Olsen Bandens sidste stik

This is not how I wanted to remember the Olsen criminal gang: Kjeld is confined to a wheelchair, Benny has gone large (fat) as a house, and Egon is in a care home for the elderly and senile. This movie shouldn't have been made for the same reason I don't like to go to funerals, because I want to remember people how they were when they were alive. How they thought this image of the Olsen gang as old and crippled would revitalize the danish institution in movie history that is the Olsen gang, is beyond me.

As a gigantic fan of the 13 original Olsen-Banden films, I had to see this even though I had very low expectations. However, I knew 5 minutes into this film that even those were not going to be met. The script is horrible and has nothing in common with the original films. Erik Ballings magic as a director is missing. Yvonne, an absolutely essential figure, is missing. And Balling's replacement director Tom Hedegaard managed to alienate even the peaceful Ove Sprogøe, who is rumored to have told him: "Don't bloody tell me what to do! I know what to do!". On top of this, Hedegaard died before shooting was finished and then Poul Bundgaard died from a heart attack two weeks before shooting was over and had to be replaced by Tommy Kenter. All in all, this project should never ever have been even considered.

Or to quote Ove Sprogøe, who actually said this to the the press after watching the film: "Utter sh*t!". The only reason this gets 2 instead of 1 is because the original three actors are in it.

Save your money and time - this is dog sh*t!

This is only for fans of the serial. But if you are one of them, this is a must. In this the absolute final Olsenbanden movie, there is room for everybody. All the actors who used to be in the serial in the old days are represented here. That is if they haven't died yet. Kirsten Walther (Yvonne) died a long time ago. And since Poul Bundgaard (Keld) died during the filming, and Bjørn Watt-Boolsen (Bang-Johansen) just died yesterday (5/1 99), there will never be any more Olsenbanden movies. But even though this was not one of the best, I think it was a nice way to say goodbye to Egon Olsen. (And also to the actor Ove Sprogø, since this is supposed to be his last public appearance.)

This movie just shouldn't exist, as my mother explained.

Compared to the several previous entries in the series, the writing feels poor and contains way too much exposition (of a somewhat convoluted plot). Simultaneouly, we're getting references to privious characteres in the series, played by the actors - as a poor mans Danish riff Cravens "New Nightmare." This attempt mostly fall flat, as the movies also has covers 18 years of untold fictional story.

Cravens movie puts Freddy Krueger into the reel world, as does this. The major difference being, that here it just doens't work at all, because Olsen-Banden (the Olsen-Gang) are very two dimentional characters that works mostly just for comedic purporses (and that works to varyind degrees of well in the many previous entries.)

To add insult to injury, this movie is also very confused about whether it wants to play the scens for laughter or serious. The lightning and editing doens't match the previous films. I found myself both missing the soundtracks and Ove Sprogøs voice-over during the heists. Needless to say, I didn't finish the film. (although I could do that later.)

This movie is confused mess - the likely cause: Two deathc plagued the production of a close-knit crew.

A sad and pathetic ending to the franchise.

They were clearly too old to play their roles like they used to. When one of the leads died during filming the already weak script had to be rewritten, obviously affecting the end product in a negative way.

Finally, what used to be funny gags etc. had changed since the last movie. 17 years is a long time in comedy and The Olsen Gang just wasn't funny anymore.