Cop Secret

There's a, largely, well aimed silliness to this action cop spoof from Hannes Thor Halldórsson - better known as the goalkeeper for Iceland's national football squad and who proves here he's also pretty good at getting his satirical shots about gender on target.

Perhaps it was all that standing about in goal that means Halldórsson is desperate for action but he wastes no time in getting his show on the road. Heightening many of the themes familiar from mismatched buddy cop movies of the Eighties and Nineties - rogue but brilliant officer with a drink problem - just enough to hit the comedy sweet spot, Halldórsson immediately thrusts us into a chase with Reyjavik "supercop" Bussi (Auðunn Blöndal). In a hint of what is to come, he has his current hapless partner Klemenz (Sverrir Þór Sverrisson, who joins Halldórsson in writing duties with Nína Pederson) alongside him - not to mention Klemenz's kid in the back seat - but that doesn't stop him leaving the jurisdiction in a bid to outdo is rival Hörthur (Egill Einarsson) in the neighbouring, more leafy, precinct.

The mismatch is perfectly crafted - Bussi is the sort of scruffy, stubbly, scrappy cop who never plays by the rules or takes the rubbish out, while Hörthur is a smart, former model and pansexual, whose suits can barely contain his rippling muscles and who makes beating up criminals look effortless. They are, of course, destined to team up with the added spice that this time the familiar bromance is going to go all the way, or at least it might do if Bussi can bring himself to step out of the closet.

Halldórsson has great fun playing around with our expectations - even a football game which helps fuel the climax holds some surprises - while also drawing on a familiar crazed bad guy narrative. The sociopathic Rikki (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), like so many movie bad guys before him, speaks in English (one of the film's many running jokes), offers absurd animal aphorisms and has a fiendish plot that involves bank break-ins, although he might just kill his crew along the way. It must be noted that the humour is so silly and heightened it may make some hearts sink but if you ever wondered what would happen if the homoeroticism of all those buddy cop movies was given full rein, now's your chance.

Throw in some excellent camerawork from Eli Cassata that brings crunch and pace to the action sequences and treats Reykjavik as though it was Miami to amusing effect and this is a slickly enjoyable package that keeps things ticking along nicely through to its climax.