What Goes Around (2009) User Reviews

Good positive movie

[chn65 · 7/10 · 3 July 2009]

Too many people focus on what's wrong with everything and everybody, and tends to excel in sarcasm, so they can pour their personal pain out over everybody, who happens to be close by. Just like one of your teachers in school.

Then it takes a dramatic event (a kick in the behind) to look at life in a bigger perspective and focus on the happiness which is here now, instead of being grumpy about what went wrong some time ago.

This is not new or very deep psychology, but it is always fun to watch the transformation from a grumpy "everything-is-wrong" person to a happy "I like things as they are" person, especially when it is done with wit and humor.

You may or may not like the style. I liked it.

Competent and funny, but too short and lose the fizz

[jacob-noergaard · 7/10 · 15 June 2009]

In Sorte Kugler (Black Balls) we follow Anders Matthesen as Alex Stein, a not so successful real estate agent. He is rude, jealous, don't pay attention his little daughter or his beautiful wife.

His wife is a police officer, something Alex wanted to be as well, but he failed.

One day Alex is driving to close a deal on a house, but drops a cup of coffee in his lap, thus resulting in a crash into a car coming from the right.

Alex dies, but he doesn't go to heaven or hell. Instead he goes to a special place where he can gamble upon whether or not he'll live or die. It's a series of tests to see if Alex is a good person. Wrong answers results in black balls being put into a tube, right answers puts white balls in another tube. If the white balls overflow first, Alex lives, but if the black balls beats them, Alex dies.

As expected, Alex is put through some not very easy situations that calls for extreme (for him) patience and honesty. Anders Matthesen is at his best, being an angry, frustrated Alex and the movie does give us some rather good laughs.

I enjoyed the scene with Alex and his mother a lot, perhaps because it kinda reminds me of situations I recognize.

But, alas, the movie is over far too quickly. Clocking in at about 80 minutes - barely - it falls a bit short. And the ending is - as has been noted by others - far to glossy and happy. A happy ending is fine, but this is happy in the extreme. I know it's supposed to be funny because of its extremity, but I must admit I was a bit disappointed by how Matthesen wrapped this one up.

He has the talent and the wit. A sharp and fast wit. It comes to life in a few scenes during the movie (like when he comments on his sisters way with words and sentence construction, loved that scene), but it seems he either had too little time or too few good ideas for the movie.

Had it been 30 minutes longer - 30 minutes of awesome Alex screen time - and the ending been a bit more realistic, I would have given this an 8 or 9. As it is, it's just about a 7.

A good start

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 7/10 · 24 June 2009]

I knew I would be watching this the moment I first heard The Duck was working behind, not only in front of, the camera. Regardless of whether or not it was going to turn out incredible, it was obvious that it was going to be interesting to see. He throws himself head first into not only a fresh project, but also a different type, sometimes even switching mediums, every time he completes one, with few exceptions. Stand-up, radio, music(singing as well as rapping), a TV series, an episodic Christmas calendar, shows, acting and writing. While not everything he touches turns into the purest gold, the man is clearly multi-talented, and highly creative. I didn't go into this expecting it to be perfect. My summary refers to this as his directorial debut as well as how the film opens. It has a nice, strong beginning, that sets the tone well, if that doesn't last throughout the whole thing. There are points where Matthesen didn't seem to dare take the full step, and go for being serious(however, there are places where it was critical that it was, and he nailed it), so he injects humor when there shouldn't be. This is immensely funny, almost every single time it sets out to be. It hardly ever tries too hard. He uses his anger and the rants we know and love, his trademark. The story-telling is fairly solid. We can forgive the single use of a well-known, old crutch for exposition. It helps that this does communicate well. The problem lies in what it is putting forth. It's just thin, I'm sorry. The universe of this movie is an oversimplified version of the real world, in which only our lead is a negative, and everyone else is positive, especially before they have contact with him. I'm not certain he intended it to come off entirely that way, nevertheless, that is what we have here. The moral is amiable, yes... and also preachy. It reveals a naiveté, that I think lies in the fact that he has not had that difficult time of being successful. It's not unlike Robert Rodriguez... neither set out to wow audiences the first time, and now they forget that it does not go that well for everyone. Chances are necessary to win, that doesn't mean that every one that is taken goes well. This is more than a tad black and white... literally. And the symbolism is... I understand, he did not want to risk viewers not "getting it", still... he goes above and beyond, leaving no way to misinterpret. I believe he intended to inspire further thought, he may have not realized that the better way to do that is to not serve the answers on a platter. There is one particular scene that goes against the logic of the rest of it, and is unmistakably there because he wanted it there. I must admit that one of the main elements of this surprised me, and I refuse to divulge it to anyone who does not already know. There is a twist that I did not see coming, and it was effective. The ending is excessive. This is hilarious when at its best, and utilizes several types of comedy, and well. Situational, cleverness, wit, etc. Anders tries to joke with the "happy" stuff to not feel lame, the way he has before, and it's... not great. The acting is marvelous, basically all of the performances(with the possible exception of the kid, what else is new). They play off each other well. The cast is well-chosen, and the cameos cool. There is genuine tension and drama in this. The language is harsh, if not frequent. This has disturbing thematic material, and is not for children. I recommend this to his fans. Be careful not to go solely for the laughs, or you may find yourself somewhat disappointed. Go with an open mind, and you may like it, especially if you deploy your anti-pretentiousness-filter. 7/10

