New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
• Safe House ***
• The Vow **1/2
• The Innkeepers ***1/2
• The Woman in Black ***
• The Grey ***
• Man on a Ledge ***
• Underworld Awakening **
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos ***
• Haywire ***
• Beauty and the Beast ****
• Contraband ***
• The Divide *
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****
• The Devil Inside **
• The Iron Lady **
• A Separation ***
• Pariah ***1/2
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ***
• The Darkest Hour **
• More

• Anonymous
• Essential Killing
• Lady and the Tramp
• La Jetée
• Sans Soleil
• Story of a Love Affair
• 3
• A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
• 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• More

• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender
• Interview: Simon Curtis
• Interview: Werner Herzog
• Interview: John Cho
• Interview: Roland Emmerich
• Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball
• Interview: Nick Swardson
• Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson
• Interview: Lone Scherfig
• Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari
• Interview: Wayne Wang
• Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter'
• Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills
• Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link)
• The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage
• Interview: Emma Roberts
• Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link)
• Interview: Tom McCarthy
• Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link)
• 2010: The Year's Best Films
• 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays
• Interview: Sofia Coppola
• Interview: George A. Romero
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• Actress Interview Gallery
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

The Green Butchers (2005)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Food for Thought

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Green Butchers on DVD

In the grand tradition of cannibal stories from Sweeny Todd (1936) to Motel Hell (1980), Delicatessen (1992) and Ravenous (1999) comes this Danish film by Anders Thomas Jensen. Unfortunately, Jensen appears never to have heard of those other stories, and presents his tale with a wink as if the joke were new. A couple of social misfit butchers open their own shop, but during the preparations, an electrician is trapped overnight in the meat locker and dies. The creepy Svend (Mads Mikkelsen) uses the electrician's leg for filets and the shop becomes an overnight success. A subplot involves the second butcher, Bjarne and his retarded twin brother Eigil (both played by Nikolaj Lie Kaas); one loves animals and the other has become a butcher (get it?). When the movie's token cute girl (Line Kruse) shows up at the end to complete her romantic subplot with Bjarne, it's completely unearned and makes no sense. Though Jensen has written some decent screenplays for Dogme 95 films (Mifune, The King Is Alive, Open Hearts), The Green Butchers is an obvious and strained effort.

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Line Kruse
Written by: Anders Thomas Jensen
Directed by: Anders Thomas Jensen
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Danish with English subtitles
Running Time: 95 minutes
Date: January 14, 2005