User reviews

This movie is an interesting project, as it tries, more than anything else, to be accurate. Everything on location, local actors, following the actual events as closely as possible. This is not enough to make it a good movie, but it does make it interesting.

But this is more than any "TV-recreation", because it's obvious that director has a certain ambition here. The movie "Heat" is directly mentioned in this, as it distances itself from it. They wanted to go in a different direction, and they achieved it. Despite a lot of action, it never feels like an action movie.

But it's a challenge to make a movie telling a story from several perspectives at the same time, especially if you don't lend yourself the freedom to change the chronology up a bit to make it more exciting. This leads to the movie jumping back and forwards in time quite a bit. It never really gets confusing, but the solution is not ideal.

While much of the acting is good, there are certain deliveries of dialogue that takes you our of the experience. But considering the project, it's worth going for the local actors.

While coherently depicting the original story of the 2004 robbery of this bank in Stavanger, Norway, I have to advise people that I have been motion sick for almost all the film. The camera is mostly behind an actors shoulder, with focus on the shoulder but in many scenes not on what it actually looks at. This, combined with a lot of hand-held filming, made me feel very sick from watching it. The otherwise very fluently and grippingly told story is lacking some overview shots, and as with so many films these days the camera is very very close to the actors, which in combination with the fast editing can lead to a certain disorientation. The ending scenes do benefit from the absence of all this, and rest burned into memory long after the film ends.

In 2004 eight men disguised as the police special forces (SWAT) attempted to rob the Nokas Cash Central in the city of Stavanger. The tragic result of this crime was the death of a police officer who was shot while being in his vehicle and mass-panic in the center of the small Norwegian town. The movie is set on location, adding to the realistic effect while it is shot with a hand-held camera which makes the film all the more suspenseful and full of tension.

We, as the audience, are watching the preparation of the heist, some hours before the actual event with the robbers making their final decisions and the police officers in the Stavanger Station being blissfully ignorant about what's about to happen. The actual robbery covers the entire second half of "Nokas" and is shot in a masterful way by the director Erik Skjoldbjærg ("Insomnia", "Okkupert"). The actors' performances are all great, even though the nature of this film doesn't offer many opportunities to exhibit acting skills. The director states the real facts about the consequences of this crime in the end and it amazed me that 51 of the 57 in total Kroner that was stolen were never found. If you are a true crime fanatic, this is a film not to miss and the same is true for all Nordic Noir fans who are tired by fictional stories and want to watch something else.

The NOKAS robbery was a huge thing here in Norway. It was historical, stuff like this very rarely happens in our rather big, but people-empty little strip of land. It was a real talker, on the news and in the newspapers for a long time.

Anyhow, after the world controversy had died down and most of the crooks were in prison, the movie about it all came out.

Now, this is not a bad movie. Considering it's Norwegian it is rather good. But it never crosses the line into real good territory.

Most of the actors aren't big names, or really famous at all, and that works pretty good in something like this, as you don't want to be too attached to the actors. They do a decent job, too.

It has some intense action, some cool shots, and it being true of course leave a little bit of an impact. But I do think it could have been a little more edgy, for it to come across as more dramatical. I don't know.

It's alright.

Nokas is a a paradox that works. This careful reconstruction of Norway's biggest ever robbery avoids all sense of cliché - and opts for one of the better directorial decision seen in a crime / heist movie. No drama, no screaming villains or pretty girls, this is a superbly researched semi-documentary that simple records a five hour period in minutiae - yet it is tense, involving, and probably the best recreation of a bank robbery I have seen.

The Nordic style of speaking and manner is captured well - no-one "acts" they simply are, and here we get almost no character development - it's straight-up storytelling, using a lot of mid-shoulder mid-close and close-ups - it is well shot. The camera work etc; fits this well - it never feels amateurish.

Considering how iconic this real event was - in a country where bank robbery is extremely rare - they could have over-glamourised and made a Nordic Heat; by avoiding that trap they had made cinema, a film's film, and one where integrity respects the events but never loses the sense of adrenalin.

Good film-making all round.

I just finished seeing this one I found it very worthy to have a look at it.

The story is told in a different way Hollywood uses to do and a different view of a action movie is kind of rare.

