Sick Product of a Sick System

Let's be realistic.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I've seen some pretty mixed reviews on this one, some of them good, but some of them unjustly negative. Here's why. I think most negative comments on this films are based in the fact that the classic lineup of our favorite criminal gang consists of Björn Gustafsson as Dynamite Harry, Gösta Ekman as Charles Ingvar and Ulf Brunberg as Ragnar 'Vanheden' from the 80s and 90s. That's the way we want to remember them. As the times are, we live in a time of sequels, prequels and reboots. That's just the currents on the Movie market. Deal with it. This movie was made, it was filmed and released. That's the way it is. The movie exists. Accept it. The fact that they once decided to make a reboot on "Jönssons gang" franchise made most of the fans skeptical, including me. How could they ever capture that old feeling of those ingenious heist stories and slapstic relief? By making something totally new, of course!First thing first, Everything we remember from the original franchise has made its transition into the 2100 Century. Modern technology, modern cars, more contemporary gadgets, Vanheden is more of a "brat" than a "player". Times change, so does the circumstances around which the movie's story takes place. Second, the characters back stories feel more trustworthy, or at least deeper. In the early movies, Harry just happened to be a guy who enjoyed blow things up an have an occassional beer afterward. Here he is an ex miner who drinks because he's depressed. In the early movies, Charles Ingvar is just a grumpy old goof. Here he can be bitter, sometimes flat out grim, mostly due to the murder of his uncle and the loss of his ex. Third, and this is the overall and most important element of how to turn the old classics into a new type of success; this movie is to be considered more as a thriller or a crime story than a flat out Comedy. Of course, there are some pretty funny scenes, but the overall tone is way darked than we remember from the classic franchise. Don't be fooled now, this is not a Bergman movie or "Silence of the Lambs" type of story. Only, darker compared to the old slapstick franchise. There are plenty of scenes that makes you think of classic action Movies such as "Oceans 11", the James Bond Movies, "Gone in sixty seconds" and others. Don't know what more to say. I liked it. It had some funny moments, a lot of thrill. It really made its way into the 2100 Century. Looking forward to a sequel, Believe it or not!

I waited a while to watch this one, and I'm glad I did not see it in the cinema. I admire the first original eight films in the Jönssonligan series (1981-2000) very much. I think they are genuine, funny and full of wonderful moments. They weren't just about the heists and plans, but about the sympathetic characters. All of those eight films bring a smile to my face because how wonderfully honest they are with both humor and cleverness, all mixed in a nice lighthearted bowl. I was excited when I heard an origin film was to be made. But, after seeing the advertisement for it I felt completely and utterly let down.What have they done with this nice series?! Why did they have to reboot it on such a way?! It doesn't even to have ANYTHING to do with Jönssonligan at all except for the name itself. This is a huge problem with Swedish films nowadays. They feel the need to copy American action/crime action films like "Ocean's Eleven" or maybe even "Bourne". The filmmakers bragged about the fact that this is a dark and gritty reboot like "Casino Royale" was for the "007" films. The thing is; The original James Bond novels were dark and gritty, but Jönssonligan was based on "Olsen- Banden", which were always designed as harmless comedies. There's no point to make this film like "Snabba Cash" or whatever. Make it be its own great thing. All of the fantastic source material and characters are there. Just use them as they are meant to be! It's obvious that the filmmakers have no clue how to pace this film either. There are so, so, so many jump-cuts used that it makes me frustrated. What? They don't think people who watch films can pay attention to a shot for more than 10 SECONDS!!!! There's no time to breath and appreciate the situations, characters or location. They just cut, cut and cut.While the rushed editing fails on every level, what can the story hold? Well, it's just bland and mediocre. There is not much charisma or chemistry going on. The script is stale and lines are delivered in either a woody or "wanna be tough" manner. It's unfortunate, because the casting was good and the actors could probably have done a good job if it wasn't for this rushed and stale direction. The love triangle was useless. Vanheden (played by Alexander Karim) is the one member of the crew who was OK, and the actor did a decent job with all the language switches. The best characters were Charles- Ingvar's Uncle and Alejandro (played by Juan Rodriguez). They felt the most sympathetic and human of them all. They are in it too briefly though, which is a shame.This whole thing made me sad. If it was called something else and had nothing to do with Jönssonligan, I would surely not be so hard on it. Because then it would have just been a forgettable heist movie. Maybe it would have even worked as its own separate thing. But, since it's now officially an entry in this series I watch it knowing who all these characters are meant to be. And they are all butchered. Congratulations Swedish Film Industry, you have completely misunderstood what makes the Jönssonligan films so good, uplifting and nice to watch. If you make more then they HAVE to be lighthearted. All of the originals were still based in reality, so there's no point to think that a new more "realistic" version has to be made. Nobody asked for such a thing to be made. Except for probably the studio who want people to think it's the next "Jack Reacher". Please Swedish filmmakers, don't try to be USA. There is a charm to the classic Swedish cinema that can't be replicated anywhere else.The original eight films are classic comedies and they STILL HAVEN'T BEEN RESTORED AND RELEASED ON BLU-RAY!!!. I mean, instead of making this film they should have remastered the originals. They are in desperate need to be restored. The DVD's look like someone just recorded a VHS version and slapped it on to a disc.I really don't wanna take the effort to talk more about this thing, It doesn't deserve it. But, there's one last thing I need to mention. The music choices are flat out terrible. There's a bunch of modern pop stuff in this which doesn't feel right. There's a little bit of instrumental tracks here and there, but none of it includes the fantastic original theme song. This theme is essential to the name Jönssonligan. It's like Star Wars or Indiana Jones without their themes. We associate it so much with these films that there is of course no way it should be left out. As a fan, the least I wanted was to hear a new rendition of the theme play in a few scenes. It would have brought that old sympathetic feeling back, and it would also bring in some of that special tone that this whole thing lacked. But then the WORST thing happens. As soon as the end credits roll they tease us with the first seconds of the theme before it turns into a garbage pop song. It was enough to make ME MAD!!! JUST NO! THEY COULD HAVE JUST WENT WITHOUT THE SONG COMPLETELY, IT DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE IN THIS MOVIE ANYWAY. But to tease us like that?! No, I'm done.

This was so bad that I had to write my first review. It really brought out the grouchy film critic in me. It's as if the creators haven't made up their minds as to what kind of film this supposed to be. In some parts it is a serious, thriller style heist film. In other parts it is the same silly slap stick comedy as the original Jönssonligan films. The combination doesn't work for me. Many of the dialogs sound dry and 'written', at times even dorky. Not sure if this is because of a badly written script or bad acting - maybe both. In places the footage looks plain amateurish. Lots and lots of tight shots make it hard to get a physical sense of location and direction. The supposed emotional connection between two of the main characters also feels completely unbelievable - they have about as much chemistry as two rocks. The music lacks timing, with overuse of dramatic bass effects even when there isn't any real suspense, sometimes drowning out the dialogue. There are also plenty of plot holes. Things that fall into place just a little too conveniently. All in all, this was a huge disappointment, and a far cry from the quality of the original film series.

I had big expectations for this movie, it is not easy to take an old franchise like this and make something good. But they really did, not just something good, they did something amazing! This might as well be the best Jönssonligan movie I have ever seen. Looking forward for more movies in this series!The cast is great and the plot is Amazing. There is just the right amount of comedy combined with action and excitement and the makes have made a really good work. I love the fact that you can recognize the classical characters in the new ones, in a really good way. They are different but on the same way they are themselves.