The Dane Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (53) gained the respect and recognition of many fans of the series as Jaime Lannister in “Game of Thrones.” His acting craft can now be admired in “God is a Bullet” (2023), an action thriller available on Amazon Prime. The film is rated for ages 18 and rightly so, according to MeinMMO author Schuhmann.
What is “God is a Bullet” about? Coster-Waldau plays the depressed suburban cop Bob Hightower, whose wife has left him. He sadly parks his police car in front of his former home and longs to spend more time with his 14-year-old daughter.
Into this sad still life bursts a group of Satanists who violate and shoot his wife, brutally kill her new husband, and kidnap the underage daughter. Bob wants to grab the shotgun and chase after his daughter, but his boss and everyone who knows him tells him that he has no chance. He is just a desk cop and doesn’t have what it takes.
Only when a former member of the Satanists, a broken woman, enters his life does Bob set out to find his daughter. The woman is scarred by years in the cult and seems to be playing a double game. Faithful Bob doesn’t trust her, but he has no other choice if he wants to find his daughter.
“God is a Bullet” is available on Amazon Prime:
A corrupted world turns even the noble man into a coyote
What is special about the film? It is bitter that the Dane Coster-Waldau most closely resembles the ideal image of a “blonde hero from the sagas” since Brad Pitt in Troy, but only plays broken characters who get worse the longer the film lasts.
“God is a Bullet” also describes a hero’s journey that bitterly marks and hardens the hero. The “Satanists” he is chasing are ruthless sadists and pure evil.
Satanism seems only to be a pretext to behave as abominably and wickedly as possible. There is violation, betrayal, rape, and murder.
The pursuit of the daughter becomes a side issue, it seems. Bob and the former Satanist lose all moral compass during the hunt. The lesson of the film seems to be that in such a broken world, even the noble man quickly strays from the path to achieve what he wants.
The film takes a lot of time just to show how broken and depraved the world in which it takes place is. It even takes an extra two or three rounds to show that the seemingly harmless side characters are also morally depraved and corrupt.
This could perhaps have been omitted, as the film is already somewhat lengthy at 156 minutes. Moreover, actors like Jamie Foxx make only brief appearances. Even the excellent Jonathan Tucker could have been given more screen time.
God is a Bullet is a hard-hitting action flick that lacks clever twists
Is the film worth watching? “God is a Bullet” is a relentless, harsh action flick that offers brutal scenes and ends in a massacre.
The violence is direct and merciless. The villains are sadistic. The good guys are hardly any better.
One can certainly watch it; at the very least, the film is intense, but “God is a Bullet” cannot be truly recommended. It lacks clever twists and more nuance.
For those who like Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister and want to see more of him, “Headhunters” from 2011 must still be recommended. This is the Norwegian film that apparently earned him the “Game of Thrones” role. It’s also a thriller, but a much better one. Whereas “Game of Thrones” also had some initial difficulties: The very first episode of Game of Thrones cost 10 million dollars – It was so bad that hardly anyone got to see it
