Hamilton

I think this movie shows a positive development in the movie industry in Scandinavia. It`s a brilliant action-film, with many elements that Hollywood wouldn`t accept (read: chainsaw-scenes). Peter Stormare is excellent and the best of the Hamiltons` that have appeared on celluloid. It has many different scenes and locations from Morocco to the Russian tundra and is a multi-international adventure. Jan Guillou is a very good writer and this is a fine product of two of his books (Ingenmans land and Sista Segern). See it, and make up your own mind.

Well... I'm glad I first saw the series... and sad that I gave up to my curiosity when I saw this cassette. This is not BAD. I've seen so much worse, made with bigger money even, but if I had seen this first I may not have wanted to see the series. All that was better in the film was the song "And then the tears came" which I do not remember from the series at all. OK, you can't push 3 hours of material into 2 hours-film. But: Why in the devil did they have to use WORSE takes of same scenes in the film? That is something I simply can't understand. But still Peter Stormare is good, Lena Olin is good, Yevgeni Lasarev is good. And Mats Långbacka was actually better than I remembered from the series. For you who blame Peter Stormare being one-faced, just for your information - there's much more to him in the series so try to catch that if you can. There's more to EVERYTHING in the series...

A fun quote: Chivartsev: "And this is Commander Hamilton from Swedish Intelligence." Hawkins: "Swedish INTELLIGENCE? There's a controversy in terms..."

People, you gotta see this! This is an excellent movie, wonderfully directed by the Norwegian director Harald Zwart, and incredible acting from pretty much everybody, especially Peter Stormare, Mark Hamill and Lena Olin. This has everything. Great special effects, but not too many, an intriguing plot and the thrills that keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie. I loved it, must be one of the best action movies I've seen.

Sorry to say, this film did not fulfill my expectations at all. Peter stormare may be believable playing single dimension psychotic killers such as in Fargo, but when it comes to a character like Hamilton, his single expression face is far far from enough.

The action in the film was rather ok until the story leads us to north africa and the film suddenly wants to be an american hollywood action flick. Why not make swedish action the way we know best? And by the way... who wrote Mark Hamill´s lines anyway?...

Oh, and finally... if the story gets too boring you can always play the game of "spot the obvious product placement"... Yeeech...

This film just doesn't work. No two ways about it. I saw it for the first time back in '98 when it was released and I didn't like it. I just bought it on sale a couple of days ago, 'cause I thought "whatta hell, I'll give it a try". I don't regret for the money I put out for Hamilton, but the fact remained the same.. this movie is pointless, dull and uninteresting.

Stormare is usually a delight, but that's when he's making films in the US. Back home he doesn't do the trick. Sure the movie is well made (if you forget the odd stock footage here'n'there), but in the end the only thing that REALLY lifts Hamilton above one star garbage, is Hamill's turn as the bad guy Hawkins. He seriously has fun with the character and is also responsible for the only two good moments in the movie.. "Swedish intelligence, huh? Now there's a contradiction in terms" and when he allows Hamilton to have a word or two with his wife over the phone towards the end of the flick. And that's really pretty much it.

** / *****