Help identify this recent European comedy film...

June 14, 2009 3:28 AM

Help identify this recent European comedy film...

Okay, so I'm wanting to find the name of a film and its sequel. It was quite culty, so I'm sure someone will know it.

I saw the first one at the Incredibly Strange Film Festival in Wellington about 9 years ago, and the sequel a couple of years later.

The film was a European (Dutch? Swedish?) crime comedy. I can remember three things from it - in one (both?) a minor character (a chef?) kept hurting himself (like being electrocuted) as a running slapstick gag. Secondly, in one of them (the second?) some of the characters broke the other characters out of jail (by some weird contraption like a catapult or a crane or a helicopter, I can't recall). Finally, at the end of the ?second one, ?everyone gets shot and dies and the main character has some form of out of body / afterlife experience (I think this gunfight makes use of John Woo pigeons, too).

I know this isn't much to go on, but like I say, I imagine that it might trigger bells for someone! Worst comes to worst, I'll email the guy who ran the Festival, but I'd rather try you lot on for size!

Cheers.

posted by The bat in the hat to media & arts (7 comments total)

I'll bet it was Pusher and its sequels. Great films.
posted by Forktine at 6:00 AM on June 14

I just watched pusher and sequels, great films, but your description doesn't sound like what I just watched
posted by compound eye at 7:06 AM on June 14

did you look through the list of films at previous years festivals?
posted by compound eye at 7:09 AM on June 14

Running gags, slapstick, and getting people out of prison using weird contraptions make me think of the Jönson-ligan/Olsen-banden films:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olsen-banden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jönssonligan

I've seen two or three out of these 40 films, so I have no idea if any of them contained any John Woo-stuff.
posted by effbot at 7:36 AM on June 14

Oh, missed compound eye's link. I think you're looking for "I Kina spiser de hunde" and "Gamle mænd i nye biler" (the second is a prequel, I think).
posted by effbot at 7:50 AM on June 14

I was gonna mention I Kina spiser de hunde too. The other possibility is Blinkende lygter. I saw both in the theaters when they came out but I don't remember enough to say for certain.
posted by Kattullus at 2:51 PM on June 14

I was going to suggest "In China They Eat Dogs" and "Old Men in New Cars" but then I realized effbot has 'em under their original titles.

Anyway, here's a (Spanish) trailer -- familiar?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 7:04 PM on June 14