Baba's Cars

I really don't know what or even if Scandinavians have problems with each other as depicted in the movie ... it seemed to be an inside joke that ran throughout the movie and although I'm not on the inside, like I said, I liked that!

This movie is anything but PC. It's quirky, it dark and for some it might just be stupid. But I liked the characters and the approach (the movie does not take itself serious). Of course it has flaws, but it makes fun of them instead of trying to be something it can't be (a Hollywood action movie for example). So either you'll go to watch this being open for a dark humored action flick or you don't! :o)

I'm not sure why the Scandinavian commentators on this movie are so uptight about this cool little gangster flick. Sure, it's full of Nordic stereotypes, but for non-Scandinavians who will already be confused by the mix of languages in the movie and the unfamiliarity of the actors, this won't matter a jot. It's a farce for heaven's sake, and nobody should be bothered by a little political incorrectness. Apart from some very modern bad language and one hilarious (but over the top) scene of tongue-in-cheek violence, this movie plays very much like an Ealing comedy. Think 'Lock Stock' meets 'The Ladykillers' with a hint of 'The Big White'. Well worth a look on TV or DVD, but the running time makes it a bad deal at a theatre.

Being an Non-Scandinavian, I'm not able to share the (justified?) disapproval of some of the other reviewers. So all native Scandinavians, please excuse my apparent ignorance;). Watching this movie on a SAS flight, I felt quite amused by this little gangster comedy involving Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Arabs and Russians in a vivid turmoil about cars,guns and money. Though the story about a Russian mobster and his crazy Finnish hit men trying to get an old Cadillac full of mob money back from a sleazy car dealer and his naive son-in-law surely isn't all too original (often resembling movies like Snatch or Pulp Fiction), the location and actors do indeed convey a certain charm that makes this movie all in all worth to watch, and may it be just for the sake of simple entertainment.

Babas bilar is a hilarious combination of Nordic stereotypes and languages as well as plain awful but funny ultra-violence. As a comedy in the same violent way as Pulp Fiction, but happening in a small Swedish town during winter, this movie is just good entertainment.

Andreas Wilson plays Jojo, a poor young guy in love with his girlfriend Anso (Sara Sommerfeld), but with too little money for a proper house or apartment. Anso has a strong disagreement with her father Baba (Hassan Brijany) who is selling and buying cars, and not always so much according to the law. Then Jojo ends up helping Baba with one Cadillac, full of Russian drug money...

The wonderful combination of different nationals and languages was probably the funniest part of this movie. We've seen people blown up for the sake of fun in other movies as well, but Babas bilar brings the new aspect of different nationalities and stereotypes into this "fish soup". The Russian drug dealer and his three Finnish bodyguards, a Norwegian car buyer along with the Swedes just cook up something funny together. As a Finn myself, I was laughing a lot when seeing the oh-so-familiar behaviour of Finnish males in sauna, played by three very popular Finnish actors (Peter Franzen, Jarmo Mäkinen and Hannu Kiviaho).

As a story Babas bilar does not offer much new, but as plain entertainment, this was something I liked.

I liked the movie very much. There are nice plot twists, quite a surprise at the end and the script is funny and depicts stereotypes without reproducing them. Also there are pretty insights into the ambiguities of personal characters, of both heroes and villains. And there are quite many heroes and villains in this movie. Actually this is one of the strengths of this film: It shows the complexity of the motives of people both good and bad living under harsh circumstances. And here the film allows itself to take neither sides. But all this happens with ease and verve. The work of the actors is totally decent. All in all I think it's a nifty action comedy.