suchenwi
This is quite a fascinating movie. These days it came as add-on with TVmovie magazine (Germany), which lowers the threshold to get it for EUR 3.50.It's documented as a Swedish/Finnish co-production. I didn't see a Finnish angle, but the Swedish is strong, even though the movie hardly ever plays in Sweden: the hero and family, as well as Rebecca the heroine, and Sellberg the short-lived commander, and the female officer in Göteborg, all come from there.Action happens in UK, Netherlands, Germany, going south (from Swedish point of view) ever more. And going badder. "There's no place like home" (Sweden: for feeling secure, or burying commanders), and all other Europe is a battleground between toothless Europol and privatized security firm EuroSec (which in London has 20 times worth the equipment of City Police).I felt scared by the seemingly uncontrollable powers of EuroSec (and their runaways). If this corporate security firm can overwhelm police, a fundamental concept breaks away. In the end, the bad guys lose. But will something like this happen again? You bet...Certainly not a perfect movie, but very thought-provoking. The Munich riot was over-the-top, as mentioned before, but seems to get closer to the reality of EU/G8/... summits (rubber bullets are still only discussed, but not used by German police yet). I can at least recommend this to European viewers: a decent action movie with deeper context.
dy158
Sellburg is the new chief of Europol (the European Union police force). In his first press conference to the media in the headquarters in The Hague, Holland, he put a tough stance on what he thinks is terrorising Europe - organised crimes.Meanwhile in London, Rebecca accidentally found a letter which was being addressed to her boyfriend Kane. When she realises that he could be involved in shady deals, she decided to contact Europol about this. But Kane found out and wanted to kill her, which eventually left him injured and admitted to the hospital instead. It was there Rebecca saw the news from the television about what the new chief of Europol is setting out to do.In Sweden, former detective Johan Falk saw the news of his former colleague addressing the media in The Hague. He had received word from Sellburg to be part of his team. So he and his family set out for The Hague to meet him.Back in London, once the British police had managed to track down of Kane's upcoming activities, they informed Rebecca about it as she had wanted to know what is her boyfriend really up to. But what she never realised is that his boyfriend's men is tracing her move to meet the new Europol chief in Holland.And it was there, everyone's lives intertwined together. A plot to terrorise the entire European continent, and who will be the one to save the day? I usually don't watch these kind of films, but then I gave it a try when it was on the TV here. It's definitely suspenseful, almost to the end of it.
hartmutw
My summary says it all: I accidentally switched to that movie on TV and got intrigued by the sinister atmosphere and some compelling characters.However, the movie loses much of its drive, ambition and suspense in the chaotic and over-the-top showdown, where literally everybody gets randomly shot and a clear plot is not in sight anymore. In addition, the violent demos that serve as a welcome excuse for chaos never would happen that heavily in any Western European city - pure science-fiction. One of the weakest showdowns I have seen in a while, which is a shame for such a great beginning.
sarastro7
Sweden has a literary tradition of very high-quality political crime and action thrillers, starring heroes like Martin Beck, Carl Hamilton - and Johan Falk. All of them have been turned into movies, and the latest trilogy with Johan Falk - Noll Tolerans, Livvakterna and Den Tredje Vågen - continues the honor roll. These are very well-produced and exciting action movies; certainly impressive by any Scandinavian standard.They are not perfect, though. Good as they are, they are marred by formulaic elements, like extremely evil bad guys who always threaten to beat and/or kill women, which is "the easy way" for a writer to show how evil the bad guys are. As a result, the realism suffers. The third movie in particular also gets unrealistic in the dramatic finale, with Helén (Falk's girlfriend, mostly an innocent bystander) suddenly turning into an expert pickpocket and "undercover operative". The massive riots in Munich were also a bit over the top, I thought, and not really necessary for the story, except to allow the writer to avoid having Falk do all the dirty work of disposing of the bad guys.But even so, these movies are highly entertaining and well worth watching. The movies get progressively better, building excitement as they go. The independent security force in Livvakterna was very cool, and the international action in Den Tredje Vågen, with Nicholas Farrell's well-acted character switching sides because he's all integrity, was very satisfying.7 out of 10.
AD
