It has been a while since I’ve watched such an entertaining and taut thriller as Headhunters. Scandinavian crime dramas are incredibly popular at the moment but this is arguably one of the better recent examples, and whilst it may feature the familiar amoral characters and extreme violence that has characterised films from the region there is a pleasing deftness to the story. The plot centers on a successful headhunter who, moonlighting as a thief, steals valuable art work to finance…

yes, Yes, YES!!!

Now, this is what I'm talking about! It is difficult to come up with a truly original plot for a thriller and Headhunters doesn't have the most original premise, but it's execution betrays a creativity that I haven't seen in this genre in a long, long while.

There is the inevitable point in a film of this type where the main character has to be taken out of his comfort zone in order to create momentum and…

Usually, when a film has a tone that's all over the place, it can take me out of the film entirely. Not with Headhunters. For this film, the film uses it's tone and audiences expectations to it's advantage to make room for plenty of twists and turns. It starts out as a serious, straightforward crime drama and then as the plot thickens, it transitions into something more gory, bizarre, and even darkly funny. It kept me on the edge of…

Now this is how you make a thriller.

Headhunters starts off familiar enough. Our main character, Roger, is a corporate headhunter who sidelines as an art thief. In the opening scenes, Roger predicts his own downfall. We know that the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan.

What ensues is a series of events that does everything right. I was constantly engaged with the story and trying to guess motives of characters, how things would end up, who was…

Ohhh Jaime Lannister... You are one smooth SOB when talking in your native tongue. You are one of the coolest, most suave villains I've seen in a while.

And Headhunters perfectly accentuates Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's brilliant performance.

This taut Norwegian thriller is an unexpected punch to gut in the form of explosive violence, genuine suspense, and cool characters. It's an extremely well made movie and looking back, I'd probably say it was one of the best of last year.

The film…

For someone like me, to get what he wants, only one thing matters: Money. A lot of money.
-Roger Brown

The only thing I really knew about Headhunters is that, on average, it had a high rating from Letterboxd users. I didn't watch the trailer, didn't read any reviews, didn't even check it's freshness on RottenTomatoes. This Norwegian film, that I had never heard of outside of Letterboxd, turned out to be one of the best thrillers of 2012.

The…

It's a pretty good indicator of just how lazy those who work in the film based media can be these days. After all, can you find a single sodding review in newspapers, magazines or film websites of Headhunters that doesn't make a mention of Stieg Larsson and/or his Millennium trilogy?

Because, let's face it, him and Jo Nesbo both wrote/write crime fiction and they're both from that cold bit at the top of Europe! Christ on a bike, with the…

This film has received little to know promotion, and it's a damn shame because it's an excellent action thriller!

The best way I can describe it is intriguing. The plot is fairly simple, but there's several small but nice twists that keep everything very interesting throughout. I'm not familiar with most of the actors outside of a very recognizable member of the Game of Thrones cast, but they are all very good here.

The director did an excellent jpb with…

Headhunters is a film I bought without knowing anything about it, a sticker on the front said it was from the same producers as the original Scandinavian Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a film that I deemed to be completely average. Yet for some reason I bought it without even researching it, and i'm glad I did, the internet is well known for spoiling movies and this one in particular would have been completely ruined with its twists revealed.

Aksel…