- Starring
- Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie Jack Doolan
- Director
- Jalmari Helander
- Rating
- R
- Genre
- Action, War
- Release date
- April 28, 2023
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
Meaning the Finnish equivalent of guts or grit, Sisu isn’t revolutionary, but it serves as a nail-biting palette cleanser to get the taste of meaningless third-act battles with giant disposable CGI armies out of your mouth and remind you what an action flick can be.
Sisu
If Schadenfreude were a movie, it would be Sisu. Set in Finland circa 1944, as WWII comes to a close, Sisu follows a grizzled and solitary gold prospector and legendary ex-soldier who perseveres on sheer unrelenting determination, as he brutally works his way through a group of Nazi raiders who have robbed him of his gold.
The story is virtually non-existent, with almost no dialogue (in fact, the lead only has one line in the entire film). Instead, Sisu takes full advantage of crisp and violent visuals and leads performer Jorma Tommila’s craggy, weather-beaten face to carry what narrative there is to the end.
One might think that, because it’s a film about stealing a bag of gold, it may be challenging for the audience to connect with the film on any level beyond the most primitive of bloodlust; however, there’s just enough of a B-plot to give it that second dimension it needs to make the audience cheer.
Furthermore, the two main villains manage to be both evil and sadistic enough to root for their demise and realistic enough not to elicit laughter. This gives us two very satisfying endings and one of the best villain deaths in recent cinema.
For a film that feels a lot like a really cool hour-and-a-half video game cut screen, Sisu is Worth it, if not perfect. A case could easily be made that the lead character should have died in every confrontation, and that there was time to include a flashback or two in lieu of a paragraph of exposition. However, Sisu is most definitely a case of style winning over substance.
It won’t win any awards for…anything, but Sisu is a very entertaining way to spend 90 minutes.
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James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
Take note, Hollywoke.
This is how you make an action film. At least this is how you used to make them.
Your mother is ashamed of you. She secretly wishes she either swallowed or aborted you.
LOVED this movie. My favorite of the year so far.
A wonderful grindhouse film by men for men. This is real entertainment, and not the Woke, effeminate garbage that makes up the majority of what’s put on screens today.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is nothing more woke than Nazis getting whacked for an hour and a half, including women getting their own revenge. Excellent movie though.
Precisely this. Killing nazi trash is very woke and borderline p0rnographic in terms of enjoyment. We need movies about killing the nazi garbage alive here today in America.
You can easily recognize the nazis as they parrot 4chan language with no hesitation.The channers have succesfuly put an attractive, wacky face on nazism and infiltrated our language and culture
Watched this at cinema 2 weeks ago.
Gory, alpha, about 5% woke MAX! funny at times. The nazis ways of treating people reminds me of how todays woke governments treat average folk just trynna live their lives
Should have been killing Soviet soldiers too. Much greater threat to the Finns during WW2
Looks like fun, but the obsession with nazis getting whacked is getting a bit boring. Not because I like nazis but because the left now conflates nazism with conservatism. They see a nazi getting killed, they see a conservative getting killed – to them we are one and the same.
Because you are all one and the same. This movie should inspire all of us to kill our local nazi inbreds for the greater good of humanity.
The film was enjoyable UNTIL it was ruined with needless women’s power nonsense. That nonsense was completely unnecessary. How hard is it to make movies free of this bullshit pushing woman power and diversity bullcrap!
I see a few people complaining about the women and them getting their revenge as woke. I don’t really see how. They weren’t beating nazi men in hand-to-hand combat. They pulled up beside unsuspecting nazis and shot them up. Then they came up on the bloodied one that was left behind and were able to detain him because it was 6 armed women and one unarmed man with a broken arm. The only part that wasn’t really believable was their knowing how to drive the tank, so maybe a few woke points there.
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