JOHAN FALK-SERIES PART 2:EXECUTIVE PROTECTION (2001)

Executive Protection is the second movie in the serie about renegade cop Johan Falk and it is also the first in the series  broadening the scope of the story by integrating the threat of foreign organized crime trying to get a foothold in Sweden. Who else is better to deal with the threat than lone wolf Falk?

Johan Falk has been suspended from the police force after the events from Zero Tolerance and he is being contacted by an old friend of his; Sven Persson (Samuel Fröler) who is being extorted by a foreign mafia. The downsized Swedish police force is stretched to thin to actually help out so Falk gets them in touch with  a private security firm, I guess the ronin or the gunfighters of  Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, since this movie seem to owe a big part of the story to Kurosawa and/or Sturges movie. These are basically hired guns who is hired to protect them from the outlaws trying to squeeze them dry, much like the roaming villains of aforementioned flicks.They  then proceed to secure Persson´s house with surveillance equipment and reinforced windows and doors to try to fend off the threat. 

Falk is ready to take on villainous foreign mobsters.

What is particular great about this movie is how it sets up the stakes, the plot is so straightforward and tight, 
there is basically not one dull moment and it is tense throughout. Compared to most swedish thrillers this is perhaps the most american, but the settings and the themes or motifs are so Swedish, like the first movie that it makes it kinda unique. There are some very clever use of sounddesign at the climax. I am not gonna spoil anything, but this is one helluva actionpicture. Where american movies excell at the sheer spectacle of the action, with explosions, where Sweden cannot compete in terms of resources, Nilsson uses the plot,story and characters to  much more extent than American actionfilmmakers and in that sense the action becomes much more involving. Executive Protection is a great example of how an international cinema with little money can create action that may not be spectacular in itself, but assimilated into the story.
There are some poor english-speaking dialogue, but that hopefully does not distract from this otherwise fine slice of genre film for anyone who appreciate actionfilms. Also, there are some generic plot devices in use here, but I find them to be used to great suspenseful advantage.

Here is the haunting opening theme to the movie. It is fucking awesome and unusual:

As I mentioned in teh first review; here is an Amazon-link of getting the first three Falk-movies on Region 1:
http://www.amazon.com/Johan-Falk-Trilogy-Jakob-Eklund/dp/B00F988AV4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385024665&sr=8-1&keywords=johan+falk

JOHAN FALK-SERIES:ZERO TOLERANCE (1999)

Swedish action-cinema has been a pretty obscure little genre. Action has always been looked down upon by so called "cinephiles" and critics. Whenever an action picture has been made, it was usually an attempt to copy american actionmovies in all its excesses  without attempting to add a local Swedish contemporary flavor to it. No wonder it has been laughed at, the attempts have been abysmal at best and embarrassing at worst, until Anders Nilsson´s Zero Tolerance was released.Now the laughing has stopped.

Ironically, Nilsson was tutored by the Swedish exploitation filmmaker Mats Helge Olsson (The Ninja Mission) who put out the most generic (but still fun) "americanized" actionpictures that was laughed at.
Nilsson learned the craft by directing dozens of ninjapictures which led up to his first mainstream film, which he co-wrote with Joakim Hansson.

Zero Tolerance focuses on ex military  Johan Falk,detective in the Gothenburg police force , a lone wolf who has some cooperation-issues with fellow officers, a typical cop action movie convention.
Like many great cop action pictures, it takes place during Christmastime (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon) and Falk (Jakob Eklund) stumbles upon a robbery, pursues the suspect which leads to a shootout leaving an innocent bystander victim for a stray bullet from the movie´s antagonist Leo Gaut (Peter Andersson). Three witnesses saw the whole incident and now Gaut is wanted for murder. However, Gaut uses an informant within the police to get the names and adresses from the victims to threaten them from testyfying, leaving the witnesses between a rock and a hard place, since inSweden, a person is by law forced to witness or jailtime might be the consequence.

Johan Falk in action

The witnesses refuse to point out Gaut, leaving Falk to take measures into his own hands, but soon he is framed for assaulting Gaut and Falk himself becomes a wanted man and alone need to find evidence of his innocence as well as going after Gaut.

