Reviews

Babas bilar is a hilarious combination of Nordic stereotypes and languages as well as plain awful but funny ultra-violence. As a comedy in the same violent way as Pulp Fiction, but happening in a small Swedish town during winter, this movie is just good entertainment.

Andreas Wilson plays Jojo, a poor young guy in love with his girlfriend Anso (Sara Sommerfeld), but with too little money for a proper house or apartment. Anso has a strong disagreement with her father Baba (Hassan Brijany) who is selling and buying cars, and not always so much according to the law. Then Jojo ends up helping Baba with one Cadillac, full of Russian drug money...

The wonderful combination of different nationals and languages was probably the funniest part of this movie. We've seen people blown up for the sake of fun in other movies as well, but Babas bilar brings the new aspect of different nationalities and stereotypes into this "fish soup". The Russian drug dealer and his three Finnish bodyguards, a Norwegian car buyer along with the Swedes just cook up something funny together. As a Finn myself, I was laughing a lot when seeing the oh-so-familiar behaviour of Finnish males in sauna, played by three very popular Finnish actors (Peter Franzen, Jarmo Mäkinen and Hannu Kiviaho).

As a story Babas bilar does not offer much new, but as plain entertainment, this was something I liked.

Brokeback Mountain is said to be a "gay-cowboy"-movie. That is not completely true. It is true that the main characters in the movie are cowboys, and that they fall in love with each other, but that is not everything. This story could be of anyone. But it is of two men in love.

Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) is a shy young guy who gets a job herding sheep for a summer in Brokeback Mountain, with Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) as a partner. One cold night they end up drunk and in a same tent, and make love. This is where the love story begins. After the summer both men go separate directions, get married and get children, but they never forget each other. Then one day after four years they meet again and there is no turning back.

Brokeback Mountain is emotionally packed, powerful movie. It left me feeling blown up for a day at least. Only few movies do that to me, that they really get into my head and don't let go. Brokeback Mountain did that. It is not so much of the things that are said in the movie, that get you. It is the things that are left unsaid. And it is not only the things that are shown in the movie that get you. It is the things that are left unshown.

It was interesting to notice how big erotic impact a movie like this can have. I have no desire to see real gay sex, but seeing these two strong men hugging each other, kissing each other after many years of separation, I was totally stunned.

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are amazing in this movie. They are brave men who take this kind of role that has the possibility of making them immortal and take them to the top actors' league, but also possibility of marking them with the "gay" stamp forever. Both were just fantastic. Of the minor roles, Michelle Williams as Ennis' wife Alma actually shines in her role. When Alma witnesses his husband kissing a guy, she is heart broken, but keeps everything for herself.

Ang Lee really knows how to make "pretty pictures" (for example Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Every single frame of the movie was a work of art in itself. The stunning scenery, colours and the people, everything was just perfect.

Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) is an epic story and part of Finland's history. The movie is based on famous Finnish novel by Väinö Linna, and it is set in the Continuation War (1941-44), just about a year after the Winter War, between Finland and Soviet Union. The movie is fully black and white.

The Unknown Soldier focuses on a very diverse group of soldiers and is packed with black humour. The different Finnish dialects, that make a huge part of the fun in the jokes, are understandable only for people who know Finnish, but the overall feeling is there in the amazing acting by Reino Tolvanen (Rokka), Kosti Klemelä (Koskela) and Pentti Siimes (Määttä) - to name a few. The most powerful scene is probably the one where Lehto, Määttä and Rahikainen are stubbornly serving their disciplinary duty after refusing to obey their superiors - directly under the enemy aerial fire.

The Unknown Soldier is one of the most realistic war movies ever made. It shows the horrible facts: people die for their home land and it's not pretty. The Finnish soldiers fight against the tenfold enemy in impossible situations. They made heroic acts in their attempt to save their country, and many of these acts have been captured brilliantly in the movie as well. But the true fact of war - death - is always around, even among the war heroes. War does not make one great.

The teaching of The Unknown Soldier is that even a small country has a chance in war against an impossible enemy if the will to protect the homeland is strong enough, the people are stubborn enough and are ready to die for freedom.

The main music in the film - Jean Sibelius' Finlandia is legendary.

Pitkä kuuma kesä (Long hot summer) is a story from the wild 80's, when rock was punk and summers were still hot. The story takes Patu (Unto Helo) from Helsinki, Capital of Finland to Joensuu, small town in the Eastern Finland. In the 80's living in Helsinki was "cool" and others living in the "countryside" were not that cool. Though Patu has to experience that this is not the case in Real Life - there are "cool" people also in the countryside.

