Riders Of Justice - Movie Review

Critics Score - 9 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

Revenge sells. From Kill Bill to Taken to The Count Of Monte Cristo, everyone loves a good revenge thriller, someone does a compete badass wrong and they’ve got to track down some nefarious individuals and get even. This formula has become standard fare in the Hollywood machine that cookie cuts out another film periodically, with subtle variations that can make for a fun time but also sadly predictable and unoriginal films. Along comes Riders Of Justice, an inventive, original and surprisingly funny take on the revenge concept, however many will opt out when they find it’s in spoken Danish with English subtitles. Sadly, those that pass on taking this Ride Of Justice are missing out on one of the finest cinematic rides of the year.

We begin the tale with hardcore army man Markus (Mads Mikkelsen) calling his wife Emma and teenage daughter Mathilde (Andrea Gadeberg) telling them he’s been asked to stay another three months at a military camp abroad. After the mother/daughter duo bump into data analyst Otto (Nikolai Kaas) on a train who insists Emma take his seat, the train inexplicably crashes and kills Emma but leaves Otto and Mathilde to contemplate what strange twist of fate spared them in the accident. Otto recruits two quirky hacker buddies Lennart (Lars Brygmann) and Emmenthaler (Nicholas Bro) to help investigate some strange coincidences he sees as clear evidence the train was crashed deliberately by a gang, the Riders of Justice, to terminate a passenger who had testified against them in court. The emotional weight the film juggles is heavy with the topics of God, death, fate and chance intertwined in the story but the contrasting lighthearted and mistake prone characters make the film quite amusing and even laugh out loud funny at times. It also keeps up a nice pace and momentum as Otto, Lennart and Emmenthaler, motivated by a desire to find answers to the strange events surrounding the crash, approach Markus and convince him it was no accident and to investigate the Riders of Justice. The entirety of the acting cast is doing some really exceptional work as these characters begin to come together to pursue and bring justice to the gang. But the film really kicks things into high gear when they track down an angry gang leader at his home. Although the film isn’t terribly cinematic, there’s a great shot of the gang member as he points a gun in between Markus’ eyes, Markus backs down and heads to leave but stops at the car and turns back towards the house. At this point the film is really good, it’s exactly what you’re expecting but it’s about to transform into something entirely different and that makes it truly stand out from the rest of the genre.

By the conclusion, we’ve been on a thrill ride that’s not of the same kind as the usual John Wick and Jack Reacher style films, with twists, turns and reveals that offer more critiques of the action, revenge genre than it does stereotypes. Although the Mads Mikkelsen character Markus is the main person the story follows, it’s the supporting cast with their idiosyncratic ideas, relationship dynamics and character arcs that steal the show. The writing is brilliant in that any slow down in the pacing of the film is momentary but allows extremely precise character development to happen, like a surgeon making incisions at exactly the right times and places. We come to care about and emotionally invest in all these characters, despite the number of them we get to spend time with. They are all flawed and repeatedly screw up as they go about this endeavor, it’s comedic but also very realistic in the way they react and do things that you or I would in these same scenarios. While ROJ is doing so many things great and checking off so many boxes of excellent filmmaking, the one thing keeping it from a perfect ten in my ratings is that it’s tone feels a bit uneven, it’s so serious and heavy handed at times yet so funny at others that it’s a bit jarring. As was mentioned, the entire acting ensemble is brilliant, but Mads really outdoes himself in ROJ, it’s arguably better than his fantastic work from his last film, Another Round.

SUMMARY - This film’s poster, trailer and even the movie’s title don’t do it justice, no pun intended, in terms of telling audiences what a remarkable piece of filmmaking this movie is. They’re probably keeping their cards close to the chest to not giveaway too much, but make no mistake, what Riders Of Justice is, is nothing less than a brilliantly written, character driven, wonderfully funny, emotionally deep piece of filmmaking. If there’s any Justice in your next moviegoing experience, it’ll be that you go with Mads and Co. on this trip, it’s one hell of a Ride.