Rent Sisu (2022)

Entertaining OTT actioner - Sisu review by Alphaville

Visually striking action movie set in the atmospheric landscapes of Lapland, where an indestructible Finnish ex-commando (eat your heart out, John Wicke) sets about despatching evil English-speaking Nazis. As long as you can stomach spurting blood and flying limbs, this is black-humour OTT action with little dialogue, plot or even pacing to get in the way. Sure, the English-speaking Nazis are pantomime villains and there’s no way our hero would survive some of the scrapes he gets into. Go with it. Director Jalmari Helender does wonders with his budget and you never feel short-changed by the visual effects. Perhaps it’s only a 3-star film, but it deserves an extra star for ambition. The DVD has a couple of interesting features about the shoot and the effects, during which the director promises never to make a film with two people arguing in a room. Right on. British film industry please take note.

Dire, annoying, sub-Tarantina cartoon character gorefest set in Finland with cartoon Nazis - Sisu review by PV

I LOVED the subversive Christmas film RARE EXPORTS by the same writer director - 5 stars for that.

This however is DREADFUL - a sub-Tarantino grand guignol gorefest as tedious as the awful over-rated Inglorios Basterds or whatever nonsense fake spelling the over-rated Quentin used.

Divided into chapters - always a bad sign,. Pretentious nonsense. Watch THE WINTER WAR for a Finnish film instead or WILD MEN which is fun.

Cartoon character violence from a main character who should be in a comic book - I did not believe a single word or scene, the whole thing is absurd. like SUperman, but way more boring.

I almost want to give this 1 start, but 1.5 rounded up.

One Regiment with 'Sisu' and the war would have finished a month into 1939 - Sisu review by The REAL Film Cricket

Sisu is definitely a war film made for and by the Marvel Superhero generation, for all of the laudable action, and ongoing excitement, despite being set in a real situation, in a horrible war, it is utterly unrealistic. Disappointingly so.

Jorma Tommila as the Finnish miner, ex-commando-type, protagonist, says nothing, except for two lines near the end, so his acting is all in his actions and his facial expressions. To be fair he does a good job, but I wonder if any point he thought, ‘This is preposterous?’

I hate to be a miserable moaning old man, honestly, I really do, but for a film set in World War Two the longer the story goes on the sillier it gets.

The German soldiers, and a couple of airmen, are more evil, and soulless, than any baddy or evil group in any you will see in a superhero movie. Needless to say normal sane people are not big fans of Nazis, but not every German was a Nazi or in the SS and evil beyond belief. Sisu is too black and white, if some nuance had been added, some thought, instead of mindless nastiness, the tale would have been better.

Add in credible physics and human capabilities and you could have had an exciting and interesting story, perhaps questioning the point of war as it was ending for all sides. Instead, we have a superhero who is basically indestructible, fighting and winning single-handedly against men who were thrown out of hell for being too evil and heavily armed.

Having criticised the film for being unrealistic I will say if you view the film as ‘Sisu’ made into a story, an abstract tale about the Finnish spirit to never give up, always resist and win no matter what, then the nail is hit on the head. My problem is I do not know if the makers meant it to be this or if it was meant to be ‘war story’. Like a difficult painting I suppose, you take from it what you want to take from it.

The gore is good, so being killed in a war situation is horrible, the men dirty, grotty and unkempt and the setting, the tough barren Finland, looks good and the actors give it their all.

My problem has always been the same with war films. War is really horrible, pointless and full of unnecessary death. Unbeatable heroes who cannot really be hurt do not exist and it worries me that younger folk, who, in general thank goodness, have never been involved in this type of thing, will genuinely think this is how it goes. It does not. There are no winners in a war. None.

Sisu is well made, especially for the budget and time spent making it, looks like a dirty horrible war story and gives life to the Finnish ‘Sisu’ but ultimately it is nothing you have not seen before in many other films that usually do not purport to be World War Two tales.

Disappointing for me. If you are not keen on Superhero films, indestructible heroes and baddies who wear the blackest of black hats, then do not watch Sisu.