Riders of Justice/Retfærdighedens Ryttere (2020) - Jensen delivers another explosive charge of idiosyncratic entertainment

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+ Best Action Comedy of the Year + Best Revenge Movie of the Year 

 

Four armed men and a teenage girl are standing in a barn on the smile-inducing poster for Anders Thomas Jensen's Riders of Justice

 

Marcus returns from active soldier's duty far away, when his wife's life ends in a mysterious train accident. He struggles to meet their teenager daughter eye to eye, when a couple of strange men turn up to tell him that the accident was no accident.

Riders of Justice is written and directed by great Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen (Flickering Lights/Blinkende Lygter (2001)) with Nikolaj Arcel (Klatretøsen (2002)) contributing story elements.

We are back in classic Jensen turf with a male-dominated story with deformity, pent-up anger, violence and the randomness of existence on the menu. Riders of Justice is a hilarious comedy; it also has a couple of genuinely moving scenes, impressive in their far-out action-comedy context, featuring the mesmerizing talent of Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt /Jagten (2012)) as the beleaguered Marcus and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Kandidaten (2008)) as his new friend Otto, who has gone through a similar ordeal in losing his wife. There is a framing story on the film about a bicycle purchase in Estonia, which is also very neat and finally also moving, helped along by the power of music. (In this case Nicolas Bro (Dræberne fra Nibe (2017)) on a French horn (!), which sounds beautiful!!)

The film is punchy and doesn't duck neither action nor dramatically related scenes and dialog. The world is a dark and ruthless place, but it packs both good and bad. The plot may be said to have more than its fair share of incredible coincidences; but on the same time the conclusion of it cleverly implies that even incredible coincidences do not point to correlations or meanings, necessarily. SPOILER Randomness is the guiding principle often in life, and in this case Marcus and his team kill countless (terrible) criminals based on a faulty deduction of facts.

Personally I still relish Jensen's preceding film most in his body of work, the outrageously weird and funny Men & Chicken/Mænd og Høns (2015), but Riders of Justice is strictly speaking just as good, especially due to the rich gallery of characters that are invoked: Bro as the obese face recognition expert and guns enthusiast; Gustav Lindh (All Inclusive (2017)) as a kind and wise Ukranian trafficking victim who comes under the team's wings; and Lars Brygmann (King's Game/Kongekabale (2004)), who arguably takes the cake as an abuse victim hacker with extraordinary abilities and issues. Andrea Heick Gadeberg (Daniel/Ser Du Månen Daniel (2019)) carries her weight effortlessly as Marcus' strong daughter.

Related posts:

Anders Thomas Jensen: 2020 in films - according to Film Excess

Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015) - Jensen scores with hilarious cinema bizarro original

The Salvation (2014) - Classic western yarn meets Danish dynamite (co-writer)
Love Is All You Need/Den Skaldede Frisør (2012) - Bier strikes gold with Italy-set romcom (co-writer)
In a Better World/Hævnen (2010) - Bier's Big Moral Drama lives on its actors' performances (co-writer)
Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006) - The two Jensens' satire is unrefined but hilarious (writer) 
Murk/Mørke (2005) or, Shutter Jutland (co-writer)

The Green Butchers/De Grønne Slagtere (2003) - Great performances in Jensen's hilarious morbid comedy 
Open Hearts/Elsker Dig for Evigt (2002) - Bier's excruciating Dogme chamber drama (writer)

Grev Axel (2001) - Frödin and Gråbøl pull laughter from 18th century-set crazy-comedy (writer) 

The King Is Alive (2000) - Levring's trying desert theatrics (co-writer) 

 

 

Watch a short clip of Brygmann as Lennart from the film here

 

Cost: 39 mil. DKK, approximately 6.24 mil. $

Box office: 2.4 mil. $ and counting

[Riders of Justice was released 19 November (Denmark) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in Funen, Denmark. The film sold 125k tickets in its first weekend in Denmark, where it has topped 150k tickets after less than 10 days and is poised to exceed 750k tickets in coming weeks in the languished China Virus film landscape, possibly becoming Jensen's top-grossing film to date. Due to the pandemic the film does not have releases scheduled in foreign markets yet. Jensen does not have his next project announced yet. Mikkelsen returns in Chaos Walking (2021); Kaas does not have his next gig announced yet. 619 IMDb users have given Riders of Justice a 8.4/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Riders of Justice? 

Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006) - The two Jensens' satire is unrefined but hilarious

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Two distinct layers of society, members of the lower class and of the higher creative class, meet on this fun-promising poster for Tomas Villum Jensen's Clash of Egos

Tonny, a modern caveman recently released after serving a stint in prison for violence, works at a garbage station and has just lost visitation rights to see his children, when he snaps over an awful local art film that he has recently bought tickets for.

