Too much of everything

Good movie but grossly overrated

Beautiful, moving film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

You know from the start this will be great. Some movies take a bit to get going but you know early on this one is going to be wierd with some strange outcomes. Subtitles are easy to read.

Mads Mikkelsen has had quite an interesting career so far. What? You don't know who he is? That must mean that you're not up to date on your Danish cinema, or you don't like James Bond, or don't watch much TV… or all three. Mikkelsen is a Danish actor who is probably best known in the U.S. for playing the title character in NBC's "Hannibal" – and as the villain Le Chiffre in the 2006 Daniel Craig-led Bond reboot "Casino Royale". But, like most successful actors, Mikkelsen had to work his way up to such notable parts. As a young man, he spent ten years as a ballet dancer. In the mid-1990s, he began acting in high-profile films and TV shows in his native Denmark. The New York Times calls him "a face of the resurgent Danish cinema". Public opinion polls often crown him the sexiest man in Denmark, while his acting talent has earned him numerous Best Actor awards at film festivals around the world. More recently, in 2014, Mikkelsen played a Danish immigrant in the American West in the excellent, but underseen "The Salvation", and in 2015, he appeared in one of Rhianna's music videos. 2016 has him in Marvel's "Doctor Strange" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". Very interesting indeed. "Interesting" is an appropriate but more loaded term when us to describe Mikkelsen's film "Men & Chicken" (NR, 1:44).Mikkelsen stars as Elias who, along with his half-brother, Gabriel (David Dencik), seems a little short-changed in the brains department – and NO-changed when it comes to looks and social skills. When their father dies, they learn that they were both adopted and that their biological father lives on the tiny (fictional) Danish island of Ork. When Elias and Gabriel go to Ork in search of their father, they come across three more half-brothers, Gregor (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), Franz (Søren Malling) and Josef (Nicolas Bro), who live together in a dilapidated former sanitarium which is overrun by barn animals. And it seems that Gregor, Franz and Joseph have the same "challenges" as Elias and Gabriel, if not more so.When Elias and Gabriel show up at the home of their other three brothers and announce who they are, Gregor, Franz and Josef beat Elias and Gabriel. After regrouping at the home of the town's mayor (Ole Thestrup) and his unmarried daughter (Kirsten Lehfeldt), Elias and Gabriel return to their brothers' home the next day to try again to get Gregor, Franz and Josef to talk to them. Another beating ensues, but Elias and Gabriel turn the tables, leading Gregor, Franz and Josef to grudgingly welcome their long-lost brothers into their home. But getting to meet their father is harder than Elias and Gabriel expected.Getting to know their newfound brothers is no picnic either. Besides letting barn animals roam freely throughout their home, Gregor, Franz and Josef interact with each other very strangely. They fight over who eats off of which plate at dinner, they cuddle together for a bedtime story each night, and if any of the brothers breaks a family rule, he has to sit in a metal cage outside. Oh, and sometimes the brothers change into tennis whites and play badminton on a makeshift indoor court. Gregor, Franz and Josef also have an especially unusual relationship with the larger animals that live outside the house. After being stymied in their efforts to meet their father, Elias and Gabriel notice some… unique-looking chickens roaming about, which makes them wonder even more about who their father is and what he's into."Men & Chicken" is… interesting (in an odd way) and can be entertaining… depending on your taste in movies. RogerEbert.com summarizes this film as "a hybrid of 'The Three Stooges' comedy and the lunacy of 'The Island of Dr. Moreau'". It's an apt characterization for what is a tough film to describe. It includes comic violence, bizarre situations, gross-out humor, very dark comedy and even some sweetness. It's fun to see Mikkelsen play so well against type, while the physical appearance of all five brothers is both repulsive and magnetic. As individuals, each character is a rail car which has gone off the tracks. As a whole, this group of people is a train wreck, but it's nearly impossible to look away. Like that proverbial human train wreck, you may find yourself wanting to keep watching out of a morbid sense of curiosity. Many will find this movie too "weird", but some will find it irresistible. "B"

I've been anxiously awaiting the American release of Men and Chicken. Having become a huge Mads Mikkelsen fan, I've watched all of his movies I could get my hands on. As such, I've become a big fan of Danish cinema. The Danes have a really off-beat sense of humor that shines in this film. As other reviewers have said, this movie almost defies description. I will say that it's hilarious. It brought me to tears at times. The characters are quirky and unpredictable. They never cease to amaze, in more ways than one. Basically the story unites 2 sets of brothers who had never met, 2 of the brothers hoping to meet their biological father. In their own special ways, they learn from each other and enrich each others' lives. Without revealing it, there is a very interesting ending to the film. If you catch them, there are subtle clues to the ending throughout. The actors aren't afraid to make fun of themselves in both looks and actions. The dialogue is witty so read the subtitles quickly.

Frequent beatings with cast iron skillets and hard stuffed animals, eugenics experiments gone tragically awry, and five brothers with a propensity for extremely odd and deviant behavior, all combine in a twisted Danish comedy blockbuster. Receiving news of their father's death, brothers Gabriel and Elias reunite after a long period of not contacting each other. They set out to collect the body from a remote and sparsely populated island and dilapidated mansion with free- roaming chickens, goats, sheep and three brothers they never knew they had. None of the siblings is playing with a full deck, yet the one language they have in common is violence. Their attempts to reconcile are hilarious and result in childish fights over insane rules, cheese, who gets a plate with their favorite animal on it, beatings with rolling pins as well as a stuffed beaver, and memorable trips to town to find women. Every subject is fair game for humor including kids, science, hygiene, families, politics, the sick and dead, elders, animals, the handicapped, gender, sex and more.This really warped and genuinely funny film is truly an original. It is an antidote to the same old gruel from the traditional studios. The soundtrack, including music from vibrating saws, is a perfect accompaniment to the bizarre behavior of this non-traditional and wacky family. The acting is well done. Yes, that is Mads Mikkelsen! The only drawback is the difficulty in translation and a wish that the film was longer. Real life inspiration for the film included the director's four kids, who fought over animal plates as the brothers do on screen. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.