Gaut is an intimidating villain. Great performance by Peter Andersson

What makes Zero Tolerance so exciting is that as a genre piece grounds itself in a Swedish reality. The action is akin to Swedish film making sensibilities, unlike previous efforts. It is highly realistic and serves the plot of the film. Reminding you of great 70´s pictures like Bullitt or The French Connection. It might not be spectacular in terms of staging, but the suspense of the movie makes them thrilling to watch. Nilsson also exhibits a great sense of cinema by giving the audience visual cues or clues of what is going on in the story below the surface.

Falk is a great mythic hero with a troubled past. He shares some similarities with Lethal Weapon´s Martin Riggs with his background, where his one true love getting killed in a carcrash. Howevere, Riggs wife was murdered, we never find out the circumstances of this tragic event that shaped Falk´s personality into the shutoff lone wolf he is, shutting everyone out.

Zero Tolerance is the first in a long line of Johan Falk adventures. There were two also theatrically released sequels as well as an ongoing feature-length television series that consists of twelve (!) movies. I intend to review all of them, since these movies really need an international audience. While the themes might play better with a nordic or swedish audience, the mythic qualities of the hero and the story should appeal to a broader audience.

Zero Tolerance is available to purchase as part of a Johan Falk trilogy boxset (Region 1) here:
http://www.amazon.com/Johan-Falk-Trilogy-Jakob-Eklund/dp/B00F988AV4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384697857&sr=8-1&keywords=johan+falk

The soundtrack to this series by Bengt Nilsson is incredible.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1y9wupODeajvRnOAT4iRiZ

BULLET TO THE HEAD

I am a huge Walter Hill fan. Creator of legendary tough guy movies such as Extreme Prejudice,48 Hours, Southern Comfort and Last Man Standing.

This movie plays more into the buddyaction-genre of Hills previous efforts as 48 Hours and Red Heat, but with less emphasis on laughs and more on grit and hardedged violence.
At first I was a bit disappointed ,since the leads (Sly and Sung Kang) are both each others complete opposites, usually the outcome is some sort of enjoyable banter  between them.I don´t think that worked if it was ever meant to. The dialogue is terrible.  Perhaps I am a bit Shane Blacked by now. And by that I mean,I expect witty comebacks and one-liners out of the movie´s ass Lethal Weapon or The Last Boyscout-style.

But I realized, I liked it more than I thought I did after my watch. Shit I did not like at first was the cheap look of it, the terrible camerawork at some of the action and the whole feel of it was straight-to-dvd. But it felt gritty, unremorseful and unapologizing as a pulpy lowbrow 90-minute  b-movie. And for that it was good.

I think my expectations were a bit off the mark.when popping this motherfucker in my dvd-player. Sly has come of some seriously over the top actioners of recent and then going back for something more intimate was a bit of a change.I liked that it has pretty much the feel of a Walter Hill movie. It is macho as hell and violent as shit, but not too fancy. I would not expect large CGI-scenes in a Hill-actioner. He is about  old school action, about the characters sense of honor which they will not bend and that is why they collide and makes them special and fun to watch.

It was not one of Walter Hills greatest, but I welcome the grandfather of gritty action-movies back to the scene. We need you!

CONTEMPLATING FURIOUS 6

I was just recently converted to the juggernaut franchise that is The Fast and The Furious  and going into the theatre on a high after witnessing Fast5 for the first time ever on bluray.
Previously I dismissed the franchise as an empty excuse to showing cars and female bootys with sweat running down their legs (and possibly James Spaders cum).

Now I am convinced that the 1970´s carmovie action craze is back in style for real. I just did not get it until now. I am a slow learner. I never noticed the the stoic motifs in the previous ones until it was shouted at me with a blowhorn in the fifth installment. I feel so stupid. But there might be more than that behind this blockbuster.

