ChanBot
i must have seen a different film!!
Madilyn
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Bene Cumb
Although I am not too keen on series-films dealing with supernatural phenomena, I like Scandinavian Noir, plus I got to know that the supernatural does not dominate here. So I decided to let it go... Well, the start was rather slow and arid and I recognised a few familiar actors only, but then it was some "kick" and I became curious what had and would really happen. To me, the episodes in the middle were the most interesting, with some twists and teasing endings in each episode, but the final ones became too slow, and the very ending was not gratifying either. There were also scenes where the references to the past and actual events remained vague, i.e. a kind of over- sophistication took place.As for the characters and performances, the leading ones did not impress me much (I was surprised to read later that Mia Skäringer is so famous in Sweden), but Michaela Thorsén as Viveka Wallström made me often giggle. Thus, Ängelby is not a conceptual creation, but if you like Swedish lifestyle and way of thinking, and some mysticism in a "plain" crime, then you spend good 9 hours of your life in front of TV. Most similar U.S. series are worse anyway...
To Uluru
Looks better from a distance?Of the three previous reviews – the two Scandinavian reviewers were not at all keen but the one from the USA found a lot of good in it.Is it a national culture thing? I am from the UK but have visited Sweden a few times. The show could well be derivative drivel / hogwash / nonsense but there are few things in life that are truly new.It is however beautifully filmed with interesting characters and lifestyles. Am I intrigued because I want to immerse myself in what I imagine Swedish country life is like?
Finlandess
What an absolute load of rubbish and a total waste of time watching this series: messy, unfathomable plot, unrealistic characters... The list goes on. Actors were pretty OK, but their roles were not. If this series was intended to be a fairytale, it failed. A drama it was clearly not. I don't know what it was, but not a good reason to spend 12 hours of one's life watching it. There seems to be a trend in Swedish TV-series presently - similar fantasy elements could be detected in another recent TV-show from Sweden, namely Jordskott. One can not but compare these two and wish, enough already! Fairy tales for adults don't work unless they are perfectly written or unique.
Stefanowich
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."― Oscar WildeIn the case of Swedish TV-series Ängelby I would say it's more of an insult than flattery.The setup, right down to the main theme, is a total rip off from Twin Peaks. Same goes for the mystery man who doesn't speak. He is a copy of he dwarf who speaks backwards in Twin Peaks. But in Ängelby he can speak to flying elks (!).In the woods there is a mystery stone from space which sounds a lot like Stephen King's The Tommyknockers. Then we have the mystery kid that rides his bike in the woods. Why does he remind me of the mystery guy in Lost?There are more examples of "inspiration", or theft, from Stephen King, Twin Peaks, Lost and more. Fact is I have no problem with inspiration, but I do hate plagiarism, especially when it's uncredited.Besides the lame story Ängelby has some of the worst acting I've seen in a long time. In Sweden the government pays writers, directors, actors etc money for their "cultural work" which makes is a job you choose because you like it, not because you're good at it. The need to reform the Swedish system has never been clearer than with Ängelby.Life is short, stay clear of Ängelby. You don't need to thank me for that advice.
