Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

gavin6942 The Kingdom is the most technologically advanced hospital in Denmark, a gleaming bastion of medical science. A rash of uncanny occurrences, however, begins to weaken the staff's faith in science--a phantom ambulance pulls in every night, but disappears; voices echo in the elevator shaft; and a pregnant doctor's fetus seems to be developing much faster than is natural.So far as I know, this was made before Lars von Trier became an international sensation, or just about the time that he did. The lower budget is evident, but the film (or show) is actually much more interesting and well-made than some of his later work. Even from the first segment, we see this is a world on the edge of humanity.I hate to compare it to "Twin Peaks", because that is not the best comparison, but I can see a link... a world that is seemingly normal, though waiting just on the other side of the wrong door is a whole other world. The way the two Down's Syndrome characters were portrayed is wild -- characters with a secret knowledge, not limited but transcendent.

stevenbeales If you get a chance to watch this TV series, please do so as you will be well rewarded. More bizarre than Twin Peaks, this series of 8 episodes is eerie and unsettling throughout, always surprising you with the next unexpected, supernatural revelation. It is an early showcase for the talent Von Trier was to show in his later movies and contains many unforgettable characters from Stig Helmer to Udo Kier's baby calling for its mama to the precognitive Down's syndrome children.Stephen King's American remake Kingdom Hospital doesn't hold a candle to Von Trier's original.

Rectangular_businessman This was originally made for Danish television, so don't let the length scare you off. Each episode runs 60-75 minutes, and they have pretty fast pacing with a large cast of characters. There were two series of four episodes made. Compared to a show like Lost, the reveals of the mysteries come very quickly. It's a mishmash of several genres, including hospitals shows, soaps opera, and horror (it uses the television medium in much the same way that Twin Peaks at its best did). They make good use of the grainy look of the series with spooky imagery. There's also a lot of dark humor. One of the major story lines of the first series is a doctor learning that a patient with a rare illness isn't willing to donate his liver to science, but is an organ donor. So the doctor decides to have the diseased liver transplanted into himself. There's also a Greek chorus made up of dishwashers with Down Syndrome.The second series is generally worse, but it's even more more insane and absurd, and at least it never gets boring. Unfortunately several major cast members died before a planned third series could be made (I guess that's what you get for casting a bunch of elderly actors) so the show doesn't end with much closure.

TdSmth5 I've seen this series a couple of times now and I can't get tired of it. What an astounding accomplishment. It is funny, strange, scary, bizarre, original, hilarious, ground-braking, shocking. Add to that the exceptional performances and what you have is the best time you can have in front of a TV. So many clowns are credited for being good actors these days, but everyone on this show puts award winners to shame. Among all the fine acting our main character Stig Helmer just steals the show. And what a character the writers have created! Like his girlfriend says, he is a giant and everyone else is so small compared to him.The stories center on the Danish teach hospital the Kingdom, a gigantic facility constructed on what once were bleachers. We are thrown somewhat in the midst of this strange place, where driverless ambulances arrive in the night, where a patient named Drusse keeps feigning some condition so she can be admitted into the hospital. She thinks there are spirits there who need are help. Her son is some type of janitor at the hospital.All the characters are given full human personalities: they are mischievous, deceitful, foolish, intelligent, afraid, overconfident, etc, to some greater or lesser extent.At center is a young physician named Hook who is also also something of an old timer. He knows everything about the hospital and everyone. He lives there in secret and keeps every item he finds in order to perhaps gain favors from others and offer favors. He knows how to get things done because people depend on him for things, he even provides some of them with cocaine by condensing eye drops. He also keeps tabs on the doctor's errors at the hospital.We have the hospital administrator, good natured, well-meaning, not very bright, but he does what administrators do: try to keep people calm and satisfied without himself taking on too many responsibilities. His son is a medical student there but also a prankster who gets himself into trouble. Moreover he's madly in love with a nurse who runs the sleeping lab.Bondo is the professor of pathology, a man obsessed with his research on liver tumors. Danish law doesn't allow for autopsies unless with the consent of the person/ his kin so he finds himself with no material for his research. His classes are mostly philosophical musings on death and live and this autopsy law. As a result his students learn nothing.But our main character is Helmer, a Swedish neurosurgeon who arrived at the Kingdom recently. He has absolutely no sympathy for the Danish way of doing things and despises the administrator's nonsense. He's a law-and-order type of guy who wants things done by the book- so he appears. His rants and long winding insulting speeched are an absolute riot. This is the kind of guy no one wants to be around- which the director nicely shows by having people turn at the sight of him and walk away- in the way of the camera! As it often happens with such people, they manage to show up just when you don't want them to. This happens often with Helmer. He'll be in the elevator as the doors open or just walk in a room when others want to leave. Of course he thinks very highly of himself and rather poorly of everyone else. And he complaints bitterly about how he is treated to his lover, Dr. Rigmor a sweet doctor who loves him and understands him and wants him to move in with her, something he absolutely avoids. He won't even talk about the issue. She is also open to alternative medicine which earns her a hilarious verbal spanking from Helmer.The situations the characters put themselves in are outrageous. There are dozens of twists and surprises and you don't know which way things will go. Bondo's obsession not only haunts him but comes back to bite him. Helmer made a mistake during surgery, it looks like, and his way out causes him more problems than anything else. The story and the ideas here are so fresh and interesting you won't want the show to end.The editing here is also quite unique and adds a strange feeling. Often conversations or continuous scenes are cut and continue abruptly as if nothing had happened even though you just missed who knows how much. Helmer will start a rant, then there is a cut and and change of camera angle and we are put back in rant but at some later point. Very interesting approach. It gives the series a certain time-lessness. We pretty much lose the sense of time in the series. We don't know how long all this is taking, whether it's day or night. Sometimes it seems that it all takes place in a day or a few days but there are hints here or there that a different day has begun.The music is also jarring and serves mainly to lend a creepy effect. Now, if the viewer gets confused or things seem complicated, there are two characters in the series, two actors with Down's syndrome who are dishwashers in the hospital who will summarize things, philosophize about what is going on, and sometimes make enigmatic statements about future events.Don't miss this show. And comparisons with the American version are not in order. The original is in a different league altogether.