Alias (2002) from Tuna

Alias is a thriller made and set in Belgium.

Two girlfriends are on holiday, and one of them, Eva, has a video camera.

  • First, she manages to record two would-be carjackers.

  • Then she films a woman falling nude from an upper story window. We have already seen that woman stripping in the hotel room for a good-looking man.

The filming sets the plot in motion.

NUDITY REPORT
  • Hilde De Baerdemaeker: breasts, as the filmer.
  • Els Van Peborgh: the full monty, as the nude victim
  • Geert Hunaerts - male full frontal

The carjackers try to grab her camera, but are foiled by  - the same good looking man, who instantly attracts Eva.

Eva's girlfriend goes home, leaving her alone with the new guy. Since, things haven't been going well with her boyfriend, the new guy really has her attention.

Back home, the girlfriend has a look at the tape, and discovers that the good looking guy with Eva is also somehow involved with the nude victim. She is worried about her friend.

But the guy ends up driving Eva home safely.

He shows up in town again on his yacht, but tells a rather convincing story to Eva and her friends, which includes the mental hospital his mother is director of. Eva is satisfied, and returns to his yacht for a night of sex. Then the girlfriend sees him inside the room and near the window when the girl supposedly jumps out. From there, it is pretty much non-stop suspense until the end.

DVD info from Amazon

  •  It looks very good, and the Region One DVD sports an excellent widescreen transfer, but the subtitles are not optional.

IMDb readers have this at 6.1 of 10, making it an ok entry into the thriller genre, which would be my assessment as well. Part of my enjoyment probably had something to do with seeing landscapes and hearing languages not familiar to me, but it held my interest beginning to end.

The Critics Vote ...

  • No English language reviews on file. IMDb has some in foreign languages

The People Vote ...

  • Budget $1.5m.
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C or a C-. OK thriller.

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