Mads Mikkelsen aside, see it for Søren Pilmark as the brooding, introspective gangster Torkild
Added 4/24/2009
No Dogme '95 here: this enjoyable Danish film could have been made in Hollywood. Writer/Director Anders Thomas Jensen is responsible for the screenplay for the great film After the Wedding and the earlier small gem Mifune (which was part of the Dogme oeuvre).
'After the Wedding' star Mads Mikkelsen (better know as Le Chifre in Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition)) is part of the foursome at the core of Flickering Lights. Mifune's Iben Hjejle - known to US audiences for her role as John Cusack's long-suffering girlfriend in High Fidelity - is here too in a smaller role. But this movie is all about Søren Pilmark as the brooding, introspective gangster Torkild. Like James Gandolfini's conflicted, complex Tony Soprano, Pilmark's Torkild contemplates a simpler life without crime. And, like The Sopranos, it ain't as easy as it looks.
Jensen's script mixes moments of high comedy with real emotion and depictions of true, bonding friendships.
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Terrific cast, plot line falls short.
Added 1/19/2009
Danish film based on 4 small time gang members who fail to deliver on a job for a mobster named Eskimo and then are asked to heist a safe with $500,000. The gang members, childhood friends, each face a personal crisis of one sort or another and decide to run away with the money to start a new life rather than turn over the loot.
* Terrific cast. Mads Mikkelsen ("Arne") and Ulrich Thomsen ("Peter") are particularly good.
* Witty lines in a dark / bleak comedy.
* Violent in a number of scenes (involving humans and animals)
* The film loops in reflections and flashbacks of the gang's childhood and upbringing but does so in a superficial and unconvincing manner.
Want to see some great Danish films, I would suggest you start with any of these four: The Inheritance. Brothers. After the Wedding. The Celebration.
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One of my favorite Danish films!
Added 1/3/2009
Having seen quite a few Danish films since marrying a Dane (and visiting Denmark more times than I care to admit), I have to say that Flickering Lights remains one of my all time favorites.
The acting is, of course, superb. One should only expect as much from a film that has so many of Denmark's best actors in it. The pace is good and the movie makes you laugh. It's never boring, has a few twists you might not expect and overall it just works very well for what it is.
I can watch this movie over and over again, because it's just that kind of a good 'black comedy' film. If you've a fan of foreign movies, especially Danish films, I would definitely encourage you to check this one out. You'll be missing out if you don't.
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danish film
Added 7/17/2008
I like Danish films especially those that have been written Anders Thomas Jensen. This movie is a Danish Cohen Brothers film. I loved the story, loved the characters and very much loved the outcome. Really good shoot out too.
It is just kind of sick though, nevertheless pretty funny
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Great Film - Horrible Quality DVD Release
Added 9/1/2007
This is purely a technical review.
Be forewarned before you purchase this - Vanguard Video has really botched this release. It's 4:3 widescreen, low resolution, massive compression (the entire disc contains only 3.8gb of data). Worse, there's a "Special Features" option on the main menu - but just try to click it. Go ahead and try! It won't work. Why? Because they apparently decided to leave off the special features but *neglected to remove the option from the menu*. Certainly a trailer was all they were going to offer, and there was still more than enough room on the disk for that.
Oh, and the subtitles are burned directly onto the video. What you have here is a DVD version of the VHS master. And I thought Strand was the hands-down winner of DVD butchery. I can master a better DVD than this, and I don't get paid to do it.
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Hilarious comedy with anarchy reigning...
Added 11/5/2009
"In China They Eat Dogs" is a Danish film directed by Lasse Spang Olsen. This is an extremely funny action movie about a Arvid (Dejan Cukic) who has misgivings about having sent a bank robber to jail. Arvid is attacked by a woman who claims to be the bank robber's wife. She explains that they had needed the money for artificial insemination since they were not able to have a child otherwise. Arvid's guilt about sending the man to jail leads him to seek out his brother, Harald (Kim Bodnia) who is a criminal, in order to steal money so that the woman can have the artificial insemination. They then attempt to break the man out of prison, and almost kill him in the process, all the while Vuk (sounds like puke), is suffering one injury after another while assisting in these capers. After breaking the bank robber out of jail they discover that the woman was actually lying. She was his sister, not his wife. So it turns out they had done everything for not. This leads to another series of crazy events as innocent victims get in the way and the body count builds all leading to a grand shootout and its surprising ending. This film reminded me somewhat of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", with its manic energy, and various twists and turns.
The film seems to be about Arvid learning that there are no barriers in life except for those that one places upon themselves. In a country, like China, it is okay to eat dogs, whereas in European or North American societies, it is thought of as repulsive. As the film progresses the mild, and boring Arvid, gradually transforms into a character who sets his own code of morals, which don't necessarily fit in with the norms set by his society. Anarchy ensues as one thing leads to another in this highly entertaining film.
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When are our actions moral?
Added 12/30/2007
If there ever was a film that talks about moral ambiguities of the today's modern world and decisions that we - as individuals make daily, then this is the one. This dark comedy takes us into a life of an average person, bank teller, whose life changes irreversibly in a matter of seconds. One little decision leads him to re-unite with his estranged older brother for many years past, who happens to be a felon. Suddenly, his closest circle of friends is bunch of characters that are mix of sociopaths and Serbian thugs. You will enjoy the dark humor of the movie and the inevitable personal growth of the main character in this story. The price of his coming to terms of what life is all about is steep, but despite of all ambiguities and actions he takes in the last few days of his life, he manages to get to heaven. Wonderful film, smart and entertaining. Mix of comedy, dark humor and action that will keep you at the edge of oyur seat until the end...
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Violent but funny
Added 12/20/2007
As a Danish-speaking American, I'm always looking for good films that provide opportunities to hear Danes speaking Danish. This is not the type of film I usually enjoy (films like Italiensk for begyndere, and just about anything of Bille August, are more to my taste)... but something about the reviews made it seem worth trying - and I'm glad I got it, because it's FUNNY!
As another reviewer mentioned, it's very Scandinavian humor - and there is a LOT of violence in the film. The scenes with the English-speaking "American", especially the one at the end of the movie, were the only disappointments - the movie did a fine job with its message of "no matter what you do in life, it's ok as long as you meant well" without those distracting elements.
Well-acted, well-filmed and highly entertaining!
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