Headhunters has a lot to answer for. It was an exceptional thriller and one that I will definitely buy on DVD. On the other hand it was responsible for directing my steps to the theatre showing Jackpot, om the seemingly logical but ultimately foolish grounds that Norway was emerging as a new source of top-flight thrillers. In my dreams. This is a thriller that thinks it's a Black Comedy then decides it is a thriller after all and winds up being neither. For reasons best known to the author a non-criminal becomes the fourth man in a football pool syndicate and, charged with filling in the coupon to their instructions, changes one of the fixtures which results in 12 out of 12 correct forecasts and nets them a jackpot. Whilst he is out buying beer to celebrate two of the other three kill the third partner. The fourth man returns - the killing occurs in his apartment - and is more or less obliged to watch as the other two behead the corpse. Eventually - don't ask - they drive to a local strip club where one of the two assassins owes the owner a considerable sum. There follows a Mexican stand-off with no less than three guns pointing at various protagonists. Whilst this is going on a group of young men arrive in search of (their words) pussy and are blown away; the police arrive to find the non-criminal clutching a rifle, surrounded by stiffs and lying beneath an obese woman. From there it goes downhill. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Review of Jackpot
