User Reviews

"Café Hector" is a Danish 16-minute live action short film from 1996, so this one is approaching its 26th anniversary. Director is Lotte Svendsen, but the more known name here is writer Anders Thomas Jensen who started a pretty successful stint with the Oscars when this film was made / came out, even if this one did not manage to be an Academy Award nominee. This is the story of a man not liked or known by anybody in a Danish night club. So he gets told to leave immediately because of some past event we don't find out a lot about and just hearsay. But still he is allowed to go to the toilet quickly and while he is in there another man enters the building with a rifle and takes everybody hostage. At the same time, the underappreciated fellow inside the toilet area pulls a gun himself, channels his inner Taxi Driver and decides to go out and punish those who act so disrespectful towards him in the club by gunning them down. Then he sees the other intruder. Two men, two guns and all at the very same time despite the duo not knowing each other and certainly not having pulled this together. What will happen next? Will somebody be shot or even die? Watch for yourself. I think you should. Danish short films are still pretty good these days and also have been back then. Most people probably come across this for Mads Mikkelsen and I am a huge fan of him too, but here he has virtually no screen time at all and is barely recognizable. Instead, his brother Lars, also a very famous actor, steals the show playing a key character. Ulrich Thomsen is in it too and Danish film buffs will probably recognize a few more faces. I think it was an enjoyable little film. There is some certain irony to the moment the intruder gets shot because it happens right after he opens his heart to the woman about his cats and animals in general. And all this after he almost shot another fella for looking at him as if he was a soft guy. The exact ending and final revelation how everybody likes Lars Mikkelsen's character, well you could say they are glad he saved them, I wasn't too fond of even if it felt realistic. I am sure one week later they will have forgotten him, or maybe one month. And he could very well step into the bar with his gun on him again. Tough to say, but there is something about the ending that doesn't feel right for me. But it does not take away any quality from before and honestly it isn't a bad ending, just probably my subjective taste. Overall, this little movie gets a thumbs-up and I think it is underseen, maybe because the entire scenario isn't too realistic. Go change that and give it a watch, just don't do so because you expect a great deal of Mads Mikkelsen in here because then you will be disappointed.