Kohtalon kirja

Kohtalon Kirja makes a grand attempt of featuring almost every genre of film 'not' inherent to the Finnish Movie Canon. While the makers are to be commended for their efforts the result is a lot less than the sum of its parts.

Kohtalon Kirja is an episodic movie where each story ends at a cliffhanger which is resolved by the film's end. Despite the level of effort in ensuring the high production values and the support of, undoubtedly, some famous Finnish actors the problem with the film's plot is that it feels very indifferent. The same goes for the actor-performances which all lack any sort of genuine emotion.

At its best the film is perhaps even slightly farcical and definitely over-dramatic and entertaining. At its worst it feels like a joke which isn't nearly as funny as the film-makers intended. A film worth watching as an ambitious experimentation in Finnish film-making, but one which falls short of the dynamic of Jade Warrior or the energy and craft of Star Wreck.

Take a number of Finnish art students and an ambitious exam project combining some major genres of action films: horror, western, war, spy thriller and space adventure built into one storyline and then try to make a feature length film with no time, no funding and actors working for peanuts; then you will get The Book of Fate.

Considering the above-mentioned factors the result is not as awful as could be expected, I have seen numerous films made with much bigger budgets by professional crews that were worse by far.

The idea behind the film: creating a framework for action sequences in different times and different settings is interesting although not worked out well enough. Most of the hand to hand fighting sequences are not well done, they might have worked better in slow motion. Other parts (the shooting fights mostly) were not that bad. Other than that the sets and the effects were reasonably well done. If the inexperienced main cast had had more time to get into their roles (the inexperienced director might have done a better job) and the supporting veteran actors had put in more effort, the story would have been more believable.

In all, I would not suggest you build your evening on this flick, but if you have the choice between this one and reality TV shows, you might want to opt for this "fan film" product.

Okay, so it isn't the Epic Finnish Movie Spectacle of 2003. It isn't Art with capital A.

But who cares.

Judging all measurements, this movie should be a turkey. The whole idea is so patently ludicruous that This Movie Just Can't Be Good. Shameless mixing of genres, unexperienced moviemakers, and, good heavens, Tony Halme.

But surprise surpise - for some reason, this thing was watchable. *Very* watchable. Sure, it looks a bit cheesy here and there, might have needed some extra care at some times and places... but overall, the lasting impression I got was that This Isn't A Gigabuck Hollywood Movie But It Sure Looks Like One.

But then again, I like movies that knowingly play with cliches of the genre, or genres in this case. Running jokes rule. And obviously the makers have had fun, which has to count for something...

People seem to severely dislike the special effects - and I think this is unjustified, it's just amazing that they did it *this* good with *that* sort of money.

And the plot wasn't *that* bad. Honestly.

Cult classic material. Definitely.

As a movie: *** As a parody of Hollywood: *****

Book Of Fate doesn't compete in the Major League, but it is nevertheless a Champion in it's own right. You'll have to put yourself in the right context: this is not a Hollywood production, not even a b-class movie with still decent budget. This is a very low-budget movie - we are talking about probably some few thousand dollars at most, no more. In fact the movie is a thesis for the two directors. Still they managed to get some of the finest Finnish professional actors in, and even the soundtrack is filled with internationally famous Finnish rock and heavy metal bands (like Nightwish with over 1.5 million records sold). These acts alone are noteworthy.

The main idea of the movie are the struggles of an "eternal champion", and the idea is not very far from the themes of author Michael Moorcock. Also, it takes courage to select five totally different genres (horror, western, war, action thriller and SF) and combine them in an episode movie.

This movie seems to divide opinions very much - and that's understandable. If you are a kind of person who is interested only in the technical details and finesse over the contents, you will be disappointed. But if you are able to see behind the financial and technical limits, you may appreciate the over-the-top pastiches of these genres, and the enthusiasm behind. Sure, the CGI-effects may be a little cranky - but so were the CGI-images of the excellent series Babylon 5. In my opinion, the only true limitations are in the people's imagination, not in the technical limitations.

As far as I'm concerned, the results were highly satisfactory - I had no expectations of this movie, but I found myself entertained. And that's what this movie is all about.

If you're a masokist, do watch the movie. Other than that I would never suggest to anyone that they should watch this movie.

Bad acting, even worse story line. I was amazed how mad it really was.