Audience Member
Cute movie, and it gave me a chance to test my Swedish language knowledge. (Warning: not for those offended by off-color language or nudity).
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Not to be confused with Woody Allen's 1982 feature A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy, or Äntligen midsommar! as it is known in Sweden, is the latest offering from director Ian McCrudden. Who you ask? Why, he's the man who brought to us such hits as Trailer: The Movie (1999), The Big Day (2001), Mr. Smith Gets a Hustler (2003) and 2006's misunderstood masterpiece Trespassers (2006). Ok, so maybe I'm being slightly sarcastic, but with an average film rating of 4.3 on IMDB this cynicism was always going to be present when I was given the opportunity to review his take on what a Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy is (because I certainly don't know). But maybe he could redeem himself? I mean, if his past film's were classified rock bottom then surely things could only get better?....right?
Well I'll leave my thoughts for now, first things first, here's what the synopsis in the press notes reads:
"A beautiful waterfront house, a Swedish flag fluttering in the wind. A sailboat tied to the wooden deck below. This is the setting of the friends' annual Midsummer celebrations. The friends are gathered at Emil's (Daniel Gustavsson) family house and the herring lunch, sauna, games and compulsory skinny dipping are as always prepared. Expectations are set - Micke (Alexander Karim) worries about his highly pregnant wife and the fastest way to the nearest hospital. Eva (Anna Littorin) is looking for some distraction from her recent split with Patrick (Per Wernolf) and Sam (Luke Perry). Emil's college buddy from the States arrives with his own expectations of Swedish sin. Wannabe singer-songwriter Anders (Olle Sarri) hasn't told his wannabe pregnant girlfriend Maria (Annica Bejhed) about his low sperm count and hopes to solve the problem over the weekend. To top it off Emil's surprise seems to lift the party to unprecedented heights. If everything had gone according to plan that is."
Sound hilarious? Here's the truth:
Cheap, asinine and austerely dull, at 93 minutes A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy runs 94 minutes too long. There is a plethora of reasons of why this is the case, but if it had to be placed on one overwhelming factor it would come to rest on two words: Luke Perry. Not only does this man have the talent of a dog biscuit but he effectively manages to worsen an already excruciatingly bad film. His role as the American, "Sam", is perhaps the most algesic affair I have experienced this year and I am praying that the rest of 2011 doesn't offer anything audio-visually worse (after seeing this film I'm relatively optimistic).
Even with Perry's shortcomings you would still expect some redeeming performances within the rest of the cast, but no, the whole cast is devoid of talent and there isn't a single moment where empathy is evoked. Instead, the spectator is dragged through a story that has no emotive impact, no narrative intrigue and whose scriptwriter is in desperate need of revising the semantics of "comedy" - a crucial directorial error lying in the fact that Ian McCrudden manages to render every scene tediously unamusing.
It's not often that you come across a film where the casting department actively despise their professions, but A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy perfectly fits this bill - the crew's autophobia appearing most prominently in the hiring of Luke Perry as a central character. How they came to this decision? I honestly don't know, but Perry's Sam stands as the embodiment of everything wrong about this film. Within a few minutes of screen-time he demonstrates a clear transparency, complete unlikability, and unwholesome self-obssession that stands as perhaps one of the most sublime sights of debilitation for any viewer. One of the more notable sequences which effectively expresses this opinion is shown when Sam beds a recent ex-girlfriend of his best friend within a few hours of the original couple splitting up. Whilst not only being a "sex-comedy" cliché, what really angles a problematic slant is that the film presents him as being some-sort-of chivalrous gentlemen for performing this "altruist" act.
Alongside this, crass comic relief tries to endorse itself within another main character's impotence, a problem which has resulted in his wife hating him (finely tuned hilarity if I do say so myself). In essence, what tries to present itself as a feel-good comedy plays out like my idea of a dystopian nightmare where self-indulgent, surreptitious and bleak characters find companions in each other.
Many of you may claim that I am guilty of oversight and haven't produced a balanced argument, and if that is the case I apologize for not offering a fairer and more open-minded review. But if you haven't noticed already, I have treated these 800-or-so words more as my own personal therapy than as an informative insight, and in saying this, I will sign off by condensing my general feelings into two sentences, a final thought if you will: This is a film that could only be stupider if it was longer. The soundtrack's nice though.
[originally published on http://www.cine-vue.com/]
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Riktig smörja tycker jag:( Hur tusan lyckas man spela in sån här skit:(
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Sommarvariant av "tomten är far till alla barn". Helt enkelt klockren svensk humor. Olle Sarri är en grym skådis!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Konstig i början sen helknasigt rolig! Vanlig svensk midsommar...
Luke Perry - hunk.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Olle Sarri bjöd på ett par skratt i filmen. Luke Perry i en svensk rulle kändes bara konstigt, men det funkade - så bara det gör den ju lite sevärd. Men sett över hela filmen var den rätt så slätstruken.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
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