UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Do Not Disturb, a cheaply drawn Euro-trash oddity, ironically does exactly what it's title forbids by indeed disturbing the audience with very questionable scenes that paint Amsterdam in a way that I'm sure would infuriate locals. Also called 'Silent Witness' on DVD, it's a wonder why such a weird, awful script would attract high pedigree actors like William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly and Denis Leary. Hurt and Tilly play a wealthy American couple on a business trip to Amsterdam with their little daughter (Francesca Brown), who happens to be a mute, wearing a magic marker around her neck as sole means of communication. After getting separated from her parents at the hotel, she inadvertently witnesses a murder by two nasty hitmen (Corey Johnson and some other random) and flees off into the night pursued by them, and subjected to all kinds of whacked out freaks. Seriously, this poor girl in terms of both the character and the actress, is put through an unnecessary wringer of ultra violence and sleaze. There's this thread of implied child abuse running through the narrative, as if such proclivities are inherent in Dutch people in that city, and it's really troubling to see a girl her age have to be ogled by perverts at every turn, an ill advised and shameful addition from some no name scriptwriter who probably never worked again. Then there's Denis Leary, who should have sued the marketing team for misrepresentation. On the US DVD cover, he leers off the poster with an evil gaze, holding a gun and giving every impression that he's the film's villain. In the actual film, he an innocuous American homeless man who helps the poor girl navigate the dangerous streets throughout, the only sane individual she meets, really. It's an alright role for the guy, but that stupid box art really sells his presence askew. It's just a bizarre, uneven disaster for the most part, and I still wonder to this day why any of these fine actors participated. William Hurt especially is such a choosy performer, usually handpicking excellent scripts and being careful with his career, but here he jumps right into the abysmal script with some pseudo Southern accent that is way, way beneath him. Should not be used as a tourism video for Amsterdam, but rather forgotten permanently from the DTV landscape.

petra_ste An inane, wannabe-Hithcockian thriller which looks and feels like an episode of some dreary Mittel-European crime series, Do Not Disturb follows the dangerous Amsterdam vacation of an American couple (William Hurt and Jennifer Tilly) whose daughter witnesses a murder.The movie is tedious and worthless... until the climax, when my enjoyment rocketed through the roof during a supremely cheesy car chase, with a grimacing Hurt clinging to the top of an ambulance. When the ambulance's doors burst open and the girl on the stretcher was propelled towards a river, I was laughing so hard my neighbors probably worried about my sanity. It's like something out of Hot Shots or Naked Gun; more scenes of this kind and the movie would almost have been worth recommending.4/10

johnnyboyz Do Not Disturb hugs a fine line between a gripping, taut and rather brilliant thriller which is built on a foundation of a series of suspenseful set pieces, and out and out farce built on daft escapism and a series of bizarre coincidences. It would be easy to enjoy Do Not Disturb for what it is; to let it wash over you in a manner that'll see you enjoy the crazy chases, conveniencies and scenes of action. But the film doesn't do enough, overall. Do Not Disturb is wild, uneven and seems to establish a number of rules and regulations purely so that it can break them ten minutes later. I didn't have a mute ten year old girl down as a professional hit-man foiler; likewise I didn't have a cold-blooded criminal down as a rejected Home Alone villain and I didn't have William Hurt's character down as an all action, James Bond inspired superhero.The film, bizarrely and seemingly unnecessarily retitled 'Silent Witness' for American audiences, is alive with action and off-the-wall content running parallel to amateurish and contrived acts of silliness. The Silent Witness of the across-the-pond title is a young, mute daughter of Jennifer Tilly's Cathryn Richmond and William Hurt's Walter Richmond. Her name is Melissa. The Richmond's are an American family in Amsterdam specifically there for a rendez-vous Walter is about to have with some business higher-up linked to lawyers and medicine firms – whatever, it's not important. From there, poor Melissa is separated from her parents and witnesses a cold blooded, back alley murder of a man that was ordered by a certain Rudolph Hartman (Chiklis); a man linked to Melissa's father's business trip. From here, a somewhat ludicrous chase ensures between the hit-man and Melissa; the Richmond's desperate search for their daughter and the misadventures the kid gets up to with a homeless, boat dwelling individual.Yes, the film is just about as mad as it sounds. Dutch film-maker Dick Maas paints a somewhat typical portrait of his native nation's supposed cesspit, that-is Amsterdam. He goes so far to get across a sense of familiarity that he even works in a scene set in brothel that typically has to encompass leather-clad subservients and the women that dominate them – one of whom even gets to fire off a few rounds from a pistol. The film might also be read into as a meek exploration of American people based, and severely struggling, within the continent of Europe as the surroundings and elements work against them. If you buy into Eli Roth's somewhat tame theory that he peppers his Hostel films with that is linked to how Americans have a real lack of respect to their surroundings when they travel abroad, you might be tempted to see Do Not Disturb as a cautionary tale to do with keeping together as one unit - and that despite your rich surroundings in whatever hotel you're based; do not underestimate what lurks around the next corner.This is, of course, ignoring the fact everyone in Do Not Disturb is of American acting talent descent: the locals, the police and even Dennis Leary's aforementioned tramp character Simon – the friendliest damn tramp you'll probably ever stumble across. The film spills out onto the streets and begins to resemble a more typical, cause and effect driven thriller that encompasses good vs. evil and that general sensation of chase as one party either outruns or outsmarts a chasing party through clever and rather enjoyable little tussles at random locations. But because the director has a bit of a postcard view of his setting, we get all the usual locations that encompass the already mentioned brothel; an escape down a canal; the using of those arch bridges as vantage points, and so on.I think there's content in Do Not Disturb worth tuning in for, but not enough good content to worth recommending it. Director Maas shows he has an eye for suspense set pieces and displays a good awareness of characters in relation to objects and spaces within the location, it's just that there are problems deeply rooted in both the plausibility of his screenplay and the execution of the action sequences. Take the scene, for example; in which the parents, somewhat stupidly, leave Melissa alone in their hotel room after she's been to Hell and back and attend a meeting downstairs. There is enough ammunition in the sequence that sees the hit-man from earlier attain information on Melissa's whereabouts; go to the wrong room; have Melissa's mother make her way up there unaware of the hit-man's presence and then round everything off in the actual suite. One wonders what our old friend Gene Siskel might've thought of the film and its consistent use of the young girl character in a number of harsh predicaments.I also think some of the the early scenes are rather effective and tap into a very primal fear parents will be able to relate to; that sensation that their child is missing and they're in an area they're not remotely familiar with. But the film is an inglorious failure; it tries to blend too many elements of escapism and realism with comedy and very black material. There's stuff to admire as the suspense attempts to wash over you, and the little girl in the lead role is an easy character to sympathise with and therefore root for; but the film is too much one-part Home Alone, one-part drab and downbeat chase thriller. I'm not familiar with the rest of Maas' work and probably wont track any of it down, but if I happen to stumble across some of it, I have a feeling I might just curiously tune in.

John Holden This is something of a black comedy ie. some comedy and some serious bits; and some nasty/violent things made funny. A few clever scenes; some good suspense.Sound like anything else? Yup, it's LBT (Low-Budget Tarantino). The dialogue isn't as clever or fresh; but neither is it as pompous and pretentious as QT's work.And it doesn't make believe that it's anything creative and new and different. Just a dumb (unable to speak) 10-year-old girl being pursued by a hired killer.Hurt has developed a style of mumbling and swallowing his words - bored with the movies he's offered? Jennifer Tilly is just ordinary. Leary is OK but he's not in it for long.It's just something OK to watch late at night.