Die Jönsson Bande

Where to begin with this one? I honestly tried to enter this movie with an open mind, but the convoluted plot, the terrible set of characters and the fact that this "comedy" just isn't funny made this "open mindness" quite difficult to maintain.

First of all, the story is all over the place. The central plot and McGuffin aren't all too bad, in fact, it could have been quite interesting if done right. Too bad it isn't. It's all overly convoluted and the story just isn't presented well at all. Besides the pure incompetence (?) of not being able to provide an engaging, comprehendable story, a family comedy does not feel like the right forum for this type of plot. Even if done well it would've felt a bit over-the-top. I could (and should!) have been done waaay more simple. The convoluted main story together with the completely unnecessary side stories also made the runtime overly long. The 2 hours felt like 5.

Talking about unnecessary side plots: let's talk characters, because this movie is full of them, and few of them fill any kind of function. Most characters are paper-thin and completely lack any kind of personality. Paper-thin characters are unarguably common in silly comedies, so that's not my criticism per se, but when you are using such flat characters for emotional scenes like this movie does it just turn out embarrassing and cringey. The movie and its characters simply do not deserve these kind of scenes. They feel awkwardly misplaced. The movie is also full of unmotivated character reactions and illogical character decisions, and on top of it all, almost none of the characters are likeable and funny. The cast itself is good, but they're either horribly miscast or has got nothing to do, of either value or comedic effect.

All of this would have been okay to some degree if the movie itself was funny, but it just isn't, and I can't see too many disagreeing with me on that note. A few smirks here and there, one or two laughs, but that's about it. It's not "cosy", exciting, or presents an interesting message either, so what is there left to enjoy?

As long as this isn't the first movie you've ever seen, and are mesmerized with all the pretty colors and moving pictures, you will probably noy get anything out of it. It's a complete train wreck. An unfunny such.

A few funny moments rescue this, over all, poorly written manuscript with no real story. The first strike ends with a disaster, but no explanation to why, where and how. Then the gang suddenly ends up as key players in a coupe where a rich old guy wants to turn the country of Finland into a monarchy. Well. A few laughs, but the overall feeling is just confusion and diasppointment.

This i a terrible film, the script is awful. To many characters, the story jumps from one direction to another. My kids started to watch their phones instead... they even wanted to stop the film to play boardgames instead. The main characters are not even close to the original ones.. Vanheden feels more like dynamit-Harry... Avoid!!!!!!

This movie is an insult to the best movie franchise from Sweden. I thought since Henrik Dorsin is such a big fan of the franchise that he at least could bring some dignity to this movie, but no. His imitations of Charles Ingvar just feels pasted and stupid. The charismatic and cool Vanheden is reduced to a cat-loving mummy's boy? And Dynamit Harry is reduced too nothing! And the main villain Wall-Enberg who was one of the most brilliant characters of the old franchise is reduced to an old senile fool. Are they trying to mock our beloved characters?

Doris is obviously the new brain of the gang. Apparently, the filmmakers feel like they need to make Doris an "strong go-girl"-character to make the movie more compatible to the 2020s, but man it feels wrong. If you want to create strong female characters, for god sake, create a new franchise with new characters. Instead of forcing a strong female character at the expense of the real main characters. To force a female character into an old franchise, is a trick they use in all remakes this day - to make the old movies more "up-to-date", but it just feels forced and the result is never well.

The old Johnson Gang was about three out-of-place characters put into our universe. They used their peculiar abilities to commit crimes together, In this movie they don't even establish any characteristics to the characters. Harry for instance is driving the car? All fans of Jönssonligan knows that Vanheden is the driver in the gang! It just proves that the filmmakers aren't taking this task seriously.

This type of "slapstick comedy" was all made better in the 70-90s, franchises like "Sällskapsresan", "Fawlty Towers", "Naked Gun", "Mr.Bean" and the old "Jönssonligan" was all made with charm, style and cleaver humor! However this type of movie has translated awfully into the 2000s, where the filmmakers are going into the trap of making the movie to childish, political correct, spiced with humor that feels like an insult to your intellect, and a braindead script.

Its like the moviemakers think "Hey we are making a cheese comedy, lets just fool around for a couple a months and see whats sticks on the screen". The old Jönssonligan-movies did include both slap stick and cheesy humor, but the story and characters always felt well processed. But in this movie you already in the trailer see sloopy CGI, that look fit enough for a pixar movie, and in the end all the charathers are dancing like fools to some cartoonish music? That is so far from the original Jönssonligan, that was a perfect mix of action, humor, slapstick mixed with a thriller feeling.

Let this be the last Jönssonligan-movie, stop destroying the legacy of the best movies ever produced in Sweden. Really bad movie, a solid 1 of 10.

The story is in my opinion way to complicated, the background story could have been way shorter and much simpler made. The movie just seems really inconsistent even for a comedy movie, and I know that twists in comedy movies doesn't necessarily have to be 100 % logical, but they could have least made the twist somewhat funny then.