Reviews
The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“These opening scenes set up a slick, smug heist movie along the lines of The Thomas Crown Affair. But we, like Hennie, are in for a surprise. Coster-Waldau isn't all he seems, and Hennie is soon tangling with nano-technology, a military tracking expert, a pair of enormously corpulent policemen, and much more besides. By the time he's been dunked in the most disgusting toilet since Trainspotting, Headhunters has spiralled into an unhinged farce that smacks of Carl Hiaasen and the Coen brothers ... one of the most satisfying and original thrillers in years.”
08/04/2012
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The Times
Kate Muir
“The action romps along in a series of shocks that allow the viewer to ignore the absurdities of the plot. The main device is patently ridiculous, and the art heist/special forces connections are strained. But the movie never takes itself too seriously, and there’s pleasurable schadenfreude about watching a carefully coiffed man in a designer suit end up a ruined tramp.
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06/04/2012
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The Sunday Times
Cosmo Landesman
“ It’s as unexpected as a slap in the face from a lover. It tickles your funny bone and plays with taboos. It’s violent, bloody, disgusting (in places) and clever. Also surreal and touching ... Though Headhunters is being compared to the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films, it has none of Stieg Larsson’s right-on feminist piety. It’s not the kind of film that wins fancy festival prizes, either. But it’s the best thriller we’ve had in ages. ”
08/04/2012
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The Observer
Philip French
“Although inevitably indebted to American models, Headhunters is firmly rooted in the Scandinavian experience, and it moves with the speed of a demented lemming heading for the cliff-edge of a fjord.”
08/04/2012
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Empire Magazine
Kim Newman
“For a while, the film verges on becoming a ‘how to’ manual for those in these recessionary times considering a career in high-end burglary, full of fascinating tips about how to get away with it. Evidently, you shouldn’t waste too much time on getting a proper forgery to hang in place of the picture you’re stealing since a reasonable photocopy will pass muster in the dark long enough for you to make a getaway and dispose of the original on the black market.”
02/04/2012
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The Evening Standard
The Evening Standard
“The great virtue of both the book and the film is that, though Brown is clearly a cad, Nesbo and Tyldum allow us to have some sympathy with the smoothie Brown, despite the fact that he has a luxurious home, a beautiful wife and a nice mistress too. It’s probably because, when the wheel of fortune turns so thoroughly against him that he is nearly drowned in farm slurry, he becomes almost human.m. I’m not sure it does that, but it certainly does entertain.”
05/04/2012
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Scotland on Sunday
Siobhan Synnot
“There’s enough preposterousness to set off a Geiger counter – including a security guard who likes to spend his time running round the house shooting live ammo at his delighted Russian prostitute girlfriend, and a bathroom adventure that makes the lavatory scene in Trainspotting look like a wade through a glacier spring. However, Headhunters is such a fresh, compact, giddy delight, that I was happy to go along with it.”
01/04/2012
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Time Out
Tom Huddleston
“While Nesbø and Tyldum’s prime directive is to give their audience a good bracing shake, they also find time to throw in a few witty, thoughtful asides about personal responsibility and the ways in which the relentless pursuit of wealth conflict with the achievement of true happiness. Bankers and business types may prickle at their blanket portrayal as greedy, self-serving misanthropes, but it serves to slot the film neatly within the current anti-capitalist zeitgeist.”
05/04/2012
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Total Film
Matt Glasby
“Crucially, the hurtling action rarely falters and never undermines the characters. And, as screenwriters will tell you, that’s the holy grail.”
26/03/2012
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The Daily Mail
Chris Tookey
“Many Scandinavian thrillers are dour; this one has a welcome, mischievous sense of humour.
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05/04/2012
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Screen
Dan Fainaru
“Realism is not high on the agenda here, with Tyldum diverting the plot in a number of directions and providing a shock a minute. The film’s main objective is to race ahead at top speed, starting in a light playful mood and gradually twisting the screws towards something akin to horror.”
05/08/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Tim Robey
“Hennie’s performance works jolly hard to win our last-ditch sympathies, but the movie’s cold outlandishness — wickedly funny, at times — makes us feel like willing dupes in a con game.”
05/04/2012
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“Is Nesbo offering up Roger as an emblem of corporate wickedness getting its comeuppance? If so, he has not spared the rod. Director Morten Tyldum has put together a tough little package of crime and punishment, then dragged it through an ordeal of grotesquerie that makes you wonder if the punishment hasn't eclipsed the crime altogether.
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06/04/2012
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The Guardian
Paul MacInnes
“The film doesn't merit chinstroking: it's stuffed with Troma-style riffs around schlock, gore and human effluvia, bookended by Shallow Grave-like sections full of cynical machinations. The parts barely relate, never mind work together.
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05/04/2012
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