Directed by:
Jalmari HelanderScreenplay:
Jalmari HelanderCinematography:
Kjell LagerroosCast:
Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo, Onni Tommila, Arttu Kapulainen, Tatu Sinisalo, Vincent Willestrand, Wilhelm Enckell, Elina Saarela (more)VOD (2)
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During the last desperate days of WWII, a solitary prospector crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover that they have just tangled with no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word “sisu”, this legendary ex-commando will embody what sisu means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold back - even if it means killing every last Nazi in his path. (Lionsgate US)
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Reviews (9)
Take out the resident. Lapland. Specifically, veteran Korpi, whose dog looks like a lamb, but he himself is no sheep. The trailer promised an enticing spectacle of grit in Nazi asses, but who could have guessed that’s pretty much all there is. Jalmari Helander blatantly steals from another thief (from the episode titles' font to the chunks of gold glaring into the face like an open trunk on Vincent Vega), but in the midst of physical anomalies, violence, blood, and slow-motion shots, I found that the style of exaggeration missed the mark quite a bit. Otherwise, I assume this film was an appendix to Finland's NATO application.
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This Finnish World War II revenge film wowed with the trailer of the year. The film itself may not be a new genre milestone, but it's pretty cool. The not too experienced Jalmari Helander has originally enriched the popular library of current action movies. He chose a feared main character (John Wick, Nobody), whom everyone is afraid of, has a dark past and is a brutal beast in action, and swapped classic gangsters for Nazis, which is cool and fresh. Story-wise, however, it's very simple. The protagonist finds gold at his house and decides to take it to the nearest bank, but along the way he has to beat up a bunch of Nazis who want to steal it. The protagonist doesn't say much, the actions simply speak for him and when it comes to the getting down and dirty, it's a nicely brutal and dirty affair with an almost western feel to it. Unless you're willing to accept what all the main character can and can't survive, you won't enjoy it (if that bothered you in Wick, it's doubly true here), but I'm OK with it. Outside of the action sequences, it's a bit slower and more intimate, but luckily it's only 90 minutes long, so the movie goes by very quickly. I must also praise the villain, who played the evil Nazi brilliantly. There aren't many genre films like this being made and it's definitely my kind of thing. If you like revenge movies and Nazis, you shouldn't hesitate to go to the cinema. 75%.
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The previews are clear; the author doesn't even hide the fact that he hasn't had a peek at the same things you have. In the first more serious (not to be confused with serious) half it goes much better than in the second half, which pushes the deliberate guilty pleasure envelope a bit too hard. But even then, it’s good, playful and stylish. Only that it should have been either all in the style of the first half, or in the style of the second half from the beginning. This way, it feels somewhat like they took the opening of the first Rambo and the ending of the third. It doesn’t feel like a whole in neither style nor concept. That said, I wouldn’t mind a prequel set in the Winter War with a proper budget.
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A bunch of Nazis steal gold from the Finnish Santa Claus, but unfortunately for them, he's an ex-commando of Finnish elite assassins and he doesn't like it very much. Don't be fooled by the film's description and look, as this is no serious murder mystery, but a pure swag satirical comedy that just happens to have the premise it does. Anyone expecting a Finnish killing spree John Wick should go into the film with caution and temper expectations, but anyone who wants to see a pissed off SISU grandpa tearing limbs off, destroying tanks and slicing up Nazis by the hundred-sixths in a very wacky and far-fetched format (10 minutes underwater, holding on to a plane and sprinting with a shot leg...) should go for it. Because I'm afraid this "festival film" for a narrow spectrum of viewers won't be available for download any time soon, so I'd take the cinema screening option. Although it may not have been the aim, I had a good time, and even though I don't often seek out this unrealistic and over-the-top genre, I enjoyed this one.
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Sisu is an unhinged action flick with an abundance of exaggeration that will decidedly not bring joy to fans of realistic period depictions and historically factual information, but it might please fans of bloody B-movie guilty-pleasure entertainment grounded in westerns and one-against-all stories in the style of Rambo, John Wick and Taken, and which in a few places is reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow. Lovers of black humour, Nordic landscapes and expansive tundra – or amateur surgery – will be in their element. Conversely, it’s not for viewers who can’t stand the sight of people’s (and horses’) bodies getting blown to pieces while attempting to cross a minefield. The numerous variations on mowing down Nazi soldiers are often rather inventive (have you ever seen a protagonist kill his enemies under the surface of a lake and suck in the air escaping from their slit throats so that he doesn't have to resurface?) and the two protagonists standing on opposite sides of the barricade are almost perfect to the point of being fascinating, which makes it practically impossible to take your eyes off of them. The film starts off with a serious tone, but it loses all sense of seriousness at an accelerating rate as the absurdity of the individual scenes gradually increases. Jalmari Helander has not only proven himself to be a filmmaker with interesting ideas, but also – for the first time – a solid storyteller, screenwriter and director, in whose presentation the gritty tale of the gold prospector and fighter Aatami has its own memorable face, which is also due in part to the film’s distinctive stylisation and cast.
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