Walter and Carlo - Up on Daddys Hat (1985) User Reviews

It was the 80's

[Phrankster163 · 5/10 · 23 January 2006]

This is a movie that is as 80's as anything can be. It's basically a dark comedy about Walter and Carlo going to Costa Del Sol like so many other Danes did in the 70's and 80's. Along for the ride is Walter's mom, Carlo's wife Elly (who we never see, but from time to time we see what she is seeing through her video camera) and Walter's new love interest. From there on in it's good old fashioned ultra politically incorrect humour, with a story about Carlo and some jewel thieves (and their attempts at killing him) mixed in between. Oh and like all eighties comedies, it doesn't hurt if you shut your brain off before watching it!

Funny, but best forgotten.

[raagaard · 3/10 · 6 August 2006]

I totally agree with Phrankster."Walter and Carlo" IS Denmark in the eighties. Everyone had been to Spain on Charter Holidays and the "folk comedy" genre was what we had all grown up with, so we could all relate to it, in opposition to the more "art cinema" oriented films. It is actually funny and bit anarchistic, and was a big office hit as far as I remember. Jarl Friis Mikkelsen and Ole Stephensen do a rather good job trying to revive the folk comedy, but...making TWO sequels, each one worse than the other. Well, Hollywood does it all the time. Anyway, that was what filled the seats at the time when movie theaters were closing down one by another around the country.

Inept

[lbk · 2/10 · 30 December 2021]

It is impressing that the director succeeds in making the crop of the most well known Danish actors look like amateurs, fumbilng morons and school comedy wannabees. It is excruciatingly embarrassing.

Maybe it is unfari to point out one disaster but Ulf Pilgaard falls flat on the face in an inept hysterical performance. Fumbling is not easy done on film but this failure is beyond belief.

This film is a stain on the CV for a dozen of the most loved and famous actors and comedians in Denmark. I feel sad for them.

Stupid beyond belief.

[Bahlsen · 2/10 · 31 December 2020]

5.5 is a very generous score. My theory is, that some of the voters must have been foreign people, and that some of the stupidity got lost in translation. Because let us be fair. This movie is stupid beyond belief. It is hard to say who the audience is expected to be. The jokes are kindergarden level, but the movie still wrestles with getting drunk and women with big breasts. An example of the comedy goes something like this: Inge, the romantic target of Walter is lying in a bathing suit in a deck chair by the pool. She is a fine looking woman. Walter approaches her with two drinks, but she doesn't acknowledge him, and runs off. He chases her, asking her several times if there is too much water in the drinks. How would she know? She just ran off without trying. She then jumps into the pool, and holding the drinks out, he falls in, apparently because he has a severe motor disability. They then swim around under water, and she surfaces, saying: "That is enough". Enough water in the drink that is. I mean. isn't that hilarious? The movie might be interesting as a monument over what went wrong in the 80's, but apart from that, it should be avoided at all costs, and if I ever come across people talking about this movie, I will pretend to be a mute and deaf russian.

A good danish movie

[sjensen-4 · 10/10 · 17 August 2005]

This is a very good Danish movie, period. A few Danes think that this is a very bad film, because it took focus away from Danish art-films. Art films only a few people saw and all of are all but forgotten to day. This film is very simple and dumb - but it is fun, and that is the most important thing. Just because this film does not have some "greater" message does not make it any lesser of a film. Because of this, the film is very much liked by many average Danes - people that never would have seen any art film, even if it were free. A film like this is remembered by the public - and most art films are not (only the best are that). This film had an impact on pop-culture, and therefore it can be immortal. And that is better than an art film, which is forgotten in 10 years. And that is a fact. Walther and Carlo will always be remembered in Denmark.

But this film is properly not suited for non-Danes. They would not think that it is funny. OK, maybe people from Sweden or Norway. But outside Scandinavia = no.

This is a good film, no question about it. Good, not Great. But of course it is not a classic.