Clash of Egos is written by Anders Thomas Jensen (The Salvation (2014)) and directed by Tomas Villum Jensen (Love at First Hiccough/Kærlighed ved Første Hik (1999)). The Danish title translates to 'highly charged bomb'.
Both Ulrich Thomsen (Hitman (2007)) as Tonny and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Max (2000)) as the art film's director Claus Volter are excellent and play their opposed characters with real panache.
The central idea of a primitive brute meeting a pretentious art film snoot is funny and original, and the film has lots of funny moments.
Clash of Egos could have been even better, if the production hadn't looked like rubbish; if Volter's ridiculous art film had been presented sharper; and if the writing had been a little smarter here and there. But these minor complaints don't rob the film of its considerable laughs and primed stars.

Watch a clip from the beginning of the film here, where Tonny has made the mistake of taking his kids to see an inappropriate art film in the cinema

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Uncertain - likely in excess of 2.82 mil. $
= Uncertain - but likely a huge flop
[Sprængfarlig Bombe was released 25 August (Denmark) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark, including Copenhagen. The film sold 272,140 tickets in production country Denmark, making it a solid hit locally in the small Danish market. It was shown at 4 minor film festivals and released in 2 foreign markets subsequently, likely with negligible grosses. If made on a realistic 20 mil. DKK budget, approximately 2.95 mil. $, the film should likely rank as a huge flop theatrically. It was nominated for a Robert award (Denmark's Oscar). Jensen returned with Ved Verdens Ende (2009). Thomsen returned in Der Liebeswunsch (2006); Kaas in Pu-239 (2006). 2,225 IMDb-users have given Sprængfarlig Bombe a 6.0/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Sprængfarlig Bombe?

A Funny Man/Dirch (2011) - Kaas shines in serious biopic of Danish national treasure comedian

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:
 

Best Actor: Nikolaj Lie Kaas (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)

The very dark poster for Martin Zandvliet's A Funny Man

QUICK REVIEW:

A Funny Man is a biopic of the life and death of legendary Danish actor-comedian Dirch Passer (It's Nifty in the Navy/Flådens Friske Fyre (1965)), primarily told through the prism of his comedic partnership with Kjeld Petersen (Lars Ranthe (Adam's Apples/Adams Æbler (2005))) as 'Kellerdirk': Trailing times of physical downfall, termination, time solo, dramatic bankruptcy, divorce, reunification, Petersen's death, and Passer's.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas (A Second Chance/En Chance Til (2014)) is outstanding in perhaps the best role of his career; in the eyes of the Danish audiences who are intimately familiar with the beloved man he portrays here, he gradually completely becomes Passer in A Funny Man. He gives it his all, and the show performances, - alone and with Ranthe, - are impressively achieved. - Kudos to the actors and co-writer-director Martin Zandvliet (Angels of Brooklyn (2002))!
A Funny Man is, as Zandvliet's preceding drama Applause/Applaus (2009), also a portrait of the theater world and a strong, burdened performer personality. Passer appears hunted by himself and never as an uncompromising showman in A Funny Man, which, unsurprisingly, drew averse criticism from actor-friends of his still alive, (like Judy Gringer and Morten Grunwald.) Guilt, doubt, lacking self-confidence and wish to perform is instead shown again and again in the Passer of A Funny Man.
Still, I don't feel that we get all around that man in Zandvliet and Anders Frithiof August's (Superclásico (2011)) script. We don't get to know anything about Passer's parentage or his religious side, for instance.
A Funny Man is also niggardly with bigger scenes with extras, perhaps a budget limitation, but in any case, the film could have benefited from a little more verve size-wise.
Zandvliet is busy applying the finishing touches to his next film, the big Danish-German Land of Mine/Under Sandet (2015), a period war film about mines and mine removal.

Related posts:

Martin Zandvliet: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Applause/Applaus (2009) - Paprika Steen's struggling Thea

Watch the trailer with English subtitles here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[However, A Funny Man was the biggest Danish movie hit in Denmark in 2011 with 482k admissions. If that made the film financially successful is difficult to say. (It was produced with unknown support from DR and Nordisk Film & TV Fond and 6.5 mil. DKR from DFI.) The film received a small forest of the Danish film prizes of the year; Bodil's for Kaas and Ranthe, audience award for Zandvliet, as well as 6 Robert awards and many other nominations and wins.]

What do you think of A Funny Man?