(Sökarna)

The first thing we should realize here is that I have judged this movie not by how professional the actors are or how good the filming is, but for the general feeling this movie gives you.

If you grew up in Sweden in the eighties or nineties you WILL recognize a lot of details in this movie. The script may not be to good written, but the movie has a very clear message to send to the viewers.

This movie is really fun to watch everytime just because of the funny quotes that are made in the movie. Really stereotype characters and extremely violent, but in some way interesting to see how this young director want to display the life in the suburbs of a swedish major city.

Love it or Hate it. Compare it with "Boyz in the Hood" if you'd like

The directors of this film has just taken an easy story and made the best out of it and i must surely say that they succeeded. They have taken parts of their one experiences as teen hoodlums and let an old friend of theirs (Liam Norberg) play the main character Jocke. Jocke is a young man with a hard childhood who has grown as a young criminal. He and his friends are stealing, beating up peoples and do drugs. After a failed atempt to burglary Jocke gets thrown in jail where e meets Tony an invereate gangster. As they get togheter heavier crimes and drugs enter Jockes life. This is a fun film to watch looking all the celebrities and humoristic charachters and comments. One more thing thats quite intresting is that a few weeks before the film entered the big screen Liam Norberg was framed for Swedens biggest bankrobbery. But if the directors got help with the script of Liam i don´t know. I do suggest everyone to see it eventhough it was made a few years ago it´s still going strong!

The director has managed to get a precise picture of the hard knock Stockholm suburban life. The script, which is based on an Astrid Lindgren classic, is catchy, funny and mind blowing. The most familiar and loved actors of Sweden have been brought together in this modern classic, in a Ocean Eleven fashion.

The movie starts us of in a high speed chase on foot, and straight away we want to know more about this ruffian. the following scenes really have some pretty and heart breaking moments that leaves no human being untouched. I had to stop the movie and dry my tears from time to time.

This movie is not appropriate for kids(23 and under), I still have nightmares and must visit a shrink to keep me calm. I specially remember one scene that gives me the chills........I can only say one thing. A man....and a dead fox!!

Stockholm has a major problem with drugs. And everybody is invited. 2 grams of heroin cost less than a pack of Marlboro. So of course every kid run around with chemicals in their veins.

In 1993 we had movies like the very sad Schindler's List, the funny Groundhog Day and if we combine these modern classics we get......you know what......Sökarna!! See it, to believe it!!!

This movie is really cool even though there are to much early 90's reminders in it. I just love the scenery and the acting. you want to watch a real swedish gansgta movie rent this one. Liam was the kind of gangster he played in this movie ( he has changed to the better now.. he found god). I really hope they will show his upcoming movies on cinemas.

Undoubtedly "Sökarna" is a Swedish classic. For all it's awful quality it influenced a whole genre of Swedish film. Loads of movies like this one were made, with actors who try hard and fail miserably and with enthusiastic film-makers that have no grasp of the art of film-making but won't let that stop them.

"Sökarna" tells the story of a troubled young man named Jon who keeps getting into fights and slips further and further into a life of crime. Since this is a Swedish movie, all ends in the darkest tragedy. But if you have seen Swedish social-realism before you already knew that.

The acting is generally awful. The only actor really getting away with it is the underestimated Torsten Flinck, who was actually a good actor before all the coke and alcohol burned his brain away. Here he's truly disgusting as the man who fosters Jon in prison to become a real hardcore criminal. If Flinck is the top when it comes to acting, P-G Hylén most certainly is the bottom. Why it would be "cool" to dress up in Lederhosen and grind yourself with raw meat, just to show what a bad-ass you are, is beyond me. Although i must admit it makes for one of the most memorable scenes in a Swedish movie yet, on par with Max Von Sydow playing chess against Death in "The Seventh Seal".

When all is said and done "Sökarna" is highly entertaining. It's just so awful that you can't help liking it at least a little bit. The lack of real actors, the lack of funding (represented nicely by the fact that the police cars in this movie are just black cars with a "P" painted on the side) and the complete lack of directorial talent from Daniel Fridell. It's sort of an Ed Wood of Swedish teenage films. Awful but endearing.

I rate it 5/10 for originality, 1/10 for quality and 10/10 for early 90's nostalgia.