Kenny Begins (2009)

Kenny Begins: Directed by Mats Lindberg, Carl Åstrand. With Johan Rheborg, Bill Skarsgård, Carla Abrahamsen, Jan Mybrand. Kenny Starfighter is probably the most hopeless student the Hero academy of the galaxy has ever had. But in his desperate attempt in graduating he accidentally crashes on earth and meets Pontus, an earthling who accidentally stumbled upon an intergalactic crystal which gave him inhuman strength. Now Kenny must save Pontus from Rutger Oversmart who wants the powers from the crystal for himself and Pontus must save Kenny from the fate of failing school and ending up as a hairdresser.

“Kenny Starfighter is a useless and airheaded would-be space hero, having trouble fixing his grades at the Space Hero Academy on the planet Mylta (Swedish for u0026quot;cloudberry jamu0026quot;). He is obsessed with becoming a space hero – alas, he does not want to become a barber, the proud occupation of all of his equally dim family members – but he hasnu0026#39;t got the faintest idea of what a black hole is, and when he sees a celebrity on TV he acknowledges this as a typical case of u0026quot;deja vuu0026quot;. His only chance of becoming a space hero of the lowest degree is to catch enough speed criminals. Heu0026#39;ll get fifty points for one ticket, and it takes 1000 to get a degree. Heu0026#39;s already having problems doing the math, and when he attempts to catch his first Winnebago speed criminal (see Spaceballs) he can only appreciate it through his dashboard exclaiming u0026quot;Really fast!u0026quot; As luck has it though, he crashes through one of those pesky black holes and ends up on the planet Earth, where he gets his big chance catching a big space criminal, a big-headed, wheelchair-bound u0026quot;brainiacu0026quot; if you will, with the properly Swinglish name u0026#39;Rutger Oversmartu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis may seem like a lot of exposition to give away in English for a movie that few people outside of Sweden will even see – but paradoxically, I think anyone not Swedish might appreciate this movie more, since I can only imagine it being wonderfully bizarre for anyone not familiar with cultural in-jokes or the Swedish language, which reveals some horrid acting for those that master it. Furthermore, Kenny Begins is a prequel to a popular mini series called Kenny Starfighter that aired in Sweden in 1997 and became hugely successful. It had a similar plot and it introduced Kenny Starfighter, played with utter brilliance by Johan Rheborg, a character that became enough of a phenomenon to launch quite the hype in Sweden for this first movie, with quite a budget to boot, with some of the most expensive special effects ever devoted to any Swedish film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs for the movie, it really does fail where the series won me over. The writing is drastically thinner with a more contrived sound to much of the dialog, and the actors arenu0026#39;t really convincing anyone either. There are two kids in the movie, played by Bill Skarsgård and Carla Abrahamsen. There were four kids in the series and they were all goofy and charismatic, if not totally realistic. These two arenu0026#39;t really acting, more talking very statically as if they are obsessed with u0026quot;actingu0026quot;. As the plot of the movie progress, it turns out we are meant to care for these characters more than we do for Kenny. Kenny becomes like both the star and comic relief, whereas these two kids become the u0026quot;human elementu0026quot; of the story.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a sloppy miscalculation, but the rest of the movie isnu0026#39;t really that well thought up either. It all stands and falls on Rheborgu0026#39;s valiant Kenny Starfighter, and if you enjoyed the series you will enjoy the movie. Not as much, because itu0026#39;s actually a pretty bad movie in every sense, but this is a rare case where that doesnu0026#39;t really prevent a recommendation. Thereu0026#39;s a scene where the heroes can see mayhem flying about outside the window and one of the school teachers fly up against the glass. Kenny points and exclaims u0026quot;Oh look, an old lady!u0026quot; Final point: If you donu0026#39;t think thatu0026#39;s funny, you donu0026#39;t have to see the movie.”