The correct name for this movie would have been "Monstret" (The Monster) or "Seriemonstret" (The Comics Monster). Instead, it got the uninformative name "Hoppsan" (which in English translates to "Whoops"). This was probably to give it a less scary name, but might be why it failed to get attention. It had all it takes, great stars, interesting messages (since it was made when comics were debated a lot), humor, music and some action, but lacked the name to let the audience know. I would never have seen it myself if I wasn't a Povel Ramel fan.
The movie is crowded with Swedish movie stars, most only known to the Swedish audience, like Douglas Håge (Lilla Fridolf) Georg Rydeberg, Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt and the gum-chewing sex bomb Lissi Alandh, but there is also at least one international star: Harriet Andersson (known from leading parts in Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers" and "Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl").
Since Povel Ramel was primarily a musician, and was at this time at his peak as a national superstar, there are quite a few singing numbers, not as good as in "Ratataa", but there are some memorable moments like "Ge mig en kvart om dagen" and of course the classic "Släkthuset".
The parts of the movie that concern comics are the best and most interesting ones. The scenes where Carl-Gustav Lindstedt and Lissi Alandh are posing for the comics scenes are hilarious.
The plot leaves the comics for a band of gangsters, who notice that the plots in Yrhages comics are identical to their own crimes.
The bad guys are interesting too, at least for the actors. To see Håge, known as the sad little Fridolf being terrorized by his wife, as gangster boss, and the charismatic Rydeberg as his hit-man, that is pretty fascinating, especially since do it well. Kåge is a perfect mafia boss.
Both the script and the acting is sometimes of questionable quality, so the movie is far from a top movie. It is rather an interesting and entertaining B movie. There is enough crazy Ramel-style humor to keep me entertained. It has some weak parts, the ending is not particularly convincing, but overall, a quite worthwhile movie.
