JordanGairean64 Reviews

A Nearly Normal Family (2023)

Really surprisingly good in every way

[9/10 · 25 January 2024]

When I started watching this my hopes weren't that high. A friend of mine had mentioned watching it, and though he didn't actually say anything about what he thought of it, the way he mentioned it implied that it was kind of average; watchable but nothing special. But hey, everyone seemed to have watched it, so I put it on. My attention span is fried and I'll probably be bored in about 20 minutes. I'll turn it off and go to sleep.

As you can tell, that's not what happened. This was great. Really great. The acting is superb, especially from Alexandra Karlsson Tylefors who plays Stella, but just about everyone does a great job portraying realistic and complex characters. The story really captured my fried attention span and actually made me engage in it. It's also beautifully filmed, which contrasts the often dark and depressing events of the story.

Strong characterization, dialogue and script. In a sense, I think this series does well what a lot of Swedish crime drama shows typically do wrong. Instead of rejecting characterization for the sake of an uninteresting criminal investigation the audience really couldn't care less about, this show is smart enough to give you an actual reason for caring to follow the characters involved in the case, which then also makes you actually want to follow the story concerning the criminal investigation.

I was, atleast, at the edge of my seat watching it. It's probably the first time in one or two years that I've prioritized watching a tv show before sleeping. This is the Swedish Netflix production I've liked the most so far, even though most other users on here seem to disagree. Swedish streaming services; take notes.

The Jonsson Gang's Greatest Robbery (1995)

The worst Jönssonligan movie by far

[2/10 · 25 January 2024]

I knew that the Jönssonligan movies were supposed to get worse and worse following the first movie, but as I kept on watching them, I thought the series held a surprisingly consistently decent quality and entertainment value throughout. Even the movie before this one, featuring Peter Haber as Gösta Ekman's replacement, was reasonably easy to watch. I finally understood the critique of the later Jönssonligan movies when I watched this one.

I guess you could argue that every movie after the third one was a "money grab", but I'd still say the script in those movies were intelligent enough to not come across as such. This was the first movie in which I truly thought the "money grab-script" became visible. There's a clear complete lack of creativity, cleverness and imagination present in this film compared to previous installments.

Harry and Vanheden never really stop being entertaining, since Brunnberg and Gustafson perfected their characters years before this was done, but their characterization in this film consists of repeating the exact same thing for almost two hours. Harry's alcoholism is the funniest thing in the entire movie which I think is really unfortunate. The scene at the hotel with drunk Harry and the drunk policeman is the funniest scene and that's not a good sign.

Skarsgård's character is so humorless that I started feeling nauseous. I know the point was that he contrasts everything else in the movie by being humorless, but it just doesn't fit. Skarsgård tries hard to make the character contribute something comedic to the film but the problem is that the character simply isn't funny

The largest problem is the silly and stupid comedy though. I had heard that people sometimes feel that their "intelligence is insulted" when consuming "bad" fiction, and I never had any idea what that meant. Until I watched this. This movie roasts any potential intelligence you may have. The previous movies always required some form of ability for abstract thinking to watch, no matter how low, but this movie decides to go for the weakest slapstick "haha! He just fell into a trash bag!" humor possible.

A dishonorable mention goes to the finale of the film. It has to be one of the finest examples of bad writing I had hoped to never see. It's dumb, predictable, inconsistent in characterization, and in many ways incomprehensibly sexist, especially since it was made in 1995

I feel completely justified in this rant. Watch the first six films if you want, they're all decent to brilliant, but if you want to keep your faith in human intelligence, do not watch this. It's very understandable that the franchise has repeatedly flopped since this came out, and it's proof that the Swedish film industry should leave the franchise alone to rest in peace. With that said, I honestly don't think the 2015 and 2020 films were worse than this one; I don't think that's possible.

Douche (2018)

Oddly interesting

[6/10 · 1 January 2023]

I randomly stumbled upon this film on Netflix after new years eve. Initially, since it was on Netflix of all places, I thought it would be one of those big-budget nordic thriller shows or at the very least a quirky comedy show. I also thought it was Norwegian for some unexplainable reason. Upon finding out that it was Swedish, most likely low-budget, and didn't include any mainstream Swedish actors, I felt I had to watch it

My first impression was essentially "what even is this? This is the absolute worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life". The part with the bunny hurt my eyes to watch and everything in the film felt weird, out-of-place, and lacking any real narrative; as well as unintentionally so. But as I kept watching, I found the film increasingly entertaining, and I enjoyed watching the film's exaggerated portrayal of Stockholm, and its somewhat depressing nature. One could argue that the film lacks nuance since there is about one person in the city portrayed as a decent person, but I think that adds to the intended comedy of the film; it's a caricature of the average person living in Stockholm

The review below this one completely missed the point of the film. It's definitely not for everybody, but in a sense I feel as if it's almost too creative and "experimential" if you will for the Swedish audience, something I say as a Swedish person myself. And if you think "wow, how is *this* "too experimential", I think that goes to show how low the bar has been set. I will admit that the film lacks a real plot, and that the ending; the punchline, really doesn't pack a satisfying punch, but there are several similar foreign films with much better reception than this film. Simply put, it's not exactly a "good" film, but it was, atleast to me, quite entertaining, and it wasn't exactly a complete waste of time.