This is a story of youth, playing punk, being cool and being in love. And all are brilliantly tied together in a heart-warming way, but without too much of sweetness. The slowly growing love-story between Patu and Noora (Hanna-Mari Karhinen) is only bonus to the fantastic storyline. Pitkä kuuma kesä looks very real and brings 80's Finland back to the 2000's, it is pure nostalgia to people who have lived their youth in that time.

The actors in this movie are young and raw but their work still looks professional. The acting never goes "over", but is very down to earth, which is very rare in Finnish movies.

Closer is a story of four people, love and lust. First we meet Dan (Jude Law) and Alice (Natalie Portman) who accidentally run into each other in London. After a while we meet a photographer Anna (Julia Roberts) who becomes an obsession to Dan. Dan's obsession accidentally leads Anna to meet Larry (Clive Owen), who eventually get married. Love, lust and lies surround the lives of these four young people - but who in the end was the biggest liar?

Closer is a well-written story with professional and charismatic cast. The two above all else are Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. Their work in this movie is incredible. Clive Owen - such a nice and charming man in many of his other movies - releases his dark side and shows how disgusting men can really be. His portrayal of the Doctor Larry is brilliantly ugly.

Natalie Portman shows she can be something else than just Queen Amidala of Naboo (Star Wars Episodes 1-3). Her character is the youngest of the four, but she brings Alice the same kind of warmth, but toughness and also professional touch she showed as Mathilda in Leon.

Closer is an amazing movie, even though some parts are not pretty. It brings forward the dark side of people, the side that is usually kept hiding. As a story it is tough, but the revelation in the end lightened up the story a bit, making things something different than the viewer is made originally think.

Don't watch this movie when you're depressed, or are having difficulties with your partner!

When Harry met Sally... is a story of two different people, told with a warm heart. The story starts from Chicago where both Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) meet for the first time, Harry hitching a ride to New York from Sally. They have an interesting discussion on the ride from Chicago to New York, but in NY their roads go to different directions.

After 5 years they meet again. Both have found their places in the Big Apple, Sally's got a boyfriend and Harry's getting married. It is a very brief encounter. It takes another five years until they meet again, this time in a totally different circumstances, which leads to making Harry and Sally finally friends.

When Harry met Sally... is a beautiful and warm movie of two totally different people who finally find true love in their lives. For a romantic comedy, it has some more "edge", more attitude than romantic comedies usually have.

This is Billy Crystal show. Crystal is just amazing as Harry. He is at the same time funny, but with a certain dark side. Once he is madly in love with his ex-wife, second later he is telling Sally how he was having sex with someone the other night.

I have never been a big Meg Ryan fan, but she is doing decent in this movie. She is funny, but does not match Crystal brilliant performance. Together they make the movie an enjoyment, something that makes you smile when the movie is over, something that makes you crawl to your boy/girlfriend's lap more tightly :)

After the brilliantly dark Prisoner of Azkaban directed by Alfonso Cuaron, my expectations for the fourth Harry Potter movie Goblet of Fire were very high. All directors bring in to the soup their own spices, and I was excited to see Mike Newell's (director of "Four weddings and a Funeral") handiwork with the world's most famous boy wizard. And my high expectations were pretty much met.

Goblet of Fire is a story of Harry Potter's fourth year in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft. This year is different: Hogwarts is playing host to Tri-Wizard Tournament and students from other witchcraft schools, who have come to participate in the tournament. Only one participant is chosen by the Goblet of Fire from each school to be the champion from that school, but for some strange reason Harry is chosen as the other Hogwarts champion along with Cedric Diggory. This is where the story begins, taking students through the year and through strange and even sad and scary matters, ending in the end of the school year.

The Goblet of Fire is even darker than its predecessor. This is not a children's movie anymore. The author, J.K. Rowling has mentioned that all her books (and that way also the movies made of the books) are meant for the same age group that Harry himself represents. Harry and his friends are 14 in the movie, and director Mike Newell has not started to clean up and polish things or the rough story for very young audience. This is why I definitely don't recommend the movie for the youngest of the family, because it may cause nightmares to the more sensitive.

For more adult audience Goblet of Fire is the fireworks of fantasy, wonderful, amazing story. The world of magic has been spiced up with (British) humour (Draco Malfoy's ferret screen, Harry meeting Myrtle in the bath, everything the Weasley twins do...). However, in general the colour of the scenery is dark, with the fear of Lord Voldemort's return over everything. The fear, which materialises in a very dramatic way in the last meters of the movie.

