User reviews

Had been looking forward to watching this but was sadly disappointed. I reckon this movie should be referred to as being "inspired" by historic events as following the actual historical story is very very thin. It could have been good and certainly with the list of known actors, what could possibly go wrong - well something apparently could. And whats with the modern music and dance in the middle of the movie ?? All in all I would say that the movie is not to be watched for historic accuracy but if you wish to see a rather weird and not very well put together movie to have something to do for a few hours then go ahead.

Well, this movie was... not great, but a bit of a peculiar (using the word "funny" here would give a wrong impression, since the movie is not half as funny as it thinks it is) experience.

Historically, the Stockholm blood-bath was an infamous event where the Danish army and royalty executed a big group of Swedish aristocrats, so (the saying goes) the street were flowing with blood. Mostly, the legacy of this event has been that it is shameful for Denmark to have perpetrated it, and a good reason for Sweden to hate us (I am Danish, you see). However, seen in a modern and progressive light, was it all that bad to kill off a portion of the oppressive elite? Was it really such a slight to the common people of Sweden?

Anyway, when I went into this movie I hadn't read anything about it, other than that it had some Danish actors in it - so I suffered from the misimpression (is that a word?) that it was actually a Danish-produced movie! And since the Danes in it are presented as cartoonishly evil, I thought it was kind of a funny self-satire on the "Danish" film-makers' part. Even though I didn't like the immature vulgarities of it, I thought it was a redeeming feature of the movie. In my defense, I believed the movie to be Danish-produced because this exact style of humor is (sadly) extremely wide-spread in Danish movies.

But then, as the end credits rolled I realized it was a Swedish-produced movie - meaning that the oh-so-good Swedish characters and the oh-so-evil Danish characters were just the usual bunch of clichés found whenever some country makes a movie about their (past or present) enemies. No self-satire; just caricatured and unnuanced finger-pointing at the easy targets. [EDIT: It actually turns out that the movie is a Swedish/Danish co-production, so I guess the self-satire is there after all. Except that the screenwriters are Norwegian, which is kind of hilarious.]

To be honest, whether the movie were Danish or Swedish-produced doesn't change my rating of it. The attempted comedy fell flat in any case (you see, all the Swedish characters were dead serious), and the movie didn't know whether to be a comedy or a historical movie. It was also surprising to me that it was in English, since it concerns Danish and Swedish events, and starring (mostly) Nordic actors. The movie indeed feels made for international streaming; it has many of those hallmarks of sloppy, rushed and mediocre streaming service content.

There are two reasons I'm not rating this movie even lower. The first is the female actors, which were very good and admirable. It's a great shame that they are being disrespected by being forced to be part of a movie more dominated by immature and misogynist male "humor". The Freja character reminded enormously of Miranda Otto's character from Lord of the Rings (Eowyn? Was that her name?), and was a strong character, if perhaps not super-realistic in the historical setting.

The other redeeming feature of the movie is that it does start some thoughts about what happened in the in/famous event, and does make us check it out on Wikipedia, at least. As they say at the beginning of the movie, some of this actually happened.

I had been looking forward to this movie with quite the anticipation and was quite happy to be able to watch it 12/12. However, my excitement was soon squandered.

From the get go we get a Tarantino vibe, the movie resonates Kill-Bill as we get introduced to whom appears to be the protagonist and the antagonists.

Some gallons of blood later the movie turns into a mess between historical, dead serious and embarassing.

I gad such high hopes for this movie but it falls flat because it doesn't know what it wants to be and therefore ends up being the mess that it is.

And the torture drags on. About 150 minutes of where I enjoyed perhaps 20.

This could actually have been great if the aim was a coherent story about one of the most interesting and dramatic events in Nordic history,

Clearly made for a global Generation Z Netflix generation it aims big. It's loud, there's alot of swearing and frequent use of the F-word and the costumes, scale and the vibe is pretty much spot on.

But at the same time it doesn't trust its audience, meaning that danish and swedish actors all speak english, most with an accent. But why? To maximize the potential for it to be a hit when it hits streaming? This is a weird choice for a period piece, Actually it's as cringe as if Hitler spoke english in the epic germanmade movie called 'Der Untergang' ('The Downfall').

