asian martial arts expert and gets bruised and cut a lot is the dumbest scene in the film.
The overall acting is well pretty wooden for almost everyone even Frank Grillo who I think is only there because of money and a nice trip to the Netherlands on studio expenses. As I mentioned before, the script is just bad so the actors have not much to work with dialogue wise. Feels like a teen wrote it or at least someone with very little experience either with movie scripts or action movies because a lot is cliché and copied from other movies but worse.
And finally, the action. There isn't a lot of it and it should have been more. I do like the final fight but it could have been way more spectacular and the very last scene, the duel between Rico (with a knife) and Grillo (with a gun) at the famous Amsterdam square that is usually full of people but now completely empty (yes it is early morning but there still would be people) is laughable.
I do want to say that the film is not badly made, I actually also liked the soundtrack of the film but it suffers from wooden acting most likely to not so good directing and just terrible dialogues. I do wish Rico Verhoeven a second chance with a better movie script and story and also a better character than the sad loner he plays in Black Lotus.
I cannot recommend the film, maybe only for Rico fans and die hard action film buffs and for those curious about Rico Verhoeven's first big action film role (like I was), move along nothing special to see.
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