'Riders of Justice' a remarkable dramatic thriller

In the Danish feature ‘Riders of Justice,’ the film follows recently deployed Markus, who is forced to return home to care for his teenage daughter after his wife is killed in a tragic train accident.

But when a survivor of the wrecked train surfaces claiming foul play, Markus begins to suspect his wife was murdered and embarks on a revenge-fueled mission to find those responsible.

‘Riders of Justice’ is an interesting dramatic feature that is very thrilling. This Danish feature film has a bit of everything — action, drama and even a bit of quirky humor.

The revenge drama also features some great performances, especially from lead actor Mads Mikkelson. The actor is incredibly brilliant in every role he plays. Mikkelson has done everything from blockbusters (Doctor Strange; Chaos Walking) to indie features (Another Round; Arctic) to even television (NBCs Hannibal). His performance in this film is also another incredible one. Throughout most of the movie, his character does what he can to remain civil and calm around his daughter. There is a particular moment in the movie that makes his character break and his performance in that moment is so compelling and real, you really feel for the Markus character and can even get a little emotional watching it.

Some of the humor that the film delivers comes from the three men who help Markus out with finding out what happened to the train — especially the Lennert character. His character can be a little annoying at times, but does a great job serving as the sort of comic relief of the feature film.

‘Riders of Justice’ does an amazing job keeping all of the film’s tones well-balanced and this revenge drama is a feature that film festival audiences wouldn’t want to miss during the Summer Film Festival. Filled with some action, a few heart-breaking moments, tense scenes and a bit of humor, this Danish film is highly recommended!

The cast: Mads Mikkelson (Another Round; Chaos Walking) as Markus; Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Otto; Andrea Heick Gadeberg as Mathilde; Lars Brygmann (The Professor and the Madman) as Lennart; Nicolas Bro as Emmenthaler; Gustav Lindh as Bodashka; Rolland Moller (The Last Vermeer) as Kurt and Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt (Another Round) as Sirius.

‘Riders of Justice’ is written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, who has worked on quite a few independent films, such as ‘Men & Chicken,’ ‘In a Better World,’ ‘Adam’s Apples’ and also wrote the 2017 film adaptation of ‘The Dark Tower.’

The feature film opened in Danish cinemas in November 2020, when some theaters were starting to slowly re-open. ‘Riders of Justice’ opened to both a limited theatrical run and a PVOD release this past May.

‘Riders of Justice’ is not rated and has a running time of 116 minutes.