The Fight for the Red Cow

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Take the most beloved/despised (depending on your personal taste) film genre of Danish cinema history, namely the wholesome, inoffensive Morten Korch film, where the bad guys all smoke cigarettes and the good guys are blond blue-eyed farmers (or Poul Reichhardt). Then spoof it á la Airplane, Top Secret and Hot Shots. The genre has been begging for a parody for years, but this belated effort hardly seems worth the wait. TV duo Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen and Ole Stephensen admittedly seem to be having fun portraying the Reichhardt/Malberg inspired lead characters and the film is loaded with jokes, but many of these are total misses, with only a few gems. Mikkelsen and Stephensen´s lacklustre direction doesn´t help. Axel Strøbye tries hard with his villainous lawyer (sporting a truly funny wig), but other supporting actors are totally wasted. Not as bad as any of the Walter & Carlo films, but close.