Hämndens pris

As I'm writing this, Beck: Hämdens Pris is the most recent of the Beck-films released on DVD/VHS. It's quite good, very exciting, but not the best of the series. Why? Well, mostly because it centers too much around the character of Gunvald Larsson, a character I've never a big fan of. Nothing's wrong with that though, as Michael Persbrant (who plays Gunvald in all of the films) is doing a great job, but the plot of the story kind of stays in the shadows as we are treated to Gunvalds personal issues surrounding the incident at the beginning of the film where two policemen are shot to death. The actual story wouldn't be that interesting if it wasn't for the fact that two Swedish policemen were shot in a similar way only a year ago or so. A crime that came as a shock here in Sweden as we're not as used to brutal execution-style murders like that.

From what I've heard, the first draft of the sceenplay was too close to the truth, so they had to alter it in order to pay respect to the dead policemen. I've also heard that they re-shot some scenes, so there is a conflict of what to believe here. But the film was shot before the murders so maybe there is more truth in the latter of the rumors. Anyway, I'd rate it as a 7 out of 10. Mainly because it's thrilling right up till the end and because of the fact that Michael Persbrant manages not to overact.