Johan Falk Trilogy

Johan Falk could be considered Sweden's answer to Dirty Harry: a tough cop who's equally at odds with his superiors and with the vicious criminals he takes down. A total of 15 films have been made so far in the Johan Falk franchise; this DVD set presents the first three, all directed by Anders Nilsson and starring Jakob Eklund in the title role. In Zero Tolerance (1999), Falk finds himself in a duel of wits and bullets with a thug who has successfully terrorized three witnesses to a jewelry store robbery and prevented them from testifying. In Executive Protection (2001), Falk's actions and attitude result in his being relegated to desk duty, but he manages to keep busy outside of work, trying to bring down a deranged security expert. In The Third Wave (2003), Falk has resigned from the police force, but he's pulled into a new adventure involving a Europe-wide gangster network. In each film, Eklund invests his character with a somewhat one-dimensional B-movie machismo; not surprisingly, the criminals have the best lines and more screen presence, especially Peter Andersson as Falk's nemesis, Leo Gaut, in Zero Tolerance. A noisy, fast-paced, violent series that easily proves the Swedes can make violent cop action flicks with the same level of raucous energy as Americans, this is a strong optional purchase. (P. Hall)