Hamilton: But Not if it Concerns Your Daughter (2012)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	86:24
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tobias Falk
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Mikael Persbrandt Seba Mubarak Frida Hallgren Reuben Sallmander Nadja Christiansson Lennart Hjulström Peter Eggers Steven Waddington Cal Macaninch
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Philippe Boix-Vives Jon Ekstrand

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Swedish Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     A little while ago I reviewed the Blu-ray release of Swedish espionage action film Hamilton: I nationens intresse or Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation. I found that film a little underwhelming, due to a confusing story amongst other things. Regardless, I decided to take a look at the second film in the currently planned trilogy, Hamilton: Men inte om det galler din dotter or Hamilton: But Not if it Concerns Your Daughter. This is a significantly better film than the first one with a much clearer story, good quality action scenes and a nice tense atmosphere.

    The Carl Hamilton spy stories are based upon a series of novels by Swedish author, Jan Guillou who began writing them when he was in prison for espionage himself. There are currently 13 novels in the series and this film is based (loosely I am led to believe) on the most recent novel which was published in 2008. Many of the novels have been previously filmed for Swedish television starring actors such as Stellan Skarsgard and Peter Stormare in the titular role. A third film is due in 2014.

     Carl Hamilton (Mikael Persbrandt) is a Swedish Secret Service Commander, basically a Scandinavian James Bond. He is a very cold and efficient man who displays very little emotion, which I understand comes straight from the books. In this film he is assigned to stop an assassination attempt on a visiting Palestinian diplomat and capture the assassin in concert with Ewa Tanguy, a female Secret Police officer. Ewa & Carl are close friends and Ewa's young daughter, Nathalie, thinks of Carl like a second father. Despite the assassination attempt being foiled the capture does not go well. The situation is exacerbated by Ewa doing a television interview where she seems to criticise the Moslem world. When her daughter is kidnapped Carl must go rogue in order to attempt to rescue her as there are more powers involved than just a group of Moslem terrorists. Mayhem ensues.

     As I mentioned above in entertainment terms this film is a significant step up from the first film, featuring a clear and easy to follow (some might say simple) plot. The action scenes are well handled especially the fight at the end and the acting is improved over the first film. The film is well shot and looks pretty good even on this DVD version. I think the new director for this second film, Tobias Falk, has made a step in the right direction for this series, more direct and thriller focused. The plot is certainly not new, girl gets kidnapped, father figure chases after the kidnappers, but it is well done, exciting and entertaining. It is done efficiently coming in with a run time under 90 minutes on this PAL transfer.

     I was hoping for a more engaging and exciting second film in this series and I got it. I am now keen to see the third film in the series next year.

Video

     The video quality is excellent for DVD.

     The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     The picture was very clear and sharp throughout. Shadow detail was excellent.

     The colour is also excellent showing off the beautiful colours of autumnal Sweden and the desert.

     The only blemish was some minor aliasing.

     There are subtitles in English which are burned in for non-English dialogue (which is probably about 60% of the dialogue). It is a shame there were no subtitles for the English dialogue as some of this was heavily accented.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is very good.

     This disc contains a mostly Swedish but also Arabic & English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1. This is a good quality audio track for DVD.

     Dialogue was not perfectly audible with some muffled lines and bad accents in the English portions. Obviously the subtitles translated other languages. Subtitles are not available for the English portions.

     The score is quite a lot better in this film than the first one adding significantly to the tension and excitement.

     The surround speakers provided good directional effects during action sequences and atmosphere and music throughout.

    The subwoofer added shock value at times & supported explosions and action, plus adding bass to the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu includes scenes and music.

    I can't find any evidence of UK or US releases of this film although I believe there is a Swedish one but have no detail on it. Buy local.

    The video quality is excellent for DVD.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall