Holding a whopping 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, this action comedy is a real crowdpleaser.
Our TV movie pick for tonight (Thursday, 3 July) is Riders of Justice, the incredible 2020 action comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Hannibal).
In the film, Mikkelsen plays Markus, a Danish soldier in Afghanistan who returns home after his wife dies in a train crash.
While struggling to look after his teenage daughter (Andrea Heick Gadeberg), Markus is approached by a man named Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) who was on the same train as his wife.
An introverted person who is an expert in statistics and probability, Otto determines that the crash was not an accident.
This leads Markus, Otto and two of Otto’s fellow outcast friends (Lars Brygmann and Nicolas Bro) to seek out the people that they believe are responsible for the crash – a motorcycle criminal gang dubbed the Riders of Justice.
On one level, the Danish flick is a classic vengeance movie elevated by a tough-as-nails performance by Mikkelsen and hard-hitting action set-pieces.
At the same time, however, it’s also a deeply emotional and surprisingly funny portrait of a group of lovable if damaged people coming together to help each other through their trauma.
And ultimately, through its unpredictable plot, the film winds up subverting many of the conventions of revenge movies.
Boasting a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, Riders of Justice is airing on TV tonight/tomorrow morning on Channel 4 at 1.55am and is well worth recording.
It should also be available to stream on Channel 4’s website after it airs.
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