But I could forgive all that if I was engaged in the plot. But I wasn't. Imagine that... there's so much they could have done with this. So many directions and opportunites. They just had to stick to one clear narrative. Because one moment it's trying to be Game of Thrones, the next a Shakespearean drama and the next something entirely else.

It was like being served a main course with a steak, a cake and a piece of pineapple on the plate. Each indiviually great tasting it itself, but mixed together....

... for if this is what hell feels like, and by this, I mean watching this movie, then I'll promise I won't ever sin again.

Watching this from start to finish is pure agony. The movie does not know what it wants to be. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it gore? Is it historical? Is it fiction? We don't know, be because the movie wants to be all of these things and none of it simultaneously, in a regurgitating blending that makes no sense making it difficult to take it seriously.

The acting doesn't help, which it is very unconvincing and at times upsetting by how bad it is.

What is nice though, with the exception of a few scenes, are the effects and overall cinematography. It is clear they they spend much more time and money on that, than in acting or scripting.

Not reccomeneed, at all!

Please, dear directors and what not, do proper screen testings and quality assurance before producing or releasing your movies and spare us poor viewers the agony of sitting through your self indulging productions!

If you go in to the movies expecting a historically correct depiction of the events, you will obviously be disappointed. If you are looking for a fun time watching a more "splattery" and fun take of the events you will be fine.

The movie does not take itself serious, so neither should you. Some of the criticism is on point in that it stops being the "Tarantino" type of movie that it starts out as. It slows down a bit and drags on during the second half and some scenes could just have been cut to keep the pace of the movie going. That would my biggest gripe about this film, that is slows down. But, I'm fine with it.

It's a fun watch and worth a ticket.

This movie was bad. It was very slow and tedious, except for the battle scene whitch lasted about 5 minutes and was the only good thing about the picture.

The 2 hours and 20 minutes that was left was watching a boring, slow movie who tried to be funny, horrific and dramatic all at once, but failed at all.

When you find yourself hoping it to end soon, about half way in, is a bad sign.

But it just keept on going on forever without anything exciting happening.

I don't recommend this to anyone, not even to Danes who might enjoy watching Swedish innocent farmers getting cut in half.

2 hours and 25 minutes later, and my life is a little worse after the experience.

Three stars awarded for the two leads who at least put up a decent performance, but that's about it.

It tries to be a bit Kill Bill, a bit A Knights Tale and epically failing at both. The script is either bad or non-existent. I get the feeling that the director just put up a series of half assed improv-sketches in costumes and cut them together to resemble a movie. I am struggling to see a red thread or at least a plan at all behind it all.

Some yelling, some swashbuckling, some more yelling and everything wierdly cut together to a porridge of gore. Thank God Alba August and Sophie Cookson do a good job of killing Danes and being bad ass. With a narrative more focused on them and less on the group of yelling men trying to resemble Danes, this might have been at least watchable.

It def seems to get a lot of hate, but I thought the mix of genre worked fine and gave a good difference between the serious and ironic. Not being too much of either. It were well made and different from many other historical dramas. I love when people try some new things and play a little with genres.

The storyline were interesting as well, I think it worked well following both the evil Danes and the two Swedish girls. And all the actors played good. A well done movie all in all, but if you are a Dane (like me) be prepared for the Danes to be slammed and seem really crazy and evil haha. 8/10.

Were they joking about this historical moment? Queen Kristina taking a girls SPA , while danish king attacks Stockholm? Native american as kings knight? Jokes like some of this did REALLY happened, yes we know. Comic book presentation of characters. Just did not feel serious, Come on, could be so much better with just the real story and native language swedish and danish and no stupid jokes and sarcasm. Walked out of the cinema at the end. How did the movie end? All the bad guys on the list dead? Girls with archers saved Sweden ? The Pope punished king Kristian? Danish army went home and never came back?

I deeply regret spending my money on this stupid (CENSORED!) !!

What a disapointment!!!