OK, the camera is kind of shaky almost all the time but I've said it before: when there is a reason for it for me it's OK. Here the tension is printed by this moving camera and also by the fast editing - without this two elements is kind of difficult to make the film moving or interesting.

The camera closure to the actors shows an intimacy to the characters, we see their expressions constantly and without this it would be difficult because there is no so many dialogues or "shot/reverse-shot" kind of scenes, the action took all the time needed.

The point of views are interesting but sometimes confusing even with the subtitles indicating the time, not a big problem to me.

Nokas has a nice and interesting kind of storytelling that is unusually welcome - at least for me.

I just can't believe how awfully this movie was made. The whole movie was like a joke. The screenplay was such a bad one with horrible scenario and plot, then the directing and the acting of this Nowegin movie were also so bad. If this movie was made just because the producers wanted to expose the poor organized Nowegin police system, the poor training and the poor, amateurish response to deal with an emergency, their police force was just too disgusting to be described with proper words; then it served pretty well and right on the money. If this movie was for the purpose to expose and to make laugh on those stupid morons who decided to rob the bank with such a poor plan, then again, you should consider this movie did a great job. If this movie was made for the above-mentioned two purposes, then it also served well by showing the Nowegin common citizens were so naive and so numb to almost anything happened around them. But for the movie itself, it was just a piece of worthless recount of a so-called 'based-on-a-true-story' incident. There was no realistic feeling of this whole movie, the police, the band robbers, they both failed so miserably, because they failed to deliver a suspenseful thrill in the least. Nowegin movies usually are exceptionally well scripted, directed and acted, but not this one. This is a very hollow, empty and void movie that had failed completely.

This must be one of the most stupid films I've ever seen. Living in Sweden, I've met quite a few Norwegians, none of which were as stupid as 99% of the people in this movie. I realize it's supposed to be a documentary, but it just isn't possible that anyone can be this stupid. Pensioners and families with small children standing still a few meters from an intense firefight, and seemingly not notice anything or simply not caring, and with no intent at all to take cover or try to run away. There is a Swedish comedy called "Cops" and although it is very good, it is not nearly as funny as this movie, so if you like comedies, watch it!!

This movie will not necessarily disappoint, but probably surprise those expecting a traditional movie with a plot and character progression etc. Nokas has none of that. Instead this is an extremely detailed reenactment of the robbery, based on witness statements, security camera footage and interviews with police officers and even some of the robbers.

The movie begins with the gang getting dressed and ready to go, and ends with them taking off with the money. Everything in between is basically the big heist scene from the movie Heat, Norwegian style, for 80 minutes.

To understand why anyone would make a movie like this, you'd probably have to be Norwegian. And what I mean by that is that Norway is a very small country where bank robberies of any kind are very uncommon. Needless to say a robbery of this magnitude resulted in an absurd media circus which literally lasted for years. All the robbers became household names and some even got their own "super villain" nicknames, such as "The Shadow" and "The Master Brain". The general fascination only grew as the leader of the gang, while hiding from the police, supposedly ordered the armed robbery of the Munch Museum in Oslo where two of the world's most famous paintings, Scream and Madonna where stolen in order to force the police to shift focus.

Anyway, the movie is great. And what makes it so is the authenticity and the fact that this is what really happened. Normally when movies are based on real events, we get the directors own interpretation of what "might" have happened, often an interpretation full of nonsense and "liberties with the truth" in order to make it work as a movie. But no, this is it. This is as close to a real robbery you'll ever get on the screen. Even small details such as certain gestures, which can be seen in the real security footage, have been carefully duplicated. This makes for an extremely tense ride which will surely keep anyone interested in heist movies on the edge of their seat all the way through.

It's also quite chocking to see exactly how the police engaged the heavily armed robbers in a fierce firefight, in the middle of a town with hundreds of civilians in the area. How they continued to provoke the robbers even after hostages was taken, and finally how it all resulted in the death of a police officer. After watching the movie it seems as an even greater miracle that no one else got killed. Hopefully the Norwegian police have learned exactly why robbers carry heavy firearms. "The Master Brain" even explains it in the beginning of the movie when he says something like: "If the police shows up, just pad your weapons and show them we're the strongest. They won't engage". Well, they did. And it didn't end well.

