Amsterdam Heavy   Starring: Michael Madsen and Alison Carroll Signature Entertainment www.signature-entertainment.co.uk RRP: £8.00 SIG28 Certificate: 18 Available 12 September 2011

J.D returns to Amsterdam unsure of who he is, with only a telephone number carved on his arm, desperate to find out what has happened to him. He seems to meet only people who want to kill him until he hooks up with Monique, the girl whose number is carved on his arm, together they work to discover what is missing in his memory...

Amsterdam Heavy (2011 - 1 hr, 27 min, 27 sec) is a thriller written and directed by Michael Wright. The film stars Michael Madsen (for ten minutes), Alison Carroll and Galyna Kyyashko.

Okay, so the film has plot holes you could drive a truck through (not least of which is that given our hero escaped in Thailand, and by the time he gets back to Holland cannot even recall how he takes his coffee), how the hell did he get it together to fly back.

It makes it even more comic that he spends the first part of his time back in Holland trying to find out who he is. Well, shouldn’t he just look in the passport; he would have needed to get on a plane - although it may be that he stowed away, I think he may have snuck in in a trailer, but the film does not make this clear.

You know, you watch independent films like this and you can see what they are striving for, but some of this effort is wasted on using other people’s ideas. The scene with J.D. going from a semi-clad person to taking the clothes of a local gang is straight out of The Terminator.

The acting remains okay, and for an independent that’s a compliment. Direction is pedestrian and the script is pretty naff, which makes it an above average independent film.

The disc is bare bones, containing no extras, though the picture is pretty good and the audio is passable. Final verdict, I wouldn’t turn it off if it was on TV, I’m just not sure I’d pay good money to watch it.

5

Charles Packer