Gamle mænd i nye biler

"Gamle maend in nye biler - Alte Männer in neuen Autos`, the prequel to "I kina spiser de hunde". Part-time-chef and gangster Harald is here again, together with his subordinates, including Vuk and his Serbian body-guard. New among them is a Swedish psychopath, specialized in killing every woman he meets. But not in Denmark. There he meets the love of his life. Like in "I kina..." the cold-storage room becomes the mortuary, cooking becomes side-line. Though Harald's subordinates would rather take part in a pastry competition instead of supporting his criminal machinations.

Lasse Spang Olsen made a solid gangster flick but does not come up to "I Kina spiser de honde". Too much action too long, too much violence (esp. against Vuk), that does not result from comic accidents. Therefore, this "prequel" lacks the anarchic sense of humor, one would have expected. Solid, but not as good as "I kina.."

I thought the first movie was great. Not only did it have cool action and great, if a little bizar humor, it was also slightly philosophical. This movie is devoid of the latter, but I still laughed my ass off. It is a (pre)sequel, and taken as such, it is quite good. Story is weak and incoherent, direction is shabby, but the dialog, and bizar events, were right on the mark. If you have seen the first, and read this, you should know whether or not you will enjoy it. I know I did, even if it couldn't match up to the first (Hey, not much can.) So enjoy.

A prequel to "I Kina Spiser de Hunde" (In China they Eat Dogs) from 1999 with same writer/dírector/cast (save Dejan Cukic and a few others). This time, we follow Harald (Kim Bodnia) as he is released from jail, only to get involved in a plot to get Swedish serial killer Ludvig (Torkel Petterson) out of prison, so he can meet his estranged father, The Monk (Jens Okking). Once again, peppered with funny dialogue, not as inspired as the original, but with one hilarious scene in which the cooks and Harald futilely tries to speak English to a Swedish hotel receptionist. The car stunts are still clumsy, a notch above the sloppy action sequences from the first film, and the film is loaded with a high mortality rate, but it's uneven and substitutes black humor with a mean spirit, and even asks us to care about these characters, after putting them through numerous outlandish situations and hurling credibility out the window. Kim Bodnia plays it straight, but his tough guy act is getting a little tired by now, but Tomas Villum Jensen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas still make a great comic duo as the put-upon sidekicks. Iben Hjejle is lovely as Ludvig's love-interest, but her role is badly written (even though she gets to punch Bodnia in the face). Jacob Haugaard gets some laughs, too, as a seedy doctor. Note to writer Anders Thomas Jensen: A couple of anachronistic goofs. The film is supposed to take place before the first film, which was released in 1999. If this film is set before that, they couldn't have crossed the bridge between Denmark and Sweden, as it wasn't built at that time, and the national football league wasn't sponsored by SAS then, either.

The supernatural elements of the first film are totally ignored this time around. Okay entertainment, but doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. **½

Blame me for watching it before the first part but still when I analyze it now I have to say this one was a vast improvement from the first one. It has a concrete storyline throughout the film and does not stray much into the subplots unlike the first one. I thoroughly enjoyed the flow of story which looked more plausible thanks to the crisp editing and intelligent direction which doesn't give you much time to ponder around. All in all, a highly superior sequel to follow up the brilliant "In China they eat dogs". Yes, I wouldn't mind at all if the director comes up with some wacky storyline and decides to complete the trilogy with the third one and I'm sure there will be lots of others who'll agree with me!!

Comedy at it's best! The humour in this picture varies from lighter more jackass'isch to dark satirical aspects and sometimes borderline evil. The plot is probably totally impossible to explain for someone that hasn't seen it, with twists far beyond comprehension; the turns are as many as they are crazy. The characters are twisted and shows both the best and the worst sides of humanity(or lack thereof). The only thing one could complain about is the music -you could wish for a bit more, but that's just a minor thing.

There are several, independent, movies with the same characters which I highly recommend(all danish).