Skandikrimi ( abb.Scandinavian criminal ) genre may not offer as much titles or shows as their Hollywood counterparts , but when they do it will grip you.There is something truly terrifying watching a film with a language not your own, but with the ingenous help of subtitles, the viewer is able to follow the story without blinking for a second. The main character is played by Aksel Hennie, whom I have seen in smaller productions and is a truly gifted actor. There are shots that he will remind you of Steve Buscemi, another underrated character actor. But the tempo of this film goes from office gloss to adrenaline-packed brutality. Some scenes will make you want to check their animal welfare credits, as it is realistic painful-looking, also bloody brutal but well-presented. Knock on wood that it would not be remade. Leave this film as is.

For a long time this was one of the movies on my 'to watch' list. After hearing lots of praise, seeing the high rating and reading a few of the reviews, here on IMDB, I thought this might be a solid thriller. Additionally, the expected credit for 'Headhunters' was form the fact that this is not a Hollywood movie.A huge surprise (and a let down) waited for me and my wife as we were watching the movie. It turned out to be anything but a solid thriller. More like stupid or idiotic.It actually started very promising. An art thief living an extravagant lifestyle, who also works as a recruiter and is able to take the advantage of it. So for the first 20-30 minutes we were hooked. Then things took a turn in a different direction and had the Cohen - Lynch type of absurdity, being extremely dumb. Some of them were so dumb type of funny, but mostly just dumb. Needless to say that the interesting ideas presented in the beginning were lost or forgotten.The mentioned comparison to Cohen brothers or Lynch is purely in the absurd way the film progresses but in no way I would compare it to their work. I find the material of the former (at least the early one like Miller's Crossing) to be smart while the latter is weird, creepy but nonetheless very beautiful. I have never seen any of them going so low on the 'jokes' as it was done in 'Headhunters'.To sum it up, I was extremely disappointed with the movie. While I can't blame the director (or anything else in the production for that matter) for stupidity since this was intentional, I definitely wouldn't have watched the movie had I the slightest idea of what's to come. This isn't the smart, tension driven thriller I hoped it could be.

I was intrigued by the premise of the movie and the clearly flawed and complicated but somehow hopeful character of Roger. I also loved that it was Norwegian (I'm American) and all of the Nordic characters, scenes and themes.However, for me, about 30 minutes into the movie it took a few sharp detours and I ended up not really knowing what I was watching. I could not possibly see how the later scenes followed from the earlier scenes, they seemed completely incongruous. The characters began to behave completely irrationally, I guess motivated by some background that we were never told about or something, I was lost.There were many extremely graphic scenes, I guess you can't really get away from the graphic violence these days in any suspenseful movie but I thought they were just way over the top and took me out of the story.I began to lose interest about 2/3 through but did manage to finish, and the ending tied up the story in such wildly implausible tying-of-knots that I literally laughed out loud.I'll definitely watch for the actors again and look forward to seeing other Nordic themed movies. Hopefully they can show some restraint with the gore next time.

"Hodejegerne" or "Headunters" is a Norwegian film directed by Morten Tyldum who you might know for the last year's Oscar contender "The Imitation Game". Despite knowing the praise that this film received, I didn't know it would be this good.I watched it yesterday and the characters are still in my head, specially the main one, Roger Brown, played by Aksel Hennie whose first film I saw was "Last Knights" and the difference in the acting is day from night. He is so good in this one, playing a insecure man who makes his money by stealing art paintings. On the other side we have the menacing Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau, the Jaime Lannister of Game of Thrones who is probably becoming one of my favourite performers in the industry. He commits himself to any role and he is quite amazing. He has the looks and the acting chops and I believe we'll see more of him in the future. I must also make a nod to the two feminine characters in this one : Diana Brown, Roger's wife, played by Synnøve Macody Lund, who is surprisingly good, one of that kind of actress who deserves a place in the spotlight and Lotte, played by Julie R. Ølgaard, another actress who is just amazing. "Headhunters" is certainly the proof that foreign films can be brilliant! An American remake is on the plans but I'm sure it won't surpass the original. This one is clearly overlooked. Watch it!