Nokas

The film retells the NOKAS robbery, the biggest ever heist in Norway, in which a group of 11 heavily armed robbers stole a total of 57 million kroner, of which 51 have never been recovered.

The story is almost too weird to have happened in the way depicted. The plan was for the robbers to break down a window into the ground floor of the bank at a time the safe would have already been opened. Failing that, there should be enough hostages inside to force someone to open it. If everything would have gone according to plan they would have been out with the money in under 10 minutes. This alone does not a good heist movie make.

They figured that, as the building had been built in the 1960's, it would not have bullet proof glass and the windows should shatter immediately. This is where they were wrong and it considerably slowed them down. It took a sledgehammer, a battering ram and 113 shots to finally break into the building - giving the employees enough time to get out.

The plan also included a scheme to slow down the local police force from responding. They were already low on numbers as it were, with several officers on Easter holiday. The robbers blocked the police garage with a truck they then set on fire, virtually locking in most of the police working that day. This would have been a brilliant move were it not for the fact that the material they used as fodder for the fire is what got them convicted as it contained DNA from most of the robbers.

The only readily available law enforcement officers were a duo that were already out on an unrelated call. They ended up facing off with the robbers stationed outside the bank. With next to no personnel available, there was nobody there to rope off the area and people strolled by between the bank, the armed robbers and the police - people walking dogs, joggers, women with strollers. Even after shorts were fired (many, many shots), there was still a lot of foot traffic.

Also, the city buses came by right on schedule. There is a scene when all drivers of the buses are alerted of the robbery and gunfire at Church Square. One driver calls in to say that this is his route's starting point and asked what he should do. Dispatch told him to just go there and ask the policemen on site. WTF?

The film ends after the robbers drive off with the loot. What happened after is detailed in insert cards.

This was really quite brilliant.

8/10

Kon-Tiki

Another film watched at the Gartenbaukino Oscar event. I might have never watched Kon-Tiki if it weren't for winning tickets for the entire event.

This is the story of Thor Heyerdahl and his trusted crew giving themselves to the wind and currents to prove that Polynesia was actually populated first by South Americans (Peruvians, to be precise) rather than the then held popular belief that the original settlers came from Asia.

I understand that this is the most expensive Norwegian film ever made and it really is a feast for the eyes. Beside the obvious beauty of shots of the grand ocean in all kinds of weather we get eye candy.

Lots and lots of eye candy. The adventurers are mostly well-built Scandinavians running around with their shirts off.

Aside from that, the film is actually really good and I'm glad I saw it. It was nominated for best foreign language film. Of course, it never stood a chance, as it was up against Amour, which won every award imaginable this year.

6/10

Babycall (The Monitor)

Noomi Rapace as Anna, an overprotective mother gone off the rails. She has a restraining order against her ex-husband, who tried to throw their son Anders out the window. Or so she claims.

Anna and Anders live in a non-descript apartment complex in a non-descript town and the mother is in a state of constant panic. She only befriends Helge, who works in an electronics store where Anna purchases a baby monitor to always keep track of her 8-year-old son.

In the end, everything was totally different from what we thought - and from what Helge thought happened.

It's a strange one. Set up as a thriller/horror film, it is not really all that horrifying (for someone like me, who watches a lot of horror films). There is some element of tension, especially before we learn what was really going on.

Unfortunately, the idea is much better than the execution. Even with Noomi Rapace carrying the film.

3/10

Mørke Sjeler (Dark Souls)



When his daughter Johanna is attacked with a drill and turned into a zombie, Morten Ravn goes off on his own to find the culprit and bring him to justice. Given that the policeman leading the investigation of a number of similar attacks is a smug asshole (fear not, he will get what he deserves), he really has no choice.

The film borrows heavily from themes used in other films and TV shows. There is the black oil dripping onto faces (familiar to anyone who watched The X Files) and a woman crawling awkwardly (à la Ju-On) towards her victim. Not even the big bad oil company as the ultimate baddie is a new concept. People and companies threatening the environment have taken a lot of the fictional blame since western cinema lost its favorite scapegoat, the USSR, to brotherly capitalism.

The film is at its best when it doesn't take itself too seriously - like when men start going at each other with drills, or Mr. Ravn makes funny sounds and laughs hysterically over every bad guy biting the dust while hunting him.

Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between.

3/10