Jackpot (15)

Directed by Magnus Martens
Written by Magnus Martens (screenplay) and Jo Nesbø (story)
Screening at Odeon from 10th August 2012

Reviewed by Redskye

We’re introducted to the main character Oscar as he emerges unscathed from under a dead and noticeably plump stripper with a shotgun in his hand, the scene a shoot out at a seedy sex club. Immediately he’s taken into custody by unpredictable Norwegian police detective Solør whose interrogation methods are somewhat strange - he alone plays the interchangeable role of good cop and bad cop and achieves neither well.

The story is told in a number of flashbacks - we’re first shown where Oscar works as a manager at a recycling factory alongside ex-offenders, we’re shown a shredder at one end of a production line and somehow at the other end out pops fake white Christmas trees. The four characters - comprising three dozy but violent ex-offenders Treschow, Billy, Tor and Oscar - put their money on the football pools. By some luck they win the 1.7 million jackpot, they then squabble about how best to divide it up.

Treschow is the first to get cut out of the deal by the other two, they attempt to cut up the body and chop the head off in the process, they roll up the body in a carpet and drive off to hide it, then they lose the head after breaking to avoid a moose. While trying to find the head a police car stops, Oscar attempts to gesture for help, but the daft officer drives off none the wiser. They decide to recycle Treschow’s body at the factory, the outcome is red Christmas trees off the production line. Next for the chop is Billy, whose body ends up inside a ‘for sale’ sun bed, which later gets bought and towed away by the same daft police officer behind his police car.

Jackpot had a lot to live up to after the superb Headhunters that I reviewed for Nerve earlier this year. Jackpot is more comedy than crime thriller, a predictable plot. The humour isn’t as clever as Headhunters, in fact it’s not in the same mould at all. The film has a rushed and even cheap feel to it from the start to the predictable ending. There are elements of Tarantino’s filmic style and even reminders of British Ealing comedies. It’s still highly entertaining, but it left me empty as I never connected to any of the central characters and was left indifferent to their fate.

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