Technically using this rating system I can't give this movie less than one star - no stars at all is more likely my honest opinion!!!

So be it - hence the single star goes to the actors, who to my opinion generally all performed well.

First and foremost Claes Bang and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, who always perform absolutely fantastic!

NOT all the blood an violence - I've seen worse than that! - but the absolutely failed and foolish look-a-like mix of Game of Thrones, Tolkien and Tarantino into a weird childish Marvel universe made me have a disgusting taste of my breakfast a second time for today!

The costume designers and choreographers of the dancing scenes...oh no!! They should be the ones to experience .....a bloodbath!!

Everything about this movie is so friggin bad.

The historical inaccuracies spans past the creative freedom a Tarantino-like style would allow you. At this point it's just pure ignorance and unskilled story telling.

The language - "okey dad"

The army tactics - Swedish army attacking an army camp mid day time by surprise, because what army have scouts.

Perfectly clean clothes for the most time... Because washing machines was a thing 1520.

Girls with long hairs wearing chain mail hoodie, I've worn one for reenactment - it's horrible with short hair.

This time in Swedish - Danish history was interesting, unlike this movie, which is an hour of my life I will never get back.

I went into this not expecting much but I was truly happily surprised. I loved the tune. I loved the work of the director. Two and a half hours flew by with me even laughing out loud in the cinema - something I never do.

Having podcasted about the Stockholm Bloodbath (four episodes in Swedish podcast Massmördpodden) I knew the history of the event quite well. I did not expect the film to be as historically accurate as it was. I think the depiction of the historical characters was spot on.

There were some simplifications, such as not even mentioning the merchant conflict in Stockholm and all the Swedish merchants who were slaughtered in the blood bath but I can see why that was not included in the plot.

Now I just want this crew to make a film about the revolt against Gustav Wasa by Nils Dacke in Småland!

Great job! And great acting!

Mikael Hafstrom shouldn't do movies at all.

I don't know what they were trying to do here.

A side story of revenge could've been so much more but came so short of its goal.

The lines are annoying from start to end, and it almost feels like the actors even realizes themselves how ridiculous their lines are.

The movie tries to be fun and use some Guy Richie influence but it totally just crashes the movie.

The wardrobe also feels over exaggerated and doesn't seem accurate.

The casting isn't very good either, even though some of them are actually good actors.

Kristian II is the only good casted actor but his lines unfortunately destroys his character too.

Really disappointed in what could've been a really great movie.

Im surprised over the mixed review , cause it was funny and gory and masterfully edited. For sure it has som quirks and odditys. But in general a very good gladiator / braveheart kind of movie. The to leading ladies were excellent. And the Danish king fantastic. The twist in characters compaired to the real history is a good choice , the mix of English, Swedish and Danish actors is also a good choice. I see a bright future for the to leading ladies.

The fact that the picture in its entirity is in English is also a wise choice. But still many.. not really cause it is still early and people has not seen it yet but the majority of the hundred or so critics here thinks its a pile of dog crap but I still thinks its probably one of the best movies to come out of Swedish production in decades.

A good mix of Tarantino, vikings and GOT vibes, and great acting performances.

An untraditional and refreshing mix of an historic events, comic like features, dark and light humour, great acting and convincing settings. Super fun being a Dane and seeing the Dane's portrayed in a not so flattering mannerism. Blood and violence was inevitable giving the story line, but never overshadowed the great acting, intelligence and humour behind.

My only critique was that it was perhaps a little too long.

Not a movie for everyone, but if you're into kapow comics, a history drama, Tarantino and great acting it could well be a movie for you.

I definitely enjoyed it.

If you love history & are tired of stuffy boredom filled preaching tellings of it & want a little fun then this is the film you are looking for. Is it 100% historically accurate? Well... no and they even tell you that from the start. This is a Knights Tail like fun film with similar humor though a bit darker because of the subject matter intended to entertain while giving people a bit of historical information at a time when we are lacking in both.

This film has solid acting, fun action, good humor and you learn a little something as well. Give it a try I think you just might find it enjoyable.