Verified source report
The Last Viking review – Mads Mikkelsen thinks he’s John Lennon in Von Trier-ish prankster comedy
Danish shaggy-dog story about a man with a dissociative disorder has a fun premise but wastes it on lots of goofy, humourless violence Anders Thomas Jensen is an Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and veteran of the Dogme 95 years at Denmark’s Zentropa Studios. He now brings us this slapstick-violent black comedy and shaggy dog story of gruesome silliness. It is well acted but relentlessly and bizarrely unfunny. So unfunny as to be almost funny, but not really, in that the unfunniness approaches the condition of being itself a joke, though without really arriving. It could be that the spectre of Zentropa’s dark master of the prank, Lars von Trier , is hovering somewhere in the corner of the frame. Mads Mikkelsen is cast against type as nerdy loser Manfred, an abuse survivor with learning disabilities whose tough-guy brother Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) robs a bank. Before being arrested, A
coverage / Source report
What happened
According to The Guardian’s source item, The Last Viking review – Mads Mikkelsen thinks he’s John Lennon in Von Trier-ish prankster comedy, Danish shaggy-dog story about a man with a dissociative disorder has a fun premise but wastes it on lots of goofy, humourless violence Anders Thomas Jensen is an Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and veteran of the Dogme 95 years at Denmark’s Zentropa Studios. He now brings us this slapstick-violent black comedy and shaggy dog story of gruesome silliness. It is well acted but relentlessly and bizarrely unfunny. So unfunny as to be almost funny, but not really, in that the unfunniness approaches the condition of being itself a joke, though without really arriving. It could be that the spectre of Zentropa’s dark master of the prank, Lars von Trier , is hovering somewhere in the corner of the frame. Mads Mikkelsen is cast against type as nerdy loser Manfred, an abuse survivor with learning disabilities whose tough-guy brother Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) robs a bank. Before being arrested, A
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-06-24T10:00:43+00:00.
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Source
Primary source: The Last Viking review – Mads Mikkelsen thinks he’s John Lennon in Von Trier-ish prankster comedy via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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Source links
- The Last Viking review – Mads Mikkelsen thinks he’s John Lennon in Von Trier-ish prankster comedyThe Guardian - 2026-06-24T10:00:43+00:00
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