Hundtricket - The Movie

I went to see this one against what I believed to be better judgement and was rather pleasantly surprised.

It is not by any means a great film or even an effective romantic comedy (the major cons are total predictability in almost every single area and a horribly lame soundtrack) but it has a certain warmth, is laid-back in a somewhat endearing (and at the same time annoying) way and it has a fair share of laughs as well. The acting is surprisingly good for a modern swedish comedy and especially considering the rather inexperienced actors being used. Alexander Skarsgard is truly great as the childish, self-aggrandizing and confounding brat "Survivor-Micke".

To sum it all up it won't stand the test of time, but most of you will be able to enjoy it today (even if you're dragged to the cinema by a chick). 6 out of 10.

From two young directors comes this delightful romantic comedy about Simon who dreams of finding his true love. A remake of a short with essentially the same cast it is sometimes obvious how the plot has had to be stretched to the limit for a feature-film length. E.g. Kjell Bergqvist can always make a character out of every role he plays nowadays, but he has several scenes although his character doesn't add one thing to the plot itself. It takes quite a while before Simon meets Mia the first time and the end with the chasing police car and what Simon does at the airport is just too unbelievable. But you can't separate romantic love from silliness, can you?

One of the year's most interesting feature-film debuts in Swedish cinema. 7 / 10.

There's very little originality in this comedic effort that hasn't too many laughs. It's all there, the whole package: the meeting, the fall, the problem that arises, (the annoying buddy,) the airport finale, the informative neighbour, the oh-look-her-boyfriend-isn't-that-innocent-either so-it's-okay-for-her-to-leave-him-for-the-other-guy moment... (Notice the gap in the word there? The doors made me do it.) Then, should it all be there?

The only twists are the titular gimmick and the helpful cab driver. If they didn't have anything new to say - and, more importantly, had this little to say, they could at least have cut the film by twenty-something minutes. The surpriseless, uninspired dialogue, the nothing-exciting-here-either look and the thoroughly bad, tacked-on soundtrack don't help.

That said, there are a couple of scenes that are better than the whole, and the film-makers haven't any problems getting through the duration, so it's not as if this could make anybody suffer. They know they haven't "anything to add" and don't even pretend they do. Some don't and do, and that is a situation much worse than this.

This is a very interesting movie because it's Swedish, I've seen a lot of romantic comedies and Hundtricket is one of the better, that was not patriotic :-).

The movie works really well thanks to Alexander Skarsgård, A talented actor, son to Stellan Skarsgård and can also be seen in Zoolander. He plays Micke, a real player since his real love cheated on him. His friend Simon is also a good addiction to this movie with his silliness, A male who really loves Pretty Woman (the movie).

You can also see a lot of great scenes who can match up with many chick flicks in the states. You won't regret seeing this movie.

7/10

Romantic comedies are not the best genre in Swedish cinema in my opinion. Often the comedy borders on desperation, and most of the time there is bit too much bitterness in the blend for my tastes. This is a more fresh take on the genre, and a comedy that is unusually "light" compared to most Swedish outings.

This movie is about three friends in Stockholm. It mostly centers around the shy Simon who is longing for love. From his more straight-forward friend Micke he gets the tip to use a dog to catch the ladies (hence the title "Hundricket" which means "the dog trick"). This works almost immediately and Simon meets Mia. Soon though it becomes obvious that everything is not what it seems.

I thought this movie was quite funny when i watched it with a friend. It is not THAT much of a "chick-flick", i think most guys will also have quite a bit of fun with it. On the upside are a couple of truly hilarious scenes, on the downside is a story that seems fit to last for about 30 minutes (not the 106 minute running-time). Also the acting is not really top-notch. But that doesn't really distract too much since i think most of the actors were well picked and seem at ease in their parts.

So, this is not movie of the year and it's not hilarity defined. But it is rather entertaining and it's not as contrived as most other Swedish films. Which in itself is worth another notch in the rating. I rate it 5/10.