"Waste of time 1/10 Author: Mats from United Kingdom 4 December 2012
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Film starts out pretty good. There is sharp tension between the ethnic Swedes and the immigrant communities. Interesting material, I thought. The movie depict well how extended families are important for the southern European gangsters and how that safety is not available to the ethnic Swedes. After having started great, after one hour the movie starts to sag. It turns into some kind of traditional politically correct production. It is as if the director had second thoughts. After having shown the immigrants to be pretty pathetic individuals, the director feels an urge to show that they are human beings after all. This is done by having the foreign gangsters have little girls and buy dolls and baby clothing. So pathetic. By now the film is really not worth watching. The story of the ethnic Swede studying economics and then just going into heavy crime is just not believable. I started out out thinking that this is a 7 movie after 15 minutes, but then my verdict gradually went down all the way to 1. This is just a waste of time."
This movie has very little to do with ethnicity, rather it has to do with class I'd say. Every criminal extended family has a natural protective side against outsiders regardless of which ethnical group the outsiders belong to and regardless if the family consists of Arabs, Swedes, Serbs or is a mix of everything or is called Hells Angels or Bandidos. You don't even have to belong to a criminal family for that matter, as even upper class people are very protective against "outsiders" that they don't consider worthy. After all, in the story JW has a troubled working class background where the father was an alcoholic and has a sister that's been missing for years. He strives and shares the same goals and beliefs with his gangster friends for a life in de luxe by making easy money - in despite of different ethnical backgrounds, which the movie shows plays a very little role when money talks and when even the people within the Serbian mafia don't't trust each other and stab each other's backs. JW and his gangster friends have more in common in their respective working class backgrounds and that they want to change their lives and give it a meaning and to become something they're not, than they have with their own people sharing their ethnical backrounds respectively. That's also what's so great about this movie! It makes you think about how similar class conditions and life backgrounds can have a larger impact on you than you could ever imagine.
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Film starts out pretty good. There is sharp tension between the ethnic Swedes and the immigrant communities. Interesting material, I thought. The movie depict well how extended families are important for the southern European gangsters and how that safety is not available to the ethnic Swedes. After having started great, after one hour the movie starts to sag. It turns into some kind of traditional politically correct production. It is as if the director had second thoughts. After having shown the immigrants to be pretty pathetic individuals, the director feels an urge to show that they are human beings after all. This is done by having the foreign gangsters have little girls and buy dolls and baby clothing. So pathetic. By now the film is really not worth watching. The story of the ethnic Swede studying economics and then just going into heavy crime is just not believable. I started out out thinking that this is a 7 movie after 15 minutes, but then my verdict gradually went down all the way to 1. This is just a waste of time."
This movie has very little to do with ethnicity, rather it has to do with class I'd say. Every criminal extended family has a natural protective side against outsiders regardless of which ethnical group the outsiders belong to and regardless if the family consists of Arabs, Swedes, Serbs or is a mix of everything or is called Hells Angels or Bandidos. You don't even have to belong to a criminal family for that matter, as even upper class people are very protective against "outsiders" that they don't consider worthy. After all, in the story JW has a troubled working class background where the father was an alcoholic and has a sister that's been missing for years. He strives and shares the same goals and beliefs with his gangster friends for a life in de luxe by making easy money - in despite of different ethnical backgrounds, which the movie shows plays a very little role when money talks and when even the people within the Serbian mafia don't't trust each other and stab each other's backs. JW and his gangster friends have more in common in their respective working class backgrounds and that they want to change their lives and give it a meaning and to become something they're not, than they have with their own people sharing their ethnical backrounds respectively. That's also what's so great about this movie! It makes you think about how similar class conditions and life backgrounds can have a larger impact on you than you could ever imagine.