Year: 2014
Directed by: Jalmari Helander¨
Written by: Jalmari Helander (Screenplay and original story) & Petri Jokiranta (original story)
Oskari is in the forest, hunting as a rite to adulthood, when he discovers the president of United States, whose plane was attacked. Oskari is the president's only chance to survive the northern wilderness and escape the men after him.
I remember when I first saw the trailer for this film - it was so absurd. I had heard of Helander before, since he made Rare Exports. I hadn't seen that film, but I definitely liked his style already. But the most absurd thing about Big Game was Samuel L. Jackson. Why would a big star like him star in a Finnish film? Of course I was psyched about it. The idea of the president of United States landing in Finland and being helped by a Finnish teenager was so stupid it was kind of cool.
Of course the movie isn't completely serious, if at all. It's a Finnish film, but it's so American it's very close to a parody. Yet no matter how funny it is, it's still very thrilling. The plot was very clever because it seems simple until it doesn't. It's still