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 (4)
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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 (7)
The creators seem to have experimented with some unearthly psychedelics, because this supposed Tarantino-esque film set during World War II turned out to be absolutely insane. Fortunately, Sisu offers a brutal and visually striking spectacle from the Finnish plains, which we don’t get to witness every day. The main character doesn’t speak much (his first and last words come right at the end); instead, his actions do the talking. And those actions have a lot to say!... The action is over the top, completely ignoring any conventional modesty. Some sequences even stretch logic to the point where the poor guy might never recover :D (the scene in the river, the hanging, the ending with the airplane, etc.). Even for me, it was too much (and I’ve seen quite a lot in my relatively short career as a reviewer, I’ll be honest). But as I said, it does have a certain flair. So, leave your brain at home and head to the movie theater. For me, it’s 6.5/10.
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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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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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Ironically, the promising bubble created by the trailers bursts with the first action scene. The Tarantino-like titles, chapter divisions and a would-be spaghetti western atmosphere are unfortunately not enough to turn a boy's foolishness into a real film. I found Sisu surprisingly boring and most of all he struck me as a Finnish version of Machete, including the feeling that it shouldn’t have been more than a trailer.
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Sisu is an entertaining B-movie from inhospitable Lapland. Stylish, bloody, funny, lively and even a bit cartoonishly fantastical. It’s not exactly innovative in terms of its subject matter, but it is unpredictable and imaginative in some scenes. The presence of Aksel Hennie as a top Nazi was pleasing.
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Photo © Antti Rastivo / Freezing Point Oy
![Sisu - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/167/202/167202490_683939.jpg)
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