Iseerphia
All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
Keira Brennan
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Asad Almond
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
paul2001sw-1
There are shades of numerous other films in 's 'Jackpot' but most obviously, 'The Usual Suspects' comes to mind: an apparent innocent is the sole survivor of a mass killing, but is it possible he's just selling the police a shaggy dog story? But this movie lacks the class and mastery of indirection of that famous film: the in-plot police may get fooled, but there's no way the audience doesn't suspect. And (true or not) the story isn't very interesting - it has a kind of juvenile fascination with strip clubs, chopping up bodies, and scenes where everyone shoots everybody else simultaneously - I have seen good films about each of these things, but there's something a bit adolescent about sticking them together and calling it a movie. It's certainly a contrast to the normal mood of "Scandi-noir" - but not necessarily a good one.
Leofwine_draca
JACKPOT is a Tarantino-esque crime thriller, laced with black comedy and based on a story by Jo Nesbo, the man responsible for the excellent HEADHUNTERS. This film isn't another HEADHUNTERS, but it does feel in the same territory and it comes close at times. It's a gruesome tale of thieves falling out, packed with twists and turns and all manner of unholy murder.The story begins with deceptive simplicity: a work syndicate win millions on a lottery. However, things soon take a dark turn indeed, and we're soon up to our necks in blood-spraying murder. Apart from the opening flash-forward scene which spoils later surprises (I typically hate non-linear scenes in films, except in the likes of PULP FICTION where they're done right), there's little to dislike here.The actors are likable, the direction is decent, and the comedy really adds to the experience. JACKPOT is a perfect film for both fans of Scandi crime and madcap black comedies; not a classic perhaps, but it's certainly good and better than most even if it does tell a familiar storyline these days.
Jonathon Dabell
Jackpot is based on an original screen story by Jo Nesbo (the Scandinavian novelist behind crime bestseller Headhunters, as well as several successful children's' books which have earned him favourable comparisons to the late, great Roald Dahl). Nesbø, it seems, is the new Stieg Larsson and Roald Dahl rolled into one – high praise indeed.Jackpot is a Coen/Ritchie/Tarantino-like story set in a remote town on the Norwegian-Swedish border. It begins as a trio of excited youths run into a sleazy strip joint known as Pink Heaven only to be blasted back through the doors and windows by a maelstrom of automatic gunfire. When the police arrive, they find the place heaped with dead bodies and literally awash with blood; apparently the result of a massive gunfight. Intense, hard-nosed cop Solør (Henrik Mestad) surveys the bloodbath with a trained eye and tells his assistant Gina (Marie Blokhus) to book a nearby hotel, sensing that here is a case that will take considerable time to unravel. Unexpectedly, Solør discovers a survivor lying beneath one of the victims. Oscar Svendson (Kyrre Hellum), the survivor, is the only person who knows what really happened at this scene of carnage. Solør takes him to an interview room where he points out that it is his job to determine whether Oscar is a suspect in, or witness of, the crime that has occurred. What follows is Oscar's (possibly fictitious) account of the events leading up to the Pink Heaven massacre. Jackpot is pure absurdist cinema, one of the most off-the-wall crime capers ever made, with a narrative that deliberately embraces its more farcical elements and exaggerates them to the point where the story becomes a non-stop box of surprises. Imagine the scene from Pulp Fiction, where John Travolta accidentally blows the head off a prisoner in the back of his and Samuel L. Jackson's car and has to call in professional "cleaner" Harvey Keitel to sort out the problem… Jackpot basically adopts the same tone of edgy black comedy, at once shockingly violent yet incredibly funny, and sustains it for its entire 86 minute running time. The performances are engaging throughout, Hellum holding the madness together as the hopelessly unlucky victim/incredibly skilled liar Oscar, while Mestad has his moments as the slightly unhinged cop. Best of all are Ousdal and Berning as two of the betting winners, utterly disreputable ex-criminals whose capacity for violence is matched only by their child-like actions and reactions to everything that happens to them. Magnus Martens directs the film with enormous confidence, generating genuine belly laughs from the sickest of material. Few scenes, for instance, can rival the sheer hilarity of Thor's hysterically funny "corpse puppetry" scene, where he amuses himself by manipulating a dead body to scare Oscar. It's bad taste comedy taken to such a level that it almost transcends criticism on normal terms. There are a few weaknesses with the film, such as an over-plotted final quarter which becomes tricky to follow, plus a disappointingly brief running time which rushes to the denouement too quickly for the film's own good. Nevertheless Jackpot is a tremendously entertaining ride and yet another example of the high quality cinema coming out of Scandinavia at this time.
tohalloran
I don't like gore but the gore is so cartoonish here it does not interfere with the fun. This film has everything.It has the basic convoluted crime story,unbelievably funny dialogue and great characterisation. There is nothing not to like in this film.The bad guys are well drawn and never given the outlandish lines that Tarentino gives them, they remain human, stupidly criminal and never the mere 'apes' that the police hero sees. I was a little thrown by the ending. I don't know how we were meant to judge the detective but of course it hardly matters. This shames Hollywood once again, just like Headhunters did. If you don't find this hilarious the fault is with you.