Fallen Angels (1995)

Interesting cinematic experience

[9/10 · 5 August 2022]

Out of the many movies I have watched, especially in recent time, this is still one of my favourites. And it's really captivating for a pretty simple reason; I don't think I've seen better cinematography in a film before or after this film. The story itself is hardly bad, but I wouldn't say it's flawless by any means. But what makes it all so interesting is the shots of the urban night that the film captures, as well as the lives of the main and side characters.

This movie is chaotic, a bit messy, and as another reviewer mentioned, it feels a bit drunk. But that's also what makes it so good and exciting in my opinion. It's truly a unique film experience.

How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014)

Decent likeable comedy

[7/10 · 25 July 2022]

I started watching this show almost a year ago now and finished it a few days before it was removed from Netflix. I started watching it after a buddy of mine was shocked that I hadn't watched a single episode of it after talking about cinema and tv shows. So I watched the first episode, and I actually really liked it.

A lot of people criticize the show for turning sour over time, but if anything I think the show was very consistent. It's roughly the same character tropes that come and go every episode of every season, with pretty much the same quality every time. Either you learn to love it, or you're probably going to find the entire series to be insufferably unfunny.

One thing to keep in mind though is that the comedy is very mainstream and dorky in an American way. Sometimes it's just cringe. The words "bro", "awesome", and any other typical privileged middle aged American dude word you can come up with are constantly used in both charming and embarassing ways. There's also a lot of humor surrounding alcohol, but that's to be expected, and honestly a lot of the show's funniest moments come from that.

Not all characters are that likeable and yet I ended up liking pretty much all of them in one way or another. The characters aren't always realistic, but it's important to remember that the narrator of the story is Ted Mosby so if something feels too exaggerated it's probably intentional. It's a pretty fun show that also offers weirdly insightful thoughts on love and romance, but I fully understand if it isn't for everybody.

Lilyhammer (2012–2014)

Not flawless, but a clever show with good characters

[8/10 · 26 March 2022]

This is a deeply entertaining show that will be remembered in history by those who watched it and probably no one else. Strong and comedic characterization by the actors. Sometimes it manages to be weirdly warm and I atleast really grew to like many of the morally questionable main characters.

You can't compare it to The Sopranos since it's an entirely different type of show, but similarly this show satirizes culture a lot. It makes fun of the stereotypical meekness of scandinavian men and the stereotypical toughness of (criminal) italian-american men, which often creates a hilarious contrast. I'm seeing some reviewers on here who review the show as if it's a serious crime drama or something which is a gloriously incomprehensible way of misunderstanding the entire show

Like shows often do, Lilyhammer loses its spark in the final season. This time I'm sure it has nothing to do with my personal feelings though; it objectively strays too far away from what it initially was. The show gets too dark in a way that no one asked for and no one enjoyed watching. For example, Jan's storyline, previously hilarious yet complex and interesting sours a lot at the end of season 2 and is completely obliterated in quality by the time of season 3. There were also too many subplots simultaneously. I think the show easily could've gone for four short seasons, say with five or so episodes per season, repeating roughly the same concept from season 1 without too many complaints.

But oh well, season 1 and 2 were fun while they lasted. If you liked those seasons, you're probably not gonna like season 3. But even if you disliked those seasons, you're gonna hate season 3.

Sthlm Requiem (2018– )

Awkward thriller that has an undeservingly high opinion on itself, but also has shades of being so bad it's good

[4/10 · 13 November 2018]

This is STHLM Requiem. It wants to be Bron. It has super-dark visuals and the crimes committed in the series are terrible. Serial killer after serial killer in little Stockholm. But at the same time, STHLM Requiem wants you to take it extremely seriously. As if serial homicide is a daily event in Stockholm.

This has to be one of the worst series I've ever seen, and I have quite low standards. Every twist comes either out of nowhere and makes no sense or is so obvious it is barely a twist. Speaking of twists, one of the worst things the show does is revealing the true killer like ten minutes before the end of the final episodes. In the second episode, the killer is revealed at the very end and the reveal comes out of the blue, and even worse the motive which has very little hints at the start. In the fourth episode it's even worse; the true villain is painfully obvious from the beginning.

If anything positive is to be said, I can say that the acting is often very good. The three leads all fit well in their roles, and the killers, despite their poor reveals, aren't bad characters and the actors do a good job. Which makes it even more depressing, as it makes you ask why they even signed up for this in the first place.

Overall, you should skip this series if you want a thriller that'll keep you at the edge of your seat. But watch it if you want to have a laughing riot. Yes, this is in some parts so bad it's good, such as when Liv Mjönes' character sees the killer and tries negotiating with him to spare his hostage, and Jonas Karlsson's character awkwardly screams "Be careful! This man is dangerous!"

This is a series that could have been good, unfortunately ruined by mediocre writing and terrible directing.