Wednesday, April 10, 2013

J is for Jackpot



JACKPOT

Norway, 2011
Running Length: 84 minutes
Cast: Kyrre Hellum, Henrik Mestad, Marie Blokhus, Mads Ousdal
Director:  Magnus Martens
Screenplay: Magnus Martens from the story by Jo Nesbo
Cinematography: Trond Hoines

Hot on the heels of the hugely popular Headhunters, here comes another Norwegian thriller based on a story by Jo Nesbo.  And this one is just as droll and tightly plotted as Headhunters.

The film opens in the aftermath of a bloody shooting in a sex shop.  The detective, Solar, discovers Oscar alive beneath the corpse of a fat woman and drags him back to the station for questioning.  The film then cuts between the cop’s ongoing investigation and Oscar’s story of how he came to be clutching a shotgun in the sex shop with eight bodies strewn around him.

And what a story it is….

Oscar is a supervisor at a small factory producing artificial Xmas trees.  It’s one of the few businesses that employs ex-cons, so his staff are more troublesome than most.  When Oscar is coerced into joining a football betting pool with a psychopath, a somewhat dim loser and a guy who never stops grinning, you just know things are not going to go well.  Especially when the ticket proves to be a winner and there are millions of kronor at stake.

Solar listens to this story, incredulous as the death count rises, body parts are strewn across the county and both the wood chipper and nail gun at the factory are put to uses they were not intended for.  A tanning bed, a Swedish pig farm and a greedy landlord all play their part in the sordid tale.

This is a stylish, fast-paced action romp with fantastic performances from all the cast members. Some of the set pieces are inspired but gruesome, but the witty, barbed dialogue lightens the tone.

If you loved Headhunters, you won’t want to miss this one.

3 comments:

  1. I'm stopping by from the A-Z and it's so nice to meet you. What a great theme you have. I'm looking forward to learning about more movies. :)

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  2. Crazy beans. I love all the outlandish aspects--not sure I'm such a fan to the killing... It sounds interesting though.

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