The Dog Trick (2002)

Simply A Masterpiece

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This film is quite cute. In some sense this film is cute and honest. It knows that this film concern about 'Hollywood romantic film' such as pretty woman which is classic for the romance stuff. And it tells that it is concern about those item and it mimics about that specially in the end. And this film's background is Sweden. So you can see bunches of stuffs that tells you about Sweden. Such as SAS air line, and the whole background of Stockholm, and the famous 'cue' culture in Sweden as well. One more, if you are interested in a man's body, then you can enjoy this film a lot. cause in the film there is three main guys who are age of 25's. They are sometimes half naked and that is mm, well. you can say 'oho!' like that. :=) And well. what else more.... this film is not that difficult to watch cause it doesn't make you think or feel deeply or sad or those kinds of heavy feeling. It is just like small leisure stuff so you can enjoy this film when you get stressed or want to take some rest. I need those so I watched coincidentally, and that was nice to watch.

There's very little originality in this comedic effort that hasn't too many laughs. It's all there, the whole package: the meeting, the fall, the problem that arises, (the annoying buddy,) the airport finale, the informative neighbour, the oh-look-her-boyfriend-isn't-that-innocent-either so-it's-okay-for-her-to-leave-him-for-the-other-guy moment... (Notice the gap in the word there? The doors made me do it.) Then, should it all be there?The only twists are the titular gimmick and the helpful cab driver. If they didn't have anything new to say - and, more importantly, had this little to say, they could at least have cut the film by twenty-something minutes. The surpriseless, uninspired dialogue, the nothing-exciting-here-either look and the thoroughly bad, tacked-on soundtrack don't help.That said, there are a couple of scenes that are better than the whole, and the film-makers haven't any problems getting through the duration, so it's not as if this could make anybody suffer. They know they haven't "anything to add" and don't even pretend they do. Some don't and do, and that is a situation much worse than this.

Romantic comedies are not the best genre in Swedish cinema in my opinion. Often the comedy borders on desperation, and most of the time there is bit too much bitterness in the blend for my tastes. This is a more fresh take on the genre, and a comedy that is unusually "light" compared to most Swedish outings.This movie is about three friends in Stockholm. It mostly centers around the shy Simon who is longing for love. From his more straight-forward friend Micke he gets the tip to use a dog to catch the ladies (hence the title "Hundricket" which means "the dog trick"). This works almost immediately and Simon meets Mia. Soon though it becomes obvious that everything is not what it seems.I thought this movie was quite funny when i watched it with a friend. It is not THAT much of a "chick-flick", i think most guys will also have quite a bit of fun with it. On the upside are a couple of truly hilarious scenes, on the downside is a story that seems fit to last for about 30 minutes (not the 106 minute running-time). Also the acting is not really top-notch. But that doesn't really distract too much since i think most of the actors were well picked and seem at ease in their parts.So, this is not movie of the year and it's not hilarity defined. But it is rather entertaining and it's not as contrived as most other Swedish films. Which in itself is worth another notch in the rating. I rate it 5/10.

I went to see this one against what I believed to be better judgement and was rather pleasantly surprised.It is not by any means a great film or even an effective romantic comedy (the major cons are total predictability in almost every single area and a horribly lame soundtrack) but it has a certain warmth, is laid-back in a somewhat endearing (and at the same time annoying) way and it has a fair share of laughs as well. The acting is surprisingly good for a modern swedish comedy and especially considering the rather inexperienced actors being used. Alexander Skarsgard is truly great as the childish, self-aggrandizing and confounding brat "Survivor-Micke".To sum it all up it won't stand the test of time, but most of you will be able to enjoy it today (even if you're dragged to the cinema by a chick). 6 out of 10.