Goblet of Fire is a thick book and a lot of the story has been left away from the movie. Nothing very important is changed though, and the movie works very well as such. In the beginning everything goes almost "fast-forward" speed and in this spot I would have hoped for a few minutes more for clarifying the backgrounds of things. After the breathtaking beginning the movie smooths down to tell the actual story, the story of Harry's participation to the Tri-Wizard Tournament and his journey to meet He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as well as his struggle with the teenage problems with for example girls.

For a viewer who has never read any Harry Potter books or seen any of the films, Goblet of Fire won't necessarily open as such. In the movie there is no time for anything extra and all extra explanations of things have been cut off. To be able to fully enjoy the movie, it requires the viewer to watch the previous ones or read the books.

But it definitely leaves the viewer to wait for more!

American History X is a story of two brothers - Derek and Danny Vinyard (Edwards Norton and Furlong) - who believe in White Power, and they belong to a Neo-Nazi movement where people think if you are not "white protestant", you're not worth anything. When three black guys try to steal Derek's car, Derek freaks out and kills two of the thieves and goes to jail where he is forced to see the other side of things. "In here, you the nigga. Not me" tells Derek's working partner in the prison.

American History X is probably the most powerful movie I've ever seen. The way two stories - current day in colour and past events in black&white - are told in a parallel way is very beautiful, implicating how things in the past were so simple, so black and white, whereas in reality they are much more complex.

The story is very strong and wakes up strong feelings in the viewer, but towards the end gives also hope and vision of a brighter future. As the little brother Danny puts it: "Hate is a baggage. Life's too short to be p****d off all the time. It's not worth it".

Edward Norton got Oscar -nominated for his role as the skinhead Derek Vinyard. And I don't question that nomination a bit! He is just awesome as first the hateful, self confident skinhead, then confused and sad man, questioning things and in the latter part a strong father figure for his little brother. The growth story of Derek is brilliantly made, a very powerful role for Norton who delivers his performance flawlessly. It is also amazing to see the transformation of otherwise a bit skinny baby-faced Norton to this muscular, tough guy skinhead.

Edward Furlong as little brother Danny plays a beautiful role as well. Grown up in the shadow of his brother he is the sweet big-eyed little brother everyone wants to protect. Furlong fits into his role 100%.

American History X jumped directly to the top 10 of my all time favourite movies. After watching this two times during the weekend, I can still feel the movie in me after so many days. Not many films make that kind of lasting impact. American History X did.

*****

I saw Thumbsucker yesterday at Helsinki Movie Festival and was really positively surprised. I was not expecting much from a teen movie, but this one really made its way to my heart.

The story is about a 17-year-old Justin who has problems with his self confidence, and that causes him to suck his thumb. His tough guy father (Vincent D'Onofrio) of course does not like this, which makes it even worse. His mother (Tilda Swinton) lives in dreams and does not really seem to care what's going on in her family. His weirdo dentist (Keanu Reeves) uses even hypnosis to help him to get rid of his thumbsucking...

The story is about growing up, and Lou Taylor Pucci as Justin delivers a brilliant job. But the main thing are the "sidekicks": Reeves the dentist and Benjamin Bratt as a totally weird drug addict actor and Vince Vaughn as Justin's teacher just do it, give some laughter to the otherwise serious story, and make this movie enjoyment.

When I went to see Mr and Mrs Smith starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, I was a bit skeptic because I really like True Lies (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), and this movie seemed to be a bit same. Well, it was a bit the same but still very enjoyable entertainment. There were some very funny moments, the humour was indeed great at times - I laughed out loud. And Brad & Angelina had a very good chemistry together I liked it.

Especially the scenes with a marriage councilor. ESPECIALLY the last scene with the councilor... (when you see this, you know what I mean).

Entertainment is definitely the word for this movie. It is not great, it is not art, but it is entertainment and for the entertainment's sake it was extremely fun to watch.

Waiting for this movie was funny: I had waited for ROTS for so long that the day I was finally going to see it in the theatre, I was waiting the whole day nervously, so nervously I have never been in my whole life when waiting for some MOVIE. Butterflies in my stomach you know. Then finally...

the opening Williams score!!

And the movie begun.

Oh my god.

IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!

After two more viewings I still think of ROTS as one of the best Star Wars films. I'm not yet sure if this was the perfect one, the one even better than Empire, but it is VERY, indeed VERY close.

All the loose ends are tight together.

The story is marvelous.

Hayden is not the whiny kid he was in AOTC, but he really truly becomes Darth Vader. Trust me.

I was afraid there won't be any cheerful moments, because the movie was told to be so dark, but there were several scenes that made me smile. Mainly some lines Obi-Wan said. Ewan's Obi-Wan has gotten even better than he was. Obi-Wan is now the ultimate Jedi Knight, the good and the wise.

