Kohtalon kirja

Totally crap, amateur actors and terrible storyline - i was really disappointed.

If you don't have better things to do than watch this film, i feel sorry for you =)

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.

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: *****

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.

I think this movie was fairly good when you think that this was as far as I know graduate work for some filmography students from Tampere polytechnic. For that I would give this movie grade 9. But as for commercial release on other hand I must place this below mediocre movie for apparently not so professional end product. But they show lots of potential for future though.

Plot in summary:

Priest finds The Book of Destiny(Kohtalon Kirja) and ends up to adventure in time to save whole universe. This movie mixes many types of movie genres in rather interesting way. Maybe we will see version made with big money some day ;-)