UFO Sweden

The movie Interstellar comes to mind even if the quality and professionalism is far from it, but then again of course most movies are. They must have been inspired by it. It is a nice and even sweet and fascinating story of a young girl/woman trying to find out what happened to her father. It is a nice sci fi movie from our neighbor Sweden. The story and acting is adequate except from the scenes with the police. Then it becomes very implausible and amateurish. I still give the movie a 7/10 because for me a 6 is "No, this is not worth watching". The sound is good in 5.1 without the music being dominant.

Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2023 in Amsterdam. I assume this to be a movie for a much younger audience, letting viewers identify themselves with the lead actress Denise. Remember (in Dutch) the Bob Evers books, where young amateur detectives find the real truth where officials fail. Obviously, with my 75 years of age, I am way beyond the target group.

Lead protagonist Denise meets a collection of typical nerds in the form of UFO Sweden, a group so very anecdotical nerdy that it becomes too much to bear. Ditto with the 4-letter company owning a secret measurement station in the woods, not appearing on any maps. The company has an unwelcoming head office, seemingly very secure, but two of our nerds obtain access easily (too easy) via a backdoor. We meet their head of research a few times, The first time in the woods next to the officially non-existing station. She has all the appearances of a typical bureaucrat, very reluctant to cooperate. She did not admit that the station exists, even standing in front of it.

Very much later in the story, the same woman proves to be a true scientist under the skin. She changes heart once seeing the truth in the formulas shown to her, and happily works along with two intruders in a way that violates her job description on many counts.

I see little harm in the attempts made to simplify the laws of physics, calling names of famous scientists, mentioning well-known phenomena (relativity, wormholes etc), and using models for wormholes with sheets of paper.

I scored 3/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue. I must admit bias, knowing more about physics than an average viewer, and also not belonging to the target group of young people who are expected to identify themselves with lead-protagonist Denise.

PS: In the introductory address, one of the festival programmers said that the movie industry in Sweden succeeds for a fraction of the budget that Hollywood needs to still fail (said not exactly that; I paraphrase). This vintage movie feels genuine. It shows striking special effects, maybe made with better tools than exis-ted in the 80/90-ties it is situated in, but nevertheless looks neither over the top nor impossible for that era.

This is a B-movie with a high budget. The characters are under-developed and not believable. All technically related stuff in the movie is painfully unrealistic. There is a lot of mindless action that always ends in the way you thought it would.

I think the worst part is actually the characters and the writing. The actors themselfs are mostly fine and deliver (including the two main characters).

But the personalities are one-dimensional and narrow. They never say or do anything unexpected and it mostly feels they are just created to make the story fit together.

I will mention a few plus sides though: The cinematography and special effects are good. The choice of music is mostly good too. The setting in the 90s feels beliavable. It has a bit of funny moments as well.

At best, the movie has some "Stranger things" vibe to it. At worst, it makes you cringe and wanting to fast forward a segment or two.

6.6 on Imdb does not make this movie justice!

This is a gem that deserves more attention, as it, contrary to many Swedish movies, has fun characters, it is well played/acted and manages to take you back to the 80ies and 90ies. Their attention to detail was great, with a lot of props and other things relating to actual 80ies and 90ies, action scenes were fantastic and special effects were tasteful and very well made.

I was very surprised how well the action scenes were made, with intense car chases and hard-to-make fast scenes - super cool to see in a budget Swedish movie.

It made me laugh and wanna see more!

This charming, fun and thrilling movie takes you right back to the 90;s (and a bit of the 80;s as well). For a lover of vintage you will find a lot of nice details, and for a lover of old school sci fi you will get the feels from those old Spielberg movies such as "Close encounters of the third kind".

The special effects are stunning, yet true to movies 30 years ago, and there were some nailbiting scenes were we, me and my 13 year old daughter, were leaning far in our chairs at the cinema.

The roles are perfectly casted, and the characters are diverse. I especially enjoyed Isabelle Kyed as "Töna" and Niklas Kvarnbo Jönsson as "Karl-Tefat" but I only have great words to say about the rest of the cast aswell.

This movie succeds were others fail by being absolutely genuine and down to earth (pun not intended) and I am very impressed by the small production company Crazy Pictures that continues to build a name for themselves with productions like this.

For lovers of sci fi and action this is a must see, but it's also filmed with that humor and warmth that takes it to another level.