Gangster (2007)

How sad is this?

Fresh and Exciting

Blistering performances.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This movie features several well known actors which I usually like, so I had at least modest expectations when I rented this on DVD. I was highly disappointed. In fact I walked off for some snacks somewhere during the last half hour and somehow I ended up in the kitchen rather then going back to the TV. The actor performances where poor pretty much all across the board and none of the atmospheres in the movie felt very convincing. Virtually all scenes had that "just a movie" feeling to them, I just sat there waiting to hear the director calling "CUT!" followed by the crew having a little chat about the scene before moving on to the next.Since the movie is about gangsters most characters are tough and mob-like, the problem here is just that this whole bad-boy attitude is played out so poorly that it just feels like a joke. The constant guitar-drilling soundtrack really tries to emphasize this atmosphere too, but when the same track is played the 18th time it just adds to the already strong feeling of the whole thing just being fake.Maybe it was just a really really bad script, maybe it was just poorly executed. I'm no movie critic, in fact I consider it rare to see something that's REALLY good, but this was just plain bad no matter how objective and forgiving I'm trying to be. NOT recommended, not even as a rental!

With huge underestimations due to massive bad critics during theater openings I started to watch this DVD...alone. Since other reviewers seems to lean on when crowd in screening rooms laughs at bad performance or even leaves I give you my 100% personal opinion.There are flaws, there are bad acting. Likely to be found in any movie if you just look hard enough. For example I guess we have to wait for a somewhat good/realistic Swedish shootout.Nevertheless, this slow paced story is so far away you can get from Beck police-movies or other Swedish youth criminal movies. Finally!There is no Hollywood in Sweden but that doesn't mean there cannot be created beautiful sagas, intricate stories and complex love relationship.Add astonishing music and delicate picture and you have "Gangster".I admit, people that only can handle 1 time line and 1 relationship/shot should stay away or bring a guide. Because if the pace of the movie is slow the pace and depths in all relationships turn fast. Keep up!Now for all of you that didn't catch all characters there are rumored to be a sequel (time before Gangster) written for this. Hopefully it hits production...now go buy the DVD!Sincerely Yours/SteelBone

This story contains two beautiful love stories. Both relate to two siblings. Antonio and Nathalie. Antonio is torn between an old girlfriend Tanya who is a cop and a new one Jasmin that is the right hand woman of The gangster boss Thomas Steel. The other love story involves Nathalie, Antonio's kid sister. One night she meets this rich young man called Alexander. I don't want reveal why they meet since that would give away too much of the plot, but through this unexpected meeting Alexander's life totally changes. The story has elements of film noir and mixes cars from the fifties with cell phones. Mikael Persbrandt who plays the Gangster boss who Antonio works for is superb. The settings are magnificent. I have never seen anything like it in a Swedish film.

Where do I start. Lets list the good things about this movie first.1. Mikael Persbrandt is great as the Gangster Thomas. This is the only character you will actually care about, and he's a bad guy! (allthogh never does anything bad, and is generally a pretty likable guy) 2. Kjell Bergkvist is always great. He's a bit toned down here, but he is quite funny still 3. The movie looked pretty good by Swedish standards, good use of depth of field and lights.Now the bad. This is by far the worst script to make it into the big screen ever. The acting by everyone else was pretty bad and over the top. The direction was horrible. A totally meaningless story, totally unrealistic characters and events and 1.5 hours to long. During emotional scenes pretty much everyone in the theater laughed. People just started walking out during the course of the screening. There's no way to actually summarize the story into something coherent, so I wont even try. Every cliché ever conceived is in there, and in all the wrong places. I'm sorry to say this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. Watch it for a good laugh, but try not to pay any money for it ;).R