Kenny Begins |
Sweden • 2009 • 87m •
  • Directed by: Mats Lindberg, Carl Åstrand. • Starring: Johan Rheborg, Bill Skarsgård, Carla Abrahamsen, Jan Mybrand, Brasse Brännström, Cecilia Frode, Per Svensson, Josephine Bornebusch, Kalle Moraeus, Pernilla August, Rosie Anderberg, Yan Kai Yu, Heyes Jemide..   Kenny Starfighter is probably the most hopeless student the Hero academics of the galaxy has ever had. But in his desperate attempt in graduating he accidentally crashes on earth and discovers Pontus, an earthling who accidentally stumbled upon an intergalactic crystal which gave him inhuman strength. Now Kenny must save Pontus from Rutger Oversmart who wants the powers from the crystal for himself and Pontus must save Kennys faith from failing school and ending up as a hairdresser.
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Review:
This may seem like a lot of exposition to give away in English for a movie that few people outside of Sweden will even see - but paradoxically, I think anyone not Swedish might appreciate this movie more, since I can only imagine it being wonderfully bizarre for anyone not familiar with cultural in-jokes or the Swedish language, which reveals some horrid acting for those that master it. Furthermore, Kenny Begins is a prequel to a popular mini series called Kenny Starfighter that aired in Sweden in 1997 and became hugely successful. It had a similar plot and it introduced Kenny Starfighter, played with utter brilliance by Johan Rheborg, a character that became enough of a phenomenon to launch quite the hype in Sweden for this first movie, with quite a budget to boot, with some of the most expensive special effects ever devoted to any Swedish film.
As for the movie, it really does fail where the series won me over. The writing is drastically thinner with a more contrived sound to much of the dialog, and the actors aren't really convincing anyone either. There are two kids in the movie, played by Bill Skarsgård and Carla Abrahamsen. There were four kids in the series and they were all goofy and charismatic, if not totally realistic. These two aren't really acting, more talking very statically as if they are obsessed with "acting". As the plot of the movie progress, it turns out we are meant to care for these characters more than we do for Kenny. Kenny becomes like both the star and comic relief, whereas these two kids become the "human element" of the story.
This is a sloppy miscalculation, but the rest of the movie isn't really that well thought up either. It all stands and falls on Rheborg's valiant Kenny Starfighter, and if you enjoyed the series you will enjoy the movie. Not as much, because it's actually a pretty bad movie in every sense, but this is a rare case where that doesn't really prevent a recommendation. There's a scene where the heroes can see mayhem flying about outside the window and one of the school teachers fly up against the glass. Kenny points and exclaims "Oh look, an old lady!" Final point: If you don't think that's funny, you don't have to see the movie.
Review by revival05 from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database