The movie is dark, oh so dark. And sad. I was so excited that I was able to hold back my tears, but...

There are so many scenes that tie this movie to the OT that it was great. Many scenes shot in the old locations, or similar to the old scenes.

We get to see Chewie which was nice.

Warning: Jar Jar is there. But he's on screen maybe 3 seconds After seeing this I have found peace.

And now I just wait for the DVD to come out :) 10/10 points.

I have not read the comics Sin City (I did pay a visit to library immediately after the movie), but I must admit, this was one of the greatest comic book adaptations I have ever seen. When I think of X-Men, which was great, or Spiderman, even though they are very unrealistic, they look so much more real life than does Sin City. Sin City really looked like a comic book made into a real movie with real actors. It had such a tremendous feeling of the comic, with people jumping off houses and landing on their feet, cars running over people who still survive. All this amazing comic stuff is in there.

Not to mention how visually beautiful the movie was. Not only did it have these adorable babes, but the whole world was visually amazing. I loved the use of black&white, with small splashes of colour here and there. Or having a whole person coloured when everything else was b&w. Wonderful way of making the viewer notice the difference between twins for example I just loved those blue eyes of Becky(?) and red shoes of Dwight! I must admit that even though everything was very much cartoon violence, there were some parts that were pretty disturbing to me. I have some problems in seeing people cut to pieces that way... even the bad guys. BUT that did not bother me so much that it would have interfered my enjoyment of the movie as a whole! I really loved the hero characters: Marv, Dwight and Hartigan. Such great guys with their own dark deep secrets. All wishing to do good in their lives and ready to sacrifice themselves for someone they love. But merciless for the people who do bad for their loved ones. Just love that.

The babes were absolutely amazing. The girls of the Old Town were marvellous. Miho with her samurai sword was beautiful, as was their leader Gail, and they were able to take care of themselves these girls, they were not just some brainless chicks. Goldie was really an angel, as was little Nancy.

All in all I loved this movie. And I'm gonna see it again. And buy the DVD.

OK, I have now seen this movie. I also think I've seen this before...

This is a big movie again. Big fights, lots of dead people, swords, blood, good people and bad people, and normal people there in between. The storyline in short is about a young boy who suddenly discovers his father is a Knight and is drawn on a crusade to save Jerusalem from the Muslims.

Overall this movie made me again wonder how crazy people really are. It was not brilliant, but not totally bad either. I could give it 7/10.

What was good: The idea of the story was more "equal" than in this kind of movies usually. There were not only bad Muslims and good Christians, but both sides has good and bad people, both sides had their own heroes and villains just like the normal life has.

The movie did suit also to a non-religious person like me. It was not overly religious, but more dealing with the actual goodness and badness of people.

The acting was brilliant in many places. Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons were amazing, men of their own league. Also many other actors did a very good job.

What was not so good: The storyline was predictable. After every single event you knew what is coming up next. Even though the story was about a crusade and everyone knows what has happened there, making a movie out of it could have more little twists. Now everything was so "plain" and a bit lame. There is the good king, bad guy who ruins it all, and the very good guy who tries to make it better. And a girl. Lots of fighting and so what.

The shooting of the action scenes was a bit of a mess at times. There were scenes which just did not look good because it was just a mess. Well, war is, but when editing a movie it could be cut some other way. At least on big screen I had hard times to follow everything at parts.

Orlando Bloom is cute, but not yet really a great actor. He has these very similar manners and expressions in all his movies, very serious and trying to be effective, but at the same time being a bit boring. And no looks can help that. He has potential though, so who knows what will become of him.

And after Minas Tirith it is difficult to rate big fighting scenes objectively...

I saw this movie yesterday and it was exactly as good as I was hoping it to be! I love Harry Potter's story and Azkaban is my favourite of the books - and Cuaron really made the story a magical experience.

Chris Columbus made a good work with Potters 1 and 2, but the movies were more children's fairy tales. Cuaron really cathces the dark mood of the third book and brings all magic to life without using fancy "wizardy" clothes - he puts the magic in the persons and the world.

The new Hogwarts is placed in a beautiful location - I truly loved the gothic style buildings and the way the camera was used behind and around the beautiful objects.

The CG in the animagi was brilliant. Nothing too fancy, but more realistic and especially creepy and disturbing, like the book is.

The young actors have really grown during the time, just like their characters. They have also grown as actors and were much more comfortable in front of the camera this time. I also liked the new Dumbledore: Gambon actually made this character somehow stronger, like he is in the book, as Harris always seemed so fragile... Gary Oldman was awesome as Sirius Black - everything I was hoping for my favourite character!

