Movie rating: 3 Star

Jo Nesbo's Jackpot

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 Only two movies in and we know what to expect from a Jo Nesbo story. The Norwegian writer likes his wacky crime capers that splatter as much gags as it does blood. Plot and sense be damned in this Tarantino/Guy Richie mash up.

Oscar Svendson (Hellum) is arrested at a scene of carnage at a remote strip bar: he's the only one to come out alive and was the only one holding a shotgun. Tough detective Solor (Mestad) reckons Oscar killed them all but Oscar is holding his innocent man line. It all had to do with a soccer bet. Oscar and three of his ex-con factory workers entered into a betting syndicate and it paid off to the tune of one million plus. But when you've got three ex-cons looking to get their hands on the prize money you know there's a dead body or five going to surface eventually.

Remember Big Nothing? That Simon Pegg/David Schwimmer 2006 crime comedy about ordinary blokes caught in a mess where one dead body just leads to the next corpse catastrophe? Think that with Norwegian accents and a lot more blood. When the guns aren't firing, when no one is smashing someone's head in with a hammer or bodies being thrown into chippers, it’s the performances that grab. Hellum pulls off the ordinary bloke shtick while Burning and Ousdal have fun in the clueless ex-con roles. No-nonsense detective Mestad needs a movie of his own.

The thing is if a movie starts out in the highest gear, when asked to take it up a notch there's nowhere to go. About halfway through, Jackpot plateaus, stops being fun and becomes repetitive. In an effort to shake things up a corpse is animated Weekend At Bernie's style. Not that Jackpot ever set itself up to be an exploration into reality, but it's all a bit much. Caring how it all turns out and if Oscar is going to get away with it is difficult but Nesbo and his co-writer, director Martens, just wants the viewer to have fun. And you just might

Review by Gavin Burke | 12:52 | Friday 10th August 2012 | Movie Review

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