150 Word Review: ‘Riders of Justice’ (2021)
Don’t make Mads mad in this funny and brutal revenge flick
Mads Mikkelsen should be in everything. The intense actor starred as a middle-aged sadsack in this year’s Best Foreign-Language Oscar winner Another Round and his follow-up is Riders of Justice, an unconventional Danish-language action comedy. Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, it’s almost a send-up of American-style revenge thrillers but it’s also a surprisingly sweet-hearted look at male intimacy.
Mikkelsen is a soldier called home when his wife is killed in a train accident. A survivor of the tragedy has a theory: criminals caused the wreck. As the man spared, Nikolaj Lie Kaas is superb. He and his friends, a pair of socially awkward data scientists, form a sort of Mission: Impossible team of nerds to help Mikkelsen’s character hunt down those responsible.
There are few shockingly violent scenes, and Mikkelsen reveals a surprising inner rage. In Riders of Justice, the world is cruel but best endured with friends and family.
