Jackpot (2014)

Black humor with sort of a happy black ending, which is about as close to a spoiler as I want to get. It's an odd grim movie that starts out really strong and compelling, and while it loses steam as it moves along, it still manages to keep you guessing until the end. It's a bit bloody in parts, but nothing, I'm afraid, that's too terribly shocking to a modern audience. While this film seems to be assembled from parts of a bunch of different movies ("Very Bad Things", among many others, comes immediately to mind), the end result is reasonably original.Scandinavians do dark stuff better than anyone else for some reason- -must be the whole Arctic Circle thing or something. Nobody in this film is particularly likable, but it is different enough from American movies and has an excellent foreign ensemble cast, so it's a nice change of pace. I mean, jeesh it's only 85 minutes long, so you don't have a real big commitment here. Just shut it off, if it doesn't hold your attention, but my guess is that it will, although it's another film that may leave you feeling a bit dirty at the end, which seems to be becoming quite common. That might accurately reflect the world we are living in.

Other reviewers have outlined the story quite well so I'll keep this short. This film is very entertaining and very funny. Of course that depends on what you find funny. Almost all the humour is so called black comedy. Some people might find the comedic scenes distasteful but they made me laugh out loud and that's because, although gory, they are somewhat cartoonish. The script is tight and flows nicely although the film could have been 15 - 20 minutes longer. The ending feels a little rushed and is not as satisfying as it could have been. These are small quibbles and overall I would heartily recommend the film both for the thriller and comedic aspects.

I don't like gore but the gore is so cartoonish here it does not interfere with the fun. This film has everything.It has the basic convoluted crime story,unbelievably funny dialogue and great characterisation. There is nothing not to like in this film.The bad guys are well drawn and never given the outlandish lines that Tarentino gives them, they remain human, stupidly criminal and never the mere 'apes' that the police hero sees. I was a little thrown by the ending. I don't know how we were meant to judge the detective but of course it hardly matters. This shames Hollywood once again, just like Headhunters did. If you don't find this hilarious the fault is with you.

I was looking forward to Arme Riddere, told it was a crime story told in a Tarantino/Coen-stylish way. And it's good, though maybe not as funny as I thought it wood be. Still this is good entertainment, and well acted, and the story, based on a manuscript by Jo Nesbø, also has it's great outline. The filming technique is also well done.Well, what happens? Terrified and bloody, Oscar Svendsen awakes clinched to a shotgun in a strippers joint. Around him 8 dead men, and police aiming at him. To Oscar it's clear that he is innocent. It all started when four chaps won 1,7 million on the pools...The film starts off with meeting the main characters, Oscar and the detective, slowly starting to believe Oscars' story about him and his three criminal friends.I goes wrong from the start. And is it really a good idea playing the pools which three inmates trying to get back in real life? Of course not. And from ten on the story gets bloody. Too bloody for Norways' biggest newspaper, which said it was impossible to review. It's not, and this statement is just silly. As most other Norwegian reviewers have stated later on.This is hardly a comedy, though there are some good laughs tucked in the story. The story is sick and twisted, but not worse that it could actually have happened in that kind of wrong environment.Arme Riddere is good fun, but lacks the quality of a classic. May this is because it's not drawing the line completely out. Tt's not really a crime story, not really a comedy, a.s.o. But if you're not afraid of some gore, I think you'll have a really good time watching this.