There should be a -10 rating too!

This movie was really bad. Even if the police and the gang doing the bank job acted like in this movie (which i doubt) - it is among the worst movies I've seen in a very long time.

And for the acting - also a -10. I think high-school kids I know could have made this movie much better.

So many ridiculous things happening, story, time - line.

I have really not a difficult time even not getting all upset by all the flaws in here.

Not even worth seeing for the flaws - is it a joke??? Redo - remake, or don't do at all !!! Is this movie just a bad joke???

The Poster of Nokas and the robbery theme, lured me in. Particularly striking was the wide depth of field portrayed in the poster, generally only achieved by SLR cameras and lenses.

In the case of Nokas, What you see is indeed What you get.

STORY: The story is the realistic re-creation of a robbery that played out in 2004 in a European theater (Norway). Realistic means, real people loosing their nerves, being hysteric and not playing the heroes in world abiding by physical laws.

SCREENPLAY: The screenplay is well done and traces out the robbery from the first and third person POV, following various people including the robbers and the police.

SOUND: The sound design is slightly above average. There is little background music, and nothing that stood out to me.

VERDICT: 10/10 I consider this a masterpiece, for the being the first of its kind employing this technology in a well-executed, realistic robbery-themed movie.

TECHNOLOGY: Technologically the new camera generation means wider picture angles, shallower depth of field, incredible low light performance, and above all a field of view which allows for a First person perspective. (PS: I didn't find any information regarding the actual camera setup the crew used)

For gamers, the POV perspective is the next best thing to 3D, of putting the viewer directly into the action.

Stupid robbers, Stupider police or vice versa Stupid police, Stupider robbers.

Bullsiht movie. take my advice and don't watch it. You''ll thank me later.

There is nothing in this movie that is done good. the police keep on saying it's like hell in here during the shooting outside the bank but i don't think they even know the meaning of hell.Compare it to the shooting scene in Heat (1995) and all you can do is laugh at this movie.

Totally ruined my hopes, if there were any, in Norwegian cinema.

Like you are an invisible spectator in all the situations. I felt "involved" from the 1st to the last scene. Not over dramatized.

Nokas -robbery in stavanger centrum in the easter week of 2004 are the largest cash robbery commited in norwegian history, about 7.5 million dollars in norwegian kroner were stolen. this film is a nervewrekingly made drama that unfolded in the ,for me, well known and very public area of the city near stavanger cathedral church.

i saw this film when screened in the theaters, and i must admit that i was bitten by the negative feeling and criticism by making a film that nearly glorified the criminals. what i see now is that the film has an equal glorification of the desperate actions made by the police, who were entraped and passified by the looters and the holyday season of easter. i do also see that itb took the virginity of safe banking in norway , and must also admit that the criminals were daredevilish when committing this robbery

the film product are among the very few heist films that really makes me feel like hanging in a tread, good filming,informative timeline, great acting,and extremely well made sound product. do have in mind the vast negativism by the citizens of stavanger,who had to go through all this again, there were large protest meeting and the political opinion wre vastly against the making of this film, because the film is shot on location, and therefore makes an even more vivid impression of the actions.

its 15 yrs since the nokas, the perputrators are beginning to be released from norwegian prisons these days, i still have this happening in my guts,the loss of a policeman, many wrecked soles among the nokas employees, and within the police , god bless all of them.

if you like heist movies ,do watch nokas, its pure robbery. recommended.

This is one of the best Norwegian movies ever made, which recreates the Nokas robbery that happened in Stavanger in 2004.

The movie doesn't go too far as an action movie, and feels like filmed from real events. It also captures life in general for many people when this robbery occurred, which resulted in the death of a decorated police officer.

Yes this isn't Heat, and this wasn't made in Hollywood. But the movie still has many of the qualities that made Heat, great.

I've watched this movie many times. Although Norwegian movies usually are a mixed bag, the words 'nailed it' really describes my feelings when Nokas comes to mind.

This movie has English subtitles, and is a must watch, for anybody lucky enough to get their hands on it.