Executive Protection (2001)
After causing a commotion with his last assignment, Falk has been given a desk job, which hardly agrees with his personality, and he ends up accepting an offer from an old friend to buy into a private investigation agency. Another friend of Falk's, Sven, purchased a business in Estonia, and when local gangsters attempted to pressure him into paying protection money, Sven retained the services of Nikolaus Lehmann, a burly private eye, to throw them off his trail. However, Lehmann does his job all too well, murdering the racketeers, and then threatening Sven and his family. With no where else to turn, Sven asks Falk to help him deal with the crazed Lehmann; Falk agrees, but soon realizes he's dealing with a more dangerous man than he imagined when Lehmann kidnaps Falk's wife Jeanette, and then releases her with a time bomb locked around her neck, demanding that Falk hand over ownership of his detective agency to Lehmann.
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A different way of telling a story
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Usually Swedish action movies are worse than an American C-class action. In movies like the two latest Hamilton movies (Vendetta and Hamilton) the action mainly consists of car explosions and gunfights that even the worst of American action would match.Livvakterna does not fall into this trap, to my delight there isn't one single car explosion. Sure, there are some gunfight but to me they feel real, the characters feels real, the script feels real... basically, it's a very good movie.
This film is a "must" for those who are into realistic action. It has good story, good actors and it`s not typical American. I can only speak for myself when I say that I appreciate that guns are being properly handled, that magazines are being changed and that a simple car-crash does not make an explosion. "Livvakterna"/"Executive Protection" are an example to follow for all Nordic film makers. Dice throw 5!!!
As the former writer said, it´s a rather good action-thriller. The best one I have seen on Swedish cinemas anyway. Go see it!
A Swedish action flick that actually works? Is that possible? Well, this movie _almost_ works. While the last twenty minutes or so of Livvakterna are very suspenseful and full of action, the 1.5 hours leading up to those minutes are merely okay. The scene where Krister Henriksson's character explains the first, second, and third crime waves is actually incredibly bad, almost embarrassing to have to watch. The acting? For the most part the acting is better than one might expect from an ordinary action movie, but some performances are not very good at all. However, Livvakterna is rather entertaining, and the last twenty minutes are quite good so I'll give this film a 5 out of 10. If you ask me, I'd say that the director's first movie -- Noll tolerans -- was better than this one.