Reykjavik - Rotterdam

When I watched the American Contraband movie, I had no idea it was based on this movie, because I hadn't watched it back then. Of course the minute Contraband came out on DVD some clever marketing guy thought of releasing this movie too and label it with the tag "movie Contraband was based on". Since I liked the the other Contraband, I thought I'd give it a try.

And it is more than apparent that Contraband uses most of this movie as a blueprint. This one though, is leaner and faster. A frenetic pace that might leave some people behind. I like it when people can tell you the same thing, but quicker.. In this case though the remake did improve on some points. One of them is the ending. It doesn't make any sense, even if it is meant to be a joke, they should know better than that. The relationships get explored more in the remake, which on the downside make them a bit cheesy of course.

Tough to say what you might like more. I always think it's good to see the original first and then the remake. But that is up to you.

Reykjavik-Rotterdam is not only a thriller, but also a family story. Although the beginning is violent, and violence is there throughout the movie, the family elements, i.e. the main character, Christophers family gives the movie depth and a realistic perspective. The comedy element is also there throughout. This excellent combination of thriller and comedy throws the audience between laugher, excitement, thrill and compassion. The part that happens in Rotterdam gives the movie a fresh peak. Baltasar Kormákur handles the main role (Christopher) brilliantly. It is nice to see him act again after an absence of the screen for quite a while. One would guess that his emphasis on working as director and producer the last years has leveled him upward as an actor. Ingvar Sigurdsson also delivers his character (Steingrimur) with fine sensitivity, as often before. There are two new upcoming stars worth to mention. Lilja Nott (Iris) is convincing as the mother of two boys and wife of Christopher, which has obviously not been too easy to handle often before due to his smuggling habit. Jóhannes Haukur (Eiríkur) has a strong presence and is convincing as the violent drug dealer. He has arrived to stay in the Icelandic scene at least. I definitely recommend Reykjavik-Rotterdam.

There are things to like about Reykjavik-Rotterdam. First off , its always good to have a film coming out of little known Iceland. Recently films such as Black's Game have really opened my eyes to Cinema from this nation. To see that the Hollywood film Contraband is a remake of Reykjavik -Rotterdam, the expectations were at a high.

Unfortunately Reykjavik-Rotterdam is far from a good film in my opinion. It has many problems with one being that it didn't feel like a complete, all round experience. Our main character travels to Rotterdam on board a cargo ship, to smuggle some alcohol back to Reykjavik in order to give his family a better life. We also have the standard villains who are pursuing and hassling the families of the characters involved. However, while it might sound interesting, the film manages to feel like a B Grade film. By the end of it, you want more. You feel like it was way too simple to receive all the accolades that its received. The villains aren't intimidating enough and the plight of the main character isn't translated very well through the screen.

To sum it all up, Reykjavik-Rotterdam feels like a movie that was rushed. With patience, it could have been memorable, but unfortunately it falls short of the mark.

If you want to see a good Icelandic Crime Thriller, I would suggest Black's Game!

I'm not going to spoil anything. So I won't go into any details about the story. I hate when people do that.

Here we have an Icelandic thriller that kept you excited right from the beginning to the very end. I absolutely loved the story, it was fresh and original and distinctively better than most Icelandic films that have tried to depict the dark side of Reykjavík (Iceland's capital). Looking back at films made over 10 years ago, such as "Nei er ekkert svar", it's simply astounding to see how far Icelandic film making has come. This really is an A-level action thriller which I found to be more entertaining than most movies in the similar genre I've seen during the past months. I think the director did an excellent job and Baltasar Kormákur should seriously consider acting more alongside directing because he shows and proves it beyond any doubt that he is one of Iceland's greatest actors. Iceland could of course use more actors because you kind of see the same faces over and over again, every time a film is made. However, when a film is as well casted as this one, one forgets that very quickly. All characters had found their way to just the right people. I must give kudos to Baltasar, Lilja, Ingvar, Þröstur, Ólafur, Jörundur, Victor... Jeez, just all of you. Thank you for a superb film.

Highly recommended, see it as soon as possible.

This movie was so amateurish it distracted from what ever the story was supposed to be about. It was a smuggling thriller but am still not sure exactly what they were smuggling vodka pills or both. (I think?? one group was smuggling pills another vodka and the hero's "friend" stole the money which he was supposed to pay out so landed him in trouble.

The "good" smuggler evidently figured out a way to have the vodka laced with heroin or whatever he was smuggling float to the surface of the ocean where he ditched it at just the exact right time so it could be recovered. If you could have followed what laws of physics he exploited to achieve this at least it would have made sense. If that was even the case?

This is below a B grade it is a Z grade Icelandic thriller movie....the smuggler/robin hood hero gets away with it.

The main character's wife looked like she about to be raped a half dozen times and it looked like she was killed once including being totted around wrapped in clear plastic but ends up smiling in a hospital bed at the end of the movie.

This thing is an amateurish dog. Iceland can surely produce something better than this. Confusing bad acting boring what else makes a movie a dud? This one had it. Maybe if I could have followed the logic of the story it would have helped.

It gets 2 stars for the uniqueness of being from Iceland otherwise it would have gotten 1.

Maybe you have to watch it twice to figure out the story. But nothing about this movie could force me to do that.

DO NOT RECOMMEND