Comments on: Help identify this recent European comedy film...

Question: Help identify this recent European comedy film...

The bat in the hat — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:28:37 -0800

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.

By: Forktine

Forktine — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:00:51 -0800

I'll bet it was Pusher and its sequels. Great films.

By: compound eye

compound eye — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:06:00 -0800

I just watched pusher and sequels, great films, but your description doesn't sound like what I just watched

By: compound eye

compound eye — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:09:06 -0800

did you look through the list of films at previous years festivals?

By: effbot

effbot — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:36:27 -0800

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.

By: effbot

effbot — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:50:41 -0800

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).

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:51:25 -0800

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.

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:04:02 -0800

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?