Tod auf See

A few more twists and this film would almost be up and running against some really bad film. But it makes it, mostly because Lars-Erik Berenett is so well at ease with his character, Roland Hassel, that he slips into the role with no apparent problems.

It's poor, pretty Regina Lund that ruins what could be made better. She is, to say the least, completely unbelievable as a robotic russian agent here to lecture on the Russian mob. I really hate faked accents, and this one is so obviously faked. But it's probably not her fault, because the character is so uninteresting that it would take VERY hard work to turn her into a human being.

Can anybody tell me what in the hell is going on in the scene where the police van crashes into the kiosk? It clearly takes place on Östermalm, but when Hassel pursues Strand through some alley, they suddenly end up in some industrial railway yard. What's that?

Well...I hope they'll keep their thinking caps on for the next Hassel film, because this can't be as good as it gets. We've seen the TV-films. They were great.

This is the first movie based upon the TV-series "Hassel" from the 80's and early 90's. A lot has been updated in terms of pace, photography, music and set pieces, but the characters from the original series are still there, and it's good to see most of the main cast back in uniform for this one.

The film starts off when a drug courier is killed and Roland Hassel and his colleagues start to investigate the case. It doesn't take longer than to say "Simpson/Bruckheimer" before a lot of chaos and mayhem erupts.

Lars-Erik Berenett is perfectly cast as Roland Hassel once again and his character is well transformed into this faster moving and more action filled piece compared to the slower TV-police-drama. He gets nice support from actors Regina Lund, Björn Gedda and Thomas Hanzon, the latter playing the bad guy, and making a good job at it.

This IS Hassel for the 90's, erm, the Y2K and the film makers have made a nice looking, explosive sounding film that doesn't cut down too much on the characters and drama between the action scenes.

Director Mikael Hylin makes a nice attempt at creating a Jerry Bruckheimer big budget extravaganza with a limited Swedish budget and no Hans Zimmer. But it works! Mr. Hylin must have felt he had a good one coming up, because he even thanks Jerry Bruckheimer in the end credits. Make sure to stay behind and watch them.