The motifs of honor,brotherhood,friendship and family. A set of traditional principles and values lacking in cinema today and apparently in society as well. Call me oldfashioned, but shit like that is important. Not the paygrade you get after sucking someones dick in a closet, but the respect of friends,family and the responsibliity by owing up to whatever debt you have.  I am regrettably aware of  myself  being guilty to some of these sins, it is painfully clear to me. So it is kind of nice (and scary) to see people bringing in some of the traditional values into the douchebagcentury of alltime to enlighten us about the importance of having a set of morals.

The plot is spectacularly dumb and retarded, which may come across as a contradiction to what I said previously. And it is. And that is what makes it great. The juxtaposition of stupidity and sincerity. The ambivalence behind it  might actually work to make people to start thinking about what makes these movies so phenomanally successfull. The last two installments has been HUGE hits and instead of being a douchenozzle about it being unrealistic, you might wanna start thinking about what makes them tick amongst audiences. because if you think it is all about blowing shit up ( which is great! Contradiction alert!) you might start thinking about your own set of morals. I know I have.

MY THOUGHTS ON UNIVERSAL SOLDIER : DAY OF RECKONING

If you want your franchise or genre to grow it is important to make people think about the  what makes it work . UNISOL:DAY OF RECKONING is such a movie.Part action, part existentialism, part David Lynch and part Cronenberg .That is one helluva movie. One thing it is not and that is a  singularminded straightup action extravaganze. It´s more than that.

Some people dismiss this movie as just garbage, because it does not fit in within their own perception of what an actionmovie should be. Either they think it is boring or that the movie is "pseudo-intelligent". it has not enough action and it fails being smart. The low rating the movie earned on IMDB just proves the flaws of that website.

It is not a movie for a bunch of friends to watch on friday night,ordering pizza,drinking beer and having a laugh. You need to commit. And actionmovies usually does not require that and perhaps that is why it could be easily dismissed. For real  actionfans the admiration and appreciation of the movie sure enough are genuine. But it seems like it is just the actionsequences that get the praise, it´s little else.

It all began with the previous installment,REGENERATION. At the end of the movie the military injected Deveraux  with  double doage (of whtever it was) since they were desperate to stop the bomb at the nuclear plant. it wassaid they would not be able to control him afterwards  and sure as shit the shortsightedness of the U.S military  comes to fruition. He went rogue and when we get to DAY OF RECKONING Deveraux has built a guerilla resistance consisting of other UniSols he managed to reprogram to fit his own purpose.

The existentialistic motifs were also planted in REGENERATION with Dolphs character going off the rails,breaking programming, because of his identity crisis. By killing his creator who did not give Andrew Scott an answer to his existance, Scott decides to activate the bomb and in that process  trying to end his own cycle of returning as another clone. The "Waiting for Godot" kind of eternal spiral,waiting for someone to give you a sense of purpose. This

The whole identity crisis gets blown up into a fullgrown theme in DAY OF RECKONING.
Adkins character goes on this journey of selfdiscovery and has the opportunity to cleanse himself of the terrible memories of watching his supposed family to be brutally murdered, but he chooses to keep the memories, because even if they are not real, the memories fills him with a  purpose in life. An identity-defining moment not to become a puppet for neither side,not the state or Deveraux.  

Deveraux is a strange antagonist. Why does John (Adkins) want to kill Deveraux?What threat  do Deveraux present to the protagonist? The reason is because Deveraux is an obstacle to the path for our hero to gain an identity or a purpose in life.The moment John accept that the memories are his own and believes them ,even if they are fake, John feel the need to take revenge on Deveraux to make the memories real. By killing Deveraux, he makes the memories legit. He chooses to believe the memories are real, because it defines him as a person. And Deveraux  at the end is allowing John his identity by submitting at the end.  What kind of bad guy in an actionmovie does that?

That is a pretty cool revenge-angle.Who the real enemy to John is vague to say the least. You could also say the REAL enemy is the government who actually brainwash John with these memories for their own purposes to assassinate the rogue UniSols and in particular Deveraux.

It is not a simple question of good vs evil as the protagonist versus antagonist aspect of actionmovies usually are.  That is what is so subversive about the movie. And I love it for that!

