Metal Brothers is about the brothers Thor and Odin, two thirtyfive fraternal twins who still behave like newly expatriate seventeen-year olds, constantly making their mother wash their clothes and feed them. They are moreover metalheads, and big fans of an obscure Canadian band that almost had a hit 20 years ago.
The film starts at that, and very slowly, you get to know the brothers. From the beginning, you see only the outer, two raw silly metalhead, but slowly can see that there's more that they have to give. The characters are, however, according to me is not strong enough to carry the film, which desperately needed.
The film has bet everything on humor and the few characters, but it is not enough to keep the incredibly weak story from shining through. But the film made me laugh a few times, so it gets a FIVE.
But what is the story? It's a little tricky question to answer, the story is all over the place, and still kind of nowhere. They live in a small community, and the local outlet has a new owner and also, by chance, the new neighbor of the brothers, played by Kjell Bergqvist, who is playing his classic "half-grumpy old man" style. The brothers are working at the outlet, and when they are ordered, by their new boss, to work as cashiers, they refuse, reasoning that it is "gay". Ridiculous, I know, and it sets the tone for the rest of the film.
The brothers are kicked out of their apartment they rent received by work, and must move in with their mother again, who is a society priest. She has her own side-story about her trying to get more people to come to the service through various silly activities, like candy hunt. Also incredibly ridiculous.
The story kind of weirds out, not knowing where to go, yet still things are happening, as if they had lots of ideas, but none of them performed or developed well enough. This is the biggest flaw of the movie. If they settled on a main story arc, it would've been a lot better. I mean, you can have both humor and a story. The story could've been as crazy and as unlikely as director Ulf Malmros previous movie "Slim Susie", and it would still have been better then this quite incoherent mess.
Spoilers ahead:
Their new neighbor tries to get them to move, but the only thing that happens is actually two small scenes where water and electricity is lost, and it has no real effect. Oh, they yell at each other a little bit, but ultimately it's just a few jokes, and no story.
The brothers both want the same girl, a schooltheacher played by Mia Skäringer. When one gets her behind the back of the other, a bit of tension is building, but when the confrontation does come, it's just like he shrugs it off immediately. Maybe it's due to the fact he get's his own girl one minute later.
The girl, in fact a Norwegian Gothic emo chick, played by Tuva Novotny, comes from nowhere. Really, she just jumps off a bus, from nowhere (well, Norway I presume, but hey, talking about from the audience point of veiw) and randomly joins the film. Sure it is justified in exposition that the mom found her on some dating site or something, but why not show it instead of she just being there? "Show, not tell," as they say.
But the emo character is still nothing but bunch of joke. Even her name is a big joke, Evil Bitch, pronounced Eh-vill Bitch.
When the movie ends, it feel's like nothing has happened, except that you have seen some weird things. I'm not even sure if the brothers learned any lesson from it all. Im not sure if that was the intention of not, but a good movie it does not make.
All in all, it's a weak film, but the acting and humor worked at least for me enough to give it a 5.
The film starts at that, and very slowly, you get to know the brothers. From the beginning, you see only the outer, two raw silly metalhead, but slowly can see that there's more that they have to give. The characters are, however, according to me is not strong enough to carry the film, which desperately needed.
The film has bet everything on humor and the few characters, but it is not enough to keep the incredibly weak story from shining through. But the film made me laugh a few times, so it gets a FIVE.
But what is the story? It's a little tricky question to answer, the story is all over the place, and still kind of nowhere. They live in a small community, and the local outlet has a new owner and also, by chance, the new neighbor of the brothers, played by Kjell Bergqvist, who is playing his classic "half-grumpy old man" style. The brothers are working at the outlet, and when they are ordered, by their new boss, to work as cashiers, they refuse, reasoning that it is "gay". Ridiculous, I know, and it sets the tone for the rest of the film.
The brothers are kicked out of their apartment they rent received by work, and must move in with their mother again, who is a society priest. She has her own side-story about her trying to get more people to come to the service through various silly activities, like candy hunt. Also incredibly ridiculous.
The story kind of weirds out, not knowing where to go, yet still things are happening, as if they had lots of ideas, but none of them performed or developed well enough. This is the biggest flaw of the movie. If they settled on a main story arc, it would've been a lot better. I mean, you can have both humor and a story. The story could've been as crazy and as unlikely as director Ulf Malmros previous movie "Slim Susie", and it would still have been better then this quite incoherent mess.
Spoilers ahead:
Their new neighbor tries to get them to move, but the only thing that happens is actually two small scenes where water and electricity is lost, and it has no real effect. Oh, they yell at each other a little bit, but ultimately it's just a few jokes, and no story.
The brothers both want the same girl, a schooltheacher played by Mia Skäringer. When one gets her behind the back of the other, a bit of tension is building, but when the confrontation does come, it's just like he shrugs it off immediately. Maybe it's due to the fact he get's his own girl one minute later.
The girl, in fact a Norwegian Gothic emo chick, played by Tuva Novotny, comes from nowhere. Really, she just jumps off a bus, from nowhere (well, Norway I presume, but hey, talking about from the audience point of veiw) and randomly joins the film. Sure it is justified in exposition that the mom found her on some dating site or something, but why not show it instead of she just being there? "Show, not tell," as they say.
But the emo character is still nothing but bunch of joke. Even her name is a big joke, Evil Bitch, pronounced Eh-vill Bitch.
When the movie ends, it feel's like nothing has happened, except that you have seen some weird things. I'm not even sure if the brothers learned any lesson from it all. Im not sure if that was the intention of not, but a good movie it does not make.
All in all, it's a weak film, but the acting and humor worked at least for me enough to give it a 5.