rabbe

Terribly sorry, but even the premise: that a few paratroopers could accomplish anything of military or territorial value, and that foreign military equipment and soldiers could "slip ashore" from "Venezuelan" ships unnoticed, is stupid and unrealistic. Even more strange, no plausible motive is given for why a "foreign force" would take this action, which in real life only could lead to said force being thrown back into the sea in record time. This unrealistic premise is then combined with the nowadays requisite and formulaic "conflicts" amongst soldiers and political leaders, and some totally unnecessary sex scenes. Apart from some refreshing exceptions, the acting is most often wooden, probably because of the likewise stilted writing. Even seasoned, normally competent actors can't seem to get it together. Like everyone is satisfied with the first take. To top it all off, the music score feels uninspired, and curiously detached from events rolling by. Production values are sometimes pretty good, but really feel wasted on this drawn out series (two episodes would have been enough).

Did the critics and the humourless reviewers on IMDM expect a "serious" film, just because serious, established actors also appeared in this romp? Or that you should expect it to be the "same" film as some Norwegian film which, if it used the same formulaic plot surely couldn't have been any more original or "better" than this one. You see, this is a parody of parodies - as films like the Fast and the Furious series have long since become parodies of themselves. You shouldn't take anything about this film, especially the comedy, seriously. Or try to "critique" it. First and foremost: as a parody of parodies, it delivers hugely, precisely by playing up all the formulaic tropes of the "street racing genre" and going over the top with "bad", over the top acting. The ending had me rolling around on the floor.

The first review "This won't do..." says almost everything about this movie and its numerous problems. The most glaring problem is of course that this project lacked a competent screen writer. Koivusalo can pehaps be described as a mostly competent director who can wring out a workable result - even if you on a few occasions in this film ask yourself: "was that really the best take?". But a screen writer for a biographical film Koivusalo most certainly is not. Afraid of missing anything "important", he makes the beginners mistake of trying to cram "everything" into the movie - instead of trying to find one or two strong story archs, and limit the time periods to a few formative periods of Sibelius' life. Koivusalo is of course not alone. Screenplays in finnish films often seem hastily written - which is a shame, as the technical aspects like cinematography and editing often are quite good. To be fair, it is watchable, mainly due to nice and accurate set designs, and of course the music. It it gets a bit better towards the end. If anybody after this film gets inspired to visit (or revisit, as myself) the Sibelius catalogue, the film has at least achieved something, even though the film in itself is not on the same masterpiece level as many of Sibelius' compositions.