HOW I THINK THE EXPENDABLES SHOULD PROGRESS

If THE EXPENDABLES franchise is going to be able to get past the nostalgia factor surrounding it, it could probably be a good idea for Sly to actually utilize the recent or upcoming actionstars to their fullest potential, instead of casting them in pointless fillout-roles as he previously have done.

Seriously,who remember the great Gary Daniels from the first one? I had to watch the movie three times to actually notice him. Scott Adkins fared better in the sequel, the confrontation with Statham was a bit on the short side, but apparently they had very little time to shoot that scene so it did end up quite good considering.

THE EXPENDABLES cannot rely on the old guys forever. What I like about the franchise is that it takes the larger-than-life old school DIRTY DOZEN approach with a bunch of wellknown weathered badasses on an impossible mission. With bringing on new people with each installment they become known to the public and after awhile considered just as much as veterans as the Sly,Dolphs or Stathams of the current bunch of legendary mercenaries.

Just don´t cast people like Liam Hemsworth. I liked him in EX2, but he is not one dedicated to action, for him it is just a springboard to "better films", so stick with guys known for their dedication and loyalty to the genre. The physicality of doing action requires certain individuals with a certain mindset. It cannot be about career-egos, or else the genre will most certainly die. A guy like Darren Shahlavi could really boost a franchise with his skills. He has a villain face like no other and can perform the shit out of a movie. Watch BLOODMOON or TAI CHI BOXER to see him at his best. He is chewing up the  scenery,spitting it out and roundhouse kick it to the dumpster and walks away.

We  also have guys like Cung Le from DRAGON EYES, Andrei "Pitbull" Arlovsky  from the UniSol-franchise, Thailands wonderboy Tony Jaa or  THE RAIDs Iko Uwais and Yayan "Mad Dog"  Ruhian. If  these peole can get more iconic performances it can inspire other people to take up the reign just like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan inspired aforementioned acrobats.

There is absolutely no reason to stick with the metafictive,tongue-in-cheek postmodern references in a franchise when you have plenty of people battling to take a prestigous place among gods of action. It will only lead to stagnation hanging on to the past.

Action does not need to die, it just need people to inspire further.

AN APPRECIATION OF FAST5

I never thought I was going to say this, but I have fast become a furious believer of this actionpacked franchise. The themes of badassness marks this installment for the very first time in a big way. They jhave always been there, but the code of honor or the strong sense of family outside the society is more prevalent here.

In fact what I like is the idea that a family can exist outside the norm of the society. it doesn´t necessarily means two kids,a wife and a goddamn mortgage that are the kind of spoonfed thoughtpatterns of family system that  society relies on.Sure they are a gangster family with the usual movie-motifs of brotherhood and honor, but you don´t see much of that in movies anymore. I´d say that as far ass badassery goes, it blows THE EXPENDABLE-franchise out of the water in many ways.

Its a much better and genuine film  because it does not rely on nostalgia and also much more sincere in its testosterone-induced manliness. THE EXPENDABLES is kind of the equivalent of a coverband playing other peoples classic songs, because thats what the audience wants.They want the nostalgia, they want to hear the one-liners or the guitarriffs or whatever that they grew up with. They don´t want to hear the coverbands own tunes or what they can bring to the music. They are stuck in nostalgia and will eventually fade away, because eventually there is noone left who wants  to hear them.

FAST FIVE has of course a history, but it is a franchise not afraid to alienate fans of the original by going its own way. It´s a movie that decided to focus more on the heist aspects of the franchise , the stoic aspects of the characters and removing the nauseating streetracing from the previous installmenst which ,quite frankly, stunk. Now they have actually made a movie that has a lot of the elements I like to see in a big summer blockbuster and with a climax that surpasses anything seen earlier in the movie. The kind of action progression throughout the piece that most movies lack these days.With each action sequence the better and more spectacular they become.  A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD had the most spectacular scene at the beginning of the movie and the rest of the movie could not live up to it, doing the movie a terrible disservice in that way.

To sum it up. The future of action has to do with the execution, not being to dug in to the past. Nostalgia is a fleeting thing. But a good film lives forever.