There were of course changes from the original story, but most of those did not really matter. The book and the movie are after all different media. I was hoping more clarification about the Marauder's Map, as well as Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs.

Despite the small flaws this was a magnificent experience!

I give it a full 10 points :)

I saw this over the weekend and I really liked it. Beautifully Irish. Especially after the a bit slow beginning when the paths of the characters started getting bind together more closely.

The movie was very fresh and in some way realistically rough. Not too smooth like many Hollywood movies are.

Colin Farrell was a brilliant bad guy, Shirley Henderson a touching young girl with an excess growth of facial hair, Cillian Murphy and David Wilmont friends with problems with women, and life in general. The other characters were also very real and it was easy to believe in them.

The ending was beautiful and crowned with an old Clash classic "I fought the law" sung by Colin Farrell.

I have really enjoyed myself lately the new Finnish movies as they get better and better! Nousukausi is a brilliant movie, made of a fresh and new idea. It is not only a comedy, even though it gave me huge laughs during the viewing. It is also a bit of a drama, focusing on the reality of a relationship of a two rich and talented young people, whose life is in every aspect in order -or is it?

The movie focuses cleverly on the today's values in the society, and how they affect on young people. It shows us with the means of comedy how it is like when everything you have gained and relied on is taken away from you and suddenly you have to survive without the help from the surrounding society. And in this Nousukausi succeeds very well, making it very enjoyable watching!

Definitely an enjoyable movie experience in Finnish movies!

They say at the film cover that if you liked "Snatch" and "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels", you'll love this one - I can't but disagree! I really loved both "Snatch" and "Lock, stock..." but this one was not that clever, didn't have that cool attitude or any point at all.

I don't think that one man, frustrated in his pathetic life, who wants some action in his life by making war, is not very unique idea. In fact we see that all the time in the world these days!

I didn't like the way they had cut the film either, because those "black screens" between shots were too long and cut the story to be too documentary-like.

I think this film was boring even though there were some nice parts as well. So watching this was not totally wasted time, there were also times where you could laugh. I liked some characters like Denise van Outen's and at some points even Jonny Lee Miller's (sometimes a bit forced) attitude - (I did love his acting in Trainspotting). And of course the love-and-hate -relationship between two "mafia" gangs was interesting and sometimes funny.

George Clooney certainly knows how to be a charming and still efficient villain and Jennifer Lopez knows how to be a beautiful but still tough cop - and the two of them as a "couple" is perfect! The chemistry between them was something you could almost touch and those sexy but secretively hidden (no nudity) moments are -I suppose- in most of the people's fantasies. I enjoyed so much watching them together, and that was the main thing holding the story together.

I also loved the mixture of crime, comedy, romance and pulp fictionish gore. It feels a bit absurd to laugh when somebody mistakenly blows his own head off when tumbling in the stairs, but today's reality is so full of real violence that this kind of gore feels acceptable when you see it in the movies. And I can't help thinking of the Darwin awards in this particular case... :)

The story was clever, the actors were brilliant and worked so well together and the atmosphere was electric - and the ending was something I was not expecting and that all combined together in the ways of comedy and crime - so entertaining oh so entertaining!

When I saw the trailer of The Fast and The Furious, I thought I never ever want to see such a stupid looking film. When I saw more of Vin Diesel I decided to change my mind and see also this film.

And it wasn't so bad! Of course all that cars'n'girls stuff was a bit too much for a feminist soul, but I really loved the cool girls Letty and Mia! They just had the right attitude :)

The film isn't only about cars'n'girls, it is also about friendship and loyalty and that's very rare in the world of today. And that was something I appreciated a lot. I liked the chemistry between the cop-Brian and the villain-Dominic and the way Brian managed the situation in the end was beautiful.

Despite the bad talk, Vin Diesel made great acting and I also enjoyed Paul Walker's character and his struggle in his conflict mind between the cop-consciousness and friendship.

First i was a bit suspicious about Pitch Black cause I've never been a horror fan, but when I saw the film I realised it's just a nice sci-fi thriller and I enjoyed myself very much. I must admit that suns orbiting the planet bothered me a bit, but I decided to forgive some unrealistic matters because of sci-fi.

I really liked Radha Mitchell's captain Fry who was the major force of keeping the group together and organising things -and that's why the ending surprised me. Also seeing Riddick grow from a bad guy to a less-bad guy was nice to watch as well as the camera work through Riddick's or the aliens' eyes... cool!

Really entertaining for fans of thrillers and action!