Very important message about self reflection

[hitmann-hot · 10/10 · 23 September 2014]

It starts out with a salesman that has failed in every way possible except for his wife, other than that his financial situation is terrible, his attitude to other people is terrible, and his effort on his quality time with his daughter and wife is terrible too. The worst part is that he doesn't realize how he treats the people around him, and that he is not only ruining others lives, he has forgotten that you have to love yourself, to love others. Hes involved in an accident, and get to see himself, with another perspective. In the end he stands before a great conflict and it he must take the right decision, and see what truly matters in life.

Sorte Kugler: Not Unenjoyable

[imagiking · 5/10 · 5 July 2010]

I read somewhere that those who enjoy the directorial work of Anders Thomas Jensen might find themselves enjoying Sorte Kugler. A servile follower of Jensen, I sought this one, the debut of star Anders Mattheson, out immediately.

Negative, anger prone, and downright rude, Alex Klein is a real estate agent with serious financial problems and a job he's very likely to lose. His problems are solved when, rather extemporaneously, he dies. Finding himself in a strange pseudo-purgatorial gameshow, he is given the chance to win back his life by overcoming his character flaws.

Beginning seriously, with Klein presented as a straight faced and talented salesman, it's not long before we see things quickly revealing themselves. The facade of professionalism soon dissolves to reveal the sardonic and irreverent bitterness which henceforth fills the film. Klein's meanness is consistently amusing, a particular scene in which he firmly demands correct grammar from a friend's casual anecdote deliciously witty. Mattheson's delivery is genuine, sharp, and very funny, making his character more irritatingly irritable by the second. Once we move to the afterlife, however, things take a turn for the worse. The baffling strangeness of the scenes which follow is quite perplexing, as I much assume it intends to be at first. The humour now comes from a variety of sources, none of which match the quality of the original curmudgeonly splendour of Mattheson's ramblings. The scenarios he is placed in by the gameshow are never hilarious, nor are the scenes with its host. It would have worked out a far funnier experience to simply fill the film with Klein behaving in his horrid manner. No narrative structure per-se, granted, but certainly funnier. As it does transpire, we follow a half hour or so of considerable comic potential with an hour of general mediocrity, mixing the occasional laugh with plenty of instances of dead and flat humour, giving the impression of trying too hard. The ending is not bad, even spurning a few laughs, though not particularly great either.

After a very strong start offering the sort of black humour admittedly recalling Jensen's work, Sorte Kugler digs itself into a hole it contentedly remains seated in. Failing to live up to the high standard it originally sets, it proves very disappointing, though not unenjoyable.