Almost Cops

I'm not exactly sure what made me enjoy this film, but it had a fun and easy vibe that just worked for me. The plot isn't very original or deep, but it moves along smoothly and keeps you watching. The comedy is light, not over-the-top, and the characters, while not super memorable, have decent chemistry. It's the kind of movie you watch when you don't feel like thinking too hard-just relax and enjoy. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely entertaining enough for a casual night. I had a good time watching it, and even if I won't rewatch it soon, I don't regret it at all. It's simple, silly, and sometimes that's all you really need.

I really wanted to like Almost Cops. The premise seemed entertaining, the humor felt familiar, and the story had potential. But unfortunately, this movie is yet another example of why Dutch cinema struggles to be taken seriously at times.

The first half hour already made it clear: the writing is okay, some of the jokes are genuinely funny, and the setup has promise. But all of that falls completely flat because of one fatal flaw; the acting.

The performances are so painfully bad that they pull you out of the story again and again. There's no authenticity, no rhythm, no believability. Scenes that were meant to be funny or moving end up feeling awkward and forced. The actors deliver their lines like they're reading from cue cards for the first time. And that's a shame, because the plot actually had something going for it.

In fact, this seems to be a recurring problem in Dutch comedy films. Without strong, believable performances, even decent scripts crumble into something resembling parody. Instead of building a strong cinematic culture, films like Almost Cops drag it down further, turning potentially entertaining ideas into embarrassing misses.

I've sat through the Bon Bini movies too and I only endured them because of Phi Nguyen (Ping Ping), who's genuinely funny and has charisma. He's the kind of actor who should be given more serious roles or even his own film. Give us a Dutch The Saint with Phi Nguyen; now that's something I'd show up for.

But until the Dutch film industry starts demanding more from its casting and acting direction, we're going to keep getting films like Almost Cops; lazy, disappointing, and worse, forgettable.

Dear Dutch filmmakers: the audience deserves better than this. Please give us movies we can actually be proud of.

This film is nothing more than a PR stunt to make the Dutch BOA system look good. BOAs (Special Enforcement Officers) were never meant to assist police - they were created to replace them because they're cheaper and send fine money straight to local governments. They can't use force, can't make arrests, and mostly hand out petty fines for things like cycling in city centers or parking errors.

Almost Cops tries to paint BOAs as lovable underdogs, but it completely ignores the truth: BOAs are powerless, widely disrespected, and symbolize a broken system focused on revenue, not safety. Dressing that up in comedy doesn't fix the problem.

The plot is not thick and can be seen from miles away, the acting could be better but yet it is very entertaining. Specially for Dutch films it is entertaining. The most annoying is not even the acting but the wholes in true story where adding some time to the playing length could have done the storyline some serious good. One actor that truly stood out and had limited screentime was Stephanie. She could have been more put in on the action making it more funny. Or the love story with Ramon is not well played out while it could have been. So actually not a bad movie, no terrible acting but just lacking some in-depth storytelling. But still positive experience.

I think as a debut gonzalo has done a good job with directing this film. It contains some good talents and its always nice to get another one of those buddy cop type movies even if they are predictable in some ways. Jack and ramone are community cops. But after the death of ramons brother, jack joins his squad so they can go and take down the people responsible. It has a bit of a kevin heart and the rock feel as the two main characters have the same type of energy has them. But this is better. It had its fun parts and a few that really did make me laugh. Overall not a bad edition to the buddy cop series.