Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is (roughly) the seventh film in a series of Star Trek / science fiction spoof films, following the adventures of the space ship CPP Potkustartti. Released more than ten years after the first Star Wreck film - which was nothing more than a few minutes of simple hand drawn computer animation plus some school boy humour dubbed on top of it - In the Pirkinning is the culmination of the series. More than a five year mission, this film has been "almost ready" since the end of the last millennium, and is now finally shown to a delighted audience.

And what a film it is! It really can be seen that this is a labour of love. While the acting is at time painfully amateurish, and while the plot is a bit too simplistic towards the end, the humour combined with references to Star Trek and Babylon 5 should keep any science fiction TV fan happy for the duration. And even acting can be forgiven when you consider that the actor budget has been a very round number with only one zero.

The English and Swedish subtitles are very well done, particularly the latter one which manages to transfer a significant amount of finer Finnish language nuances. However the Swedish subs were not particularly well timed: Many of the longer lines started too early and disappeared too quickly to read.

The only real gripe I have about this film is the constant swearing. Don't take me wrong, I don't mind a naughty word or even a few. Swearing at appropriate places can be unbelievably funny. But when you swear at an average speed of twice a minute or so, it stops being funny and becomes simply annoying. This has always bugged me in the series, but as the English and Swedish subtitles have been toned down, most of the viewers would neither know nor be bothered.

Why would you want to see In the Pirkinning? To begin with, it may be (and probably is) the most expensive-looking film that has been made without professional funding. However, that's not the point. The film is also funny, well-paced for the most part, and sometimes even witty. It also has good re-watching value. And did I tell you it's free? You can download it from the official Star Wreck web site.

I strongly encourage you to see this film.

No spoilers here :) A very funny and multi-layer film for the fan of science fiction. Nothing like this has ever been made in Finland, and this is bound to put Finland on the sci-fi -map.

Some of the humor is very Finnish, a lot universal :) The structure of the film is nicely thought through and executed, with an ending that left me wondering if there is to be a sequel :) Considering that the actors excluding two or three if I am correct, were all amateurs, friends and volunteer fans, the movie was very skilfully over-acted and cast to the best possible Star Wreck -style. The actors were all charming and sure to win you over. To be noted that this is the 6th Star Wreck film made.

The effects are excellent, the war scenes actually do work in spite of the comedy nature which is never made cliché or a boring repetition, a pitfall of many parodies. Two thumbs-up for the music as well.

Hard to believe that this wasn't made by professionals.

All in all, a well-made full-length feature film.

Must-see for all sci-fi fans!

Having seen all the earlier Star Wrecks, I was intrigued by what I saw in the trailers for the new one. Who wouldn't be? Normally visuals effects just don't do it for me, but in this case they seemed very interesting. Admittedly, this had a lot to with the fact that the movie is Finnish. Only one Finnish movie using visual effects before this one comes to mind (Rölli) and Star Wreck tops that easily. The visual effects are just another way of telling the story, as they should be.

And what a story. I found it especially interesting that the protagonist is a megalomaniac out to conquer the universe. How often do we see that? Accompanied by an android and a more-or-less homicidal maniac, they actually manage to take over the world, but that is just the beginning.

The acting is mostly horrible and at best campy, but I can live with that. The visuals are easily on par with the professional stuff done on Star Trek or other such TV-shows. Humor is often weak and the "funny" names just don't work. At times it's good, but there are not many moments which are laugh-out-loud funny. Gladly, the more low key humor works in parts very well.

All in all, I liked the movie. I gave it a 9 (out of 10) because it's Finnish, in reality it's closer to a low 8 or high 7. I don't really know how well the jokes translate to other cultures, but hopefully the movie will get the attention it deserves. In Finland, the series has gained a sort of cult status and deservedly so.

After listening to the rumors about this movie for about two months, i decided to download it myself to see what the fuss was all about. The guys who's brainchild star wreck is advertised the movie in radio and TV claiming it to be the most seen finnish film in the year 2005 based on the amount of downloads from their home site (of course you can add p2p on that number as well).

First and foremost, i find it astonishing that a group of nobodies can pull off a project like this. I salute them, even though i'm aware they have worked on star wreck for quite a while...they're still not professionals.

When you look at the starship effects, it's difficult to believe the above to be true. These ships can compete with the ones seen on the TV-series any day. Naturally time has passed, and the effects can be created without the kind of money needed back in the day, but it's still amazing this whole thing was pulled of virtually without money.

The sets and uniforms look good, too. The Star Trek ships look very good on the inside as well, the Babylon 5 ship a bit more stale, but in the same sentence i must admit i did not watch Babylon 5 when it was on TV, so it's possible that's the way it should look like.

After all the praise we must unfortunately move on to the things that did NOT work for the benefit of this movie. The acting, let's face it, is amateurish. That's not the real problem, however. The problem is the way the crew decided to deliver the comedy. Comedy is a difficult form of acting, even the masters of the craft know it. At times the acting in Star Wreck goes just silly, and beyond. It may be less obvious to non-finns who are watching this with subtitles, only understanding the witty writing (which i thought was great, by the way), and missing what the actors are actually saying and how. At points i chuckled, but at times i felt a bit ashamed, to tell you the truth. A good example of the diversity is how the same actor first annoys the hell out of you with the character Sergei Fukov, and then delivers almost like a pro as Festerbester. Overall i felt these actors could've pulled off a bit more serious version of this movie, or a poker-face spoof in the spirit of Leslie Nielsen and Charlie Sheen. As it is, the silly faces and shouting, and near slapstick just doesn't work.

Finally, i see many of you IMDb browsers did not give this film a fair rating. I've decided to treat this movie as i would any other, despite the many redeeming factors. After all, it's the end result i'm reviewing here.

rating: 5/10 - shows promise

I was very eager when I sat down to watch the movie, did it meet it's expectations or not? Well I'm eased to say it did, and with a long shot as well. The whole world domination thing with a comedical straw is brilliant and a bit goofy (as it should be). Well, what you say, be proud Finland, a very good comedy-parody production of a well known sci-fi series. And I'm sure both you and me sometimes had wondered what would happen if the time directive would have been broken, well you have the answer just right here :). Summary: A very well made Finnish movie that makes a laugh out of both the Babylon and the star trek series with a success. The special effects are good for a movie in this class, and the acting is very well done good as well. The whole making fun of the emperor thing is brilliant, and the relates to the time directive is good as well. The jokes are funny as well, so I enjoyed this movie very much and recommend it for every star trek and babylon5 fan out there. I give this 10/10 for as this isn't the ordinary Hollywood production and very much deserve it. Thank you Finland !