Customer Reviews

Flickering Lights (Blinkende Lygter)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of my favorite movies of the past year. Looking forward to its release on DVD. Amazing black comedy that is directed by Oscar Winner Anders Thomas Jensen (who also wrote Mifune and Open Hearts). Stars the biggest names in Danish cinema in a film that won't soon be forgotten. The Danish version of the Coen Brothers but maybe with a tad more violence and a tad more heart.

After first encountering Mads Mikkelsen as the breath-taking Tristian in "King Arthur" not more than a mere two months ago, I have prowled the internet in search of any film having the privilege of being graced by his presence. Having added "The Green Butchers", "Pusher", "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself", and "Shake It All About", to my formerly non-existent DVD collection

Danish film based on 4 small time gang members who fail to deliver on a job for a mobster named Eskimo and then are asked to heist a safe with $500,000. The gang members, childhood friends, each face a personal crisis of one sort or another and decide to run away with the money to start a new life rather than turn over the loot.

* Terrific cast. Mads Mikkelsen ("Arne") and Ulrich Thomsen ("Peter") are particularly good.
* Witty lines in a dark / bleak comedy.
* Violent in a number of scenes (involving humans and animals)
* The film loops in reflections and flashbacks of the gang's childhood and upbringing but does so in a superficial and unconvincing manner.

Want to see some great Danish films, I would suggest you start with any of these four: The Inheritance. Brothers. After the Wedding. The Celebration.

I had seen the film "Flickering Lights" (blinkende lygter) before, and I have been looking for it for a long time. My problem was that they stopped producing it here in Denmark, so I had to order it abroad, which felt kind of weird since this is a danish movie.. I was scared that it was gonna be syncronized or something, but fortunatly for me the language is danish with english subtitles.. The only downside is that the english subtitles are not optional, but I can live with that.. It is a great movie with good humor. If you like the danish movie "Adams apples", this is definetly a movie for you :)

Love this crazy movie, watched it twice. Foreign movies are the best. All the characters are great, the dialogue outstanding, and the theme, Hollywood or and Bollywood should get a clue!

No Dogme '95 here: this enjoyable Danish film could have been made in Hollywood. Writer/Director Anders Thomas Jensen is responsible for the screenplay for the great film After the Wedding and the earlier small gem Mifune (which was part of the Dogme oeuvre).

'After the Wedding' star Mads Mikkelsen (better know as Le Chifre in Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition)) is part of the foursome at the core of Flickering Lights. Mifune's Iben Hjejle - known to US audiences for her role as John Cusack's long-suffering girlfriend in High Fidelity - is here too in a smaller role. But this movie is all about Søren Pilmark as the brooding, introspective gangster Torkild. Like James Gandolfini's conflicted, complex Tony Soprano, Pilmark's Torkild contemplates a simpler life without crime. And, like The Sopranos, it ain't as easy as it looks.

Jensen's script mixes moments of high comedy with real emotion and depictions of true, bonding friendships.

Having seen quite a few Danish films since marrying a Dane (and visiting Denmark more times than I care to admit), I have to say that Flickering Lights remains one of my all time favorites.

The acting is, of course, superb. One should only expect as much from a film that has so many of Denmark's best actors in it. The pace is good and the movie makes you laugh. It's never boring, has a few twists you might not expect and overall it just works very well for what it is.

I can watch this movie over and over again, because it's just that kind of a good 'black comedy' film. If you've a fan of foreign movies, especially Danish films, I would definitely encourage you to check this one out. You'll be missing out if you don't.

Famed Danish writer Anders Thomas Jensen (Mifune, Open Hearts, King is Alive, In China They Eat Dogs) does a great job of mixing genres in his directorial debut. Part violent black comedy, part crime film, and partly an emotional buddy film about friendship. Cast includes such Danish mainstays as Ulrich Thomsen, Iben Hjejle, Soren Pilmark, Mads Mikkelsen and others. Should become a cult classic here.

This is purely a technical review.

Be forewarned before you purchase this - Vanguard Video has really botched this release. It's 4:3 widescreen, low resolution, massive compression (the entire disc contains only 3.8gb of data). Worse, there's a "Special Features" option on the main menu - but just try to click it. Go ahead and try! It won't work. Why? Because they apparently decided to leave off the special features but *neglected to remove the option from the menu*. Certainly a trailer was all they were going to offer, and there was still more than enough room on the disk for that.

Oh, and the subtitles are burned directly onto the video. What you have here is a DVD version of the VHS master. And I thought Strand was the hands-down winner of DVD butchery. I can master a better DVD than this, and I don't get paid to do it.

I like Danish films especially those that have been written Anders Thomas Jensen. This movie is a Danish Cohen Brothers film. I loved the story, loved the characters and very much loved the outcome. Really good shoot out too.
It is just kind of sick though, nevertheless pretty funny