Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
carbuff
Black humor with sort of a happy black ending, which is about as close to a spoiler as I want to get. It's an odd grim movie that starts out really strong and compelling, and while it loses steam as it moves along, it still manages to keep you guessing until the end. It's a bit bloody in parts, but nothing, I'm afraid, that's too terribly shocking to a modern audience. While this film seems to be assembled from parts of a bunch of different movies ("Very Bad Things", among many others, comes immediately to mind), the end result is reasonably original.Scandinavians do dark stuff better than anyone else for some reason- -must be the whole Arctic Circle thing or something. Nobody in this film is particularly likable, but it is different enough from American movies and has an excellent foreign ensemble cast, so it's a nice change of pace. I mean, jeesh it's only 85 minutes long, so you don't have a real big commitment here. Just shut it off, if it doesn't hold your attention, but my guess is that it will, although it's another film that may leave you feeling a bit dirty at the end, which seems to be becoming quite common. That might accurately reflect the world we are living in.
Leofwine_draca
JACKPOT is a Tarantino-esque crime thriller, laced with black comedy and based on a story by Jo Nesbo, the man responsible for the excellent HEADHUNTERS. This film isn't another HEADHUNTERS, but it does feel in the same territory and it comes close at times. It's a gruesome tale of thieves falling out, packed with twists and turns and all manner of unholy murder.The story begins with deceptive simplicity: a work syndicate win millions on a lottery. However, things soon take a dark turn indeed, and we're soon up to our necks in blood-spraying murder. Apart from the opening flash-forward scene which spoils later surprises (I typically hate non-linear scenes in films, except in the likes of PULP FICTION where they're done right), there's little to dislike here.The actors are likable, the direction is decent, and the comedy really adds to the experience. JACKPOT is a perfect film for both fans of Scandi crime and madcap black comedies; not a classic perhaps, but it's certainly good and better than most even if it does tell a familiar storyline these days.
tohalloran
I don't like gore but the gore is so cartoonish here it does not interfere with the fun. This film has everything.It has the basic convoluted crime story,unbelievably funny dialogue and great characterisation. There is nothing not to like in this film.The bad guys are well drawn and never given the outlandish lines that Tarentino gives them, they remain human, stupidly criminal and never the mere 'apes' that the police hero sees. I was a little thrown by the ending. I don't know how we were meant to judge the detective but of course it hardly matters. This shames Hollywood once again, just like Headhunters did. If you don't find this hilarious the fault is with you.
writers_reign
Headhunters has a lot to answer for. It was an exceptional thriller and one that I will definitely buy on DVD. On the other hand it was responsible for directing my steps to the theatre showing Jackpot, om the seemingly logical but ultimately foolish grounds that Norway was emerging as a new source of top-flight thrillers. In my dreams. This is a thriller that thinks it's a Black Comedy then decides it is a thriller after all and winds up being neither. For reasons best known to the author a non-criminal becomes the fourth man in a football pool syndicate and, charged with filling in the coupon to their instructions, changes one of the fixtures which results in 12 out of 12 correct forecasts and nets them a jackpot. Whilst he is out buying beer to celebrate two of the other three kill the third partner. The fourth man returns - the killing occurs in his apartment - and is more or less obliged to watch as the other two behead the corpse. Eventually - don't ask - they drive to a local strip club where one of the two assassins owes the owner a considerable sum. There follows a Mexican stand-off with no less than three guns pointing at various protagonists. Whilst this is going on a group of young men arrive in search of (their words) pussy and are blown away; the police arrive to find the non-criminal clutching a rifle, surrounded by stiffs and lying beneath an obese woman. From there it goes downhill. Don't say I didn't warn you.
