I was looking forward to Arme Riddere, told it was a crime story told in a Tarantino/Coen-stylish way. And it's good, though maybe not as funny as I thought it wood be. Still this is good entertainment, and well acted, and the story, based on a manuscript by Jo Nesbø, also has it's great outline. The filming technique is also well done.
Well, what happens? Terrified and bloody, Oscar Svendsen awakes clinched to a shotgun in a strippers joint. Around him 8 dead men, and police aiming at him. To Oscar it's clear that he is innocent. It all started when four chaps won 1,7 million on the pools...
The film starts off with meeting the main characters, Oscar and the detective, slowly starting to believe Oscars' story about him and his three criminal friends.
I goes wrong from the start. And is it really a good idea playing the pools which three inmates trying to get back in real life? Of course not. And from ten on the story gets bloody. Too bloody for Norways' biggest newspaper, which said it was impossible to review. It's not, and this statement is just silly. As most other Norwegian reviewers have stated later on.
This is hardly a comedy, though there are some good laughs tucked in the story. The story is sick and twisted, but not worse that it could actually have happened in that kind of wrong environment.
Arme Riddere is good fun, but lacks the quality of a classic. May this is because it's not drawing the line completely out. Tt's not really a crime story, not really a comedy, a.s.o. But if you're not afraid of some gore, I think you'll have a really good time watching this.