Jönssonligan – Den perfekta stöten

Plot

Charles Ingvar Jönsson (Simon J. Berger), are together with his uncle Ralf, Stockholm's most skilled car thieves. But one day a robbery goes wrong and Ralf is murdered, while Charles is framed for the murder. To take revenge on Ralf's killer, the corrupt business woman Wallentin (Andrea Edwards), the banking director of Wallentin Exchange, Charles makes a plan to implement the most complicated coup in the history of Sweden.

He recruits the fraudster Ragnar Vanheden (Alexander Karim), explosives expert Harry (Torkel Petersson), and lock specialist Rocky (Susanne Thorson), who is also Charles's ex-girlfriend, to help him in his revenge mission.

Cast

Development

Over the years there had been plans to continue the film series, but these never became a reality. In 2011, Ulf Brunnberg, who played Vanheden in the eight original films, stated that he and Björn Gustafson would like to do some more films, if Gösta Ekman was coming back as Charles Ingvar Jönsson. He said that he had tried to persuade Ekman without success. Since Ekman at that time already decided not to work anymore, Brunnberg did not think that there would be no more films. There were also plans to make more films about Lilla Jönssonligan. There has also been an idea to make a film in which the members are a little older (perhaps around 16–20 years of age) about how it all began, a little in the style of the film Kenny Begins (2009).

On September 9, 2011, news media reported on the Internet that the production company Tre Vänner recently had secured the rights to three new films about Jönssonligan. These films would become reboots, i.e. films that unfolds before the classic films, and would show how the gang met for the first time, with a new and younger cast.

On September 26, 2013, the films title, along with the director and cast, was announced. The film was titled Jönssonligan – Den perfekta stöten, and were to be directed by Alain Darborg, as his directorial debut, and produced by Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, who also produced the 2010 film Easy Money, and it's two sequels.

Casting

The gang members was portrayed by Simon J. Berger as Charles-Ingvar Jönsson, Torkel Petersson as Harry, Alexander Karim as Vanheden, and Susanne Thorson as Rocky. On October 21, 2013, Andrea Edwards and Jens Hultén was cast as the films villains, who according to the film's producer Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro will be more reliable than previous villains in the series.

Filming

The filming started in late October, 2013, and was released on January 16, 2015.

Reception

In Sweden, the film received mixed to negative reviews. In Expressen, the reviewer gave it 3 out of 5, calling it "sympathetically light-hearted, exciting, well-played and appealing", and a "somewhat clumsier version of Soderbergh's 'Ocean'-movies". In Dagens Nyheter, the reviewer gave it the same rating, praising the chemistry of the ensemble and calling the movie generally entertaining. A more negative review is found in Göteborgsposten, where the film got 2 out of 5 and was described as "not funny enough to work as a comedy and not thrilling enough to work as a gangster action movie".

Sequel

In conjunction with the premiere of the film, the film's producer Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, revealed that two sequels are planned to be released in the near future. He stated that they have two scripts ready for production, but that it is ultimately up to the moviegoers to decide if they should go ahead with the sequels.