The third wave - La terza onda

It's important to note, when looking at the reviews and comments on this movie, that nearly all of them were written more than a decade ago. At the time, news media and the entertainment industry were just waking up to the new crime waves from Eastern Europe, and speculations and predictions were wildly out of proportion. This movie is a good example of that, and while it probably seemed somewhat realistic at the time, watching it for the first time 12 years later means almost two hours of facepalming.

Another funny thing is that of this first trilogy of Johan Falk movies, only the first one holds up today. "Noll tolerans" was a tight, domestic thriller, and while suffering from some genre clichés, it could very nearly have been produced today. The next two, "Livvakterna" and this one, simply come across as sensationalist speculations run amok. Wildly inaccurate numbers and absurd conjecture are painfully present throughout. Yes, financial organized crime was and is of course a large and real international problem, but neither the European governments or society as we know it fell, as this movie would have us believe. If you're just getting into the Johan Falk movies, I'd recommend you watch the first one and then move on to the 2009 installments. This initial trilogy is in many ways a set of relatively well made thrillers, but their wildly distorted look at contemporary events come across as mostly embarrassing today.

The movie takes "organized crime" as topic and is very up to date. If you read Jean Ziegler's book (published 1998 in Geneva - I don't know the original or the English title), you know what the film is talking about. It is about the modern form of economics, the modern way to make money: by stealing taxes, using capital markets, tax havens, private police forces... the main "Baddie" studied at the London School of Economics. Obviously it was there where he learnt to make money by stealing power from the people or democratic governments, using corrupt banks and secret accounts.

The film uses the struggle of grassroots movements and NGO's as a background: the end of the film takes part WITHIN a demonstration against globalization, which takes place in Munich, the city of the REAL annual "NATO Security Conference" - annual demonstrations included. While the movie describes properly the mechanism of the modern capital markets - organized crime being a regular part of them - the Munich demonstrations are not shown correctly. I live nearby and watch them each year. There is much more police, which is armed heavier, and which is the only violent force on the streets, always being able to suppress any non-peaceful protest. Violent protest, as shown in the film, is not possible in Munich. During the Nato Conference, Munich seems to be a totalitarian Banana Republic. And there is absolutely no way to get near the conference hotels, if you are not invited. Believe me, the demonstrators try it each year...

But the capital markets are not affected. What the film is not telling you - as it is first and foremost an action movie: the problem are not certain human beings, who are criminals: the problem is the structure of the system (capital markets), which allows criminal behavior - which even DEMANDS criminal behavior to be successful. In this system you have to choose between having success or having moral values.

I bought "Third Wave" for 3 € and did not expect too much. But surprisingly this movie was really fun to watch!

The start is a little to slow but after that the movie is fast and full of action. Of course one should not expect the sort of action scenes one can find in Casino Royale or any Hollywood blockbuster. But these realistic action scenes do add to the tension the movie creates. The many changes of location didn't seem to be in the movie just for the sake of it as it appears in many Hollywood action movies within the beginning.

The acting wasn't over the top but the actors still did a good job. Maybe it just felt that way coz I watched the German dubbed version.

The one thing I did not like that much was the ending. The final just takes a little too long and seems exaggerated - (Especially as I am German and I wonder what people will think of the situation in Munich after having seen this movie,haha!)

All in all a very good movie though!

"The Third Wave" is a strong European action-thriller that can measure itself with almost every American production.

Organized crime is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in Europe and the newly appointed leader of the international police force Europol is determined to attack the criminals head on. Unfortunately he himself is killed when three professional hit men try to kill Rebecca, a young woman who had fled England to get away from her very powerful 'white collar' criminal husband. The Swedish inspector Johan Falk (a former colleague of the assassinated Europol-leader) witnesses the hit. He kills one of the hit men and flees the scene Rebecca. Now Johan, Rebecca and Johan's wife and daughter are in danger and because they don't know who to trust, their first priority is just to stay alive.

As said, "The Third Wave' is a good film for a broad audience. The story gave the filmmakers the opportunity to put in a lot of action and because of that, is has become a fast film that doesn't have any weak moments. There are 5 different languages involved, but (with subtitles)it doesn't feel like a foreign film. You won't be able to see it in theaters, so you'll have to look for it at your local videostore.

Swedish action movies. Taste those words put together like that. It just doesn't taste right. Or, at least that is what i used to think. Anders Nilsson has forced me to at least in part reconsider my stance on Swedish action movies with his trilogy about the hard-case Johan Falk.

Usually the problem with Swedish action-movies consist of three things: (1) Hollywood complex. It seems that most Swedish directors have seen too many Hollywood action-movies without realizing that they need a budget to emulate that style. (2) The budget. Closely linked to the first point. Swedish movies simply don't have the budget for full-fledged action-scenes. (3) Stefan Sauk. I don't know HOW the man does it, but it seems he uses some kind of supernatural power to force EVERY director in Sweden to cast him in their action movies. Except for Anders Nilsson who stays away from Sauk mercifully enough.

Readers might already be acquainted with Anders Nilssons film-making from the first two installments in this trilogy. I can start off by saying that this movie is far superior to both the previous films. The technical quality, the acting and the action are all much more refined. This is without a doubt the best action movie to come out of Sweden for a very long time. Perhaps the best ever?

So what makes this such a great movie? Well first of all it seems Anders Nilsson manages to keep his Hollywood-complex in check. It seems he knows that he can't have two hours of intense action so instead he goes for a better approach. The action scenes are few and far between, but well made when they DO happen. Also he doesn't hesitate to use foreign actors which feels like something more Swedish directors should do. It adds substantially to the realism of the movie. Last but not least the script feels properly worked through. Many times scripts for Swedish movies feel unfinished and filled with strange plot-holes and nonsensical twists. This is at least one step up in quality from most others.

In the end this finally feels like a Swedish action movie that people outside of Sweden can actually enjoy. That the budget is still well below 5 million USD shows of course, but the money is used wisely and this is an enjoyable experience. Hopefully other Swedish directors now understand that the bar has been raised. I rate this 6/10.