Brief Story Line
Washed up director Dan Burton (Jason Segel - Windfall, Shrinking TV series etc) had been married for several years with Lisa (Samara Weaving - Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, The Valet etc), an actress trying to find her big break. Their marriage was so terrible that they could no longer stand one another and secretly planned to murder each other during a weekend holiday trip to the cabin owned by Dan's father Michael (Paul Guilfoyle - Colony TV series, Arthur the King etc).
Unfortunately everything did not go as planned with an unexpected turn of events.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I did not want to give too much detailed info on the story cause it would ruin the surprise as it's better if you just find out yourselves. However I believed that just by reading the brief synopsis from Prime Video, you would be intrigued by it. At first I thought this would be something similar to the major hit Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but in that movie (and series), the couple were secretly assassins while in here they really were common people. So obviously the plan of killing already created amusing things as they were not experienced at all. The beginning of the film was kind of fun with some quite smartly written dialogues but as soon as we got to the middle, the tone slowly changed. It grew darker and darker (though still got few humor) with lot more intensity.
The characters of Dan and Lisa were delightful to see with their constant spite and I like how they casually addressed the issue of age difference (I thought it was odd at first when I saw the lead cast). But the movie would not have been enjoyable without the additional cast of Timothy Olyphant (Amsterdam, Alien: Earth TV series etc) as Pete, Juliette Lewis (Nerve, Cape Fear etc) as Allegra and Keith Jardine (Killer Kafe, Godless mini series etc) as Todd. Aside from them, there were few more supporting cast like Jake Curran as Dan's friend Henry, Cha Yoon Lee as retirement home's orderly Kevin and other cameos. During opening credit, I noticed that it was a remake of movie titled I Onde Dager directed by Tommy Wirkola which was a well received Norwegian 2021 film. There was one actor from that movie who also appeared as cameo in this English remake.
The movie itself was directed by Jorma Taccone (MacGruber and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping). So I guessed he was quite experienced in making action comedy. It was written by duo Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher (known as BriTANick) who wrote & directed Pizza Movie. I also saw the name of pretty well known actress Karen Gillan as Co-Producer, though she did not appear in here. The film has a duration of 105 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene. Oh I saw the name Cha Yoon Lee as the fight coordinator while going through the closing credits which I did not see coming (apparently he is professional stunt appearing in plenty of Hollywood action films). The filming location was in Finlandia that should explain the many Finnish names as part of the crew including stunt coordinator & doubles.
Overall this was a movie that was fun and amusing in the first half, but in the second half it was darker and had plenty of action. Though some of them might be a little over the top and a bit gory, but it was enjoyable to see without feeling overwhelmed. There was a small surprise during the final act and it ended just like I predicted which was satisfying for me. I read the plot of the original Norwegian movie and saw there was not a lot of changes in this remake. However, I might find some time later to check out on the original (available in different platform) just to compare it. Critics were quite OK with the movie but its Box Office performance was disappointing (it was released in the US in April 2026 though never made it in Indonesia). Perhaps because it was meant to be released via streaming in the first place. So if you are interested in watching an action comedy film with unique premise that provided some laughters, then you are welcome to give it a try. I myself thought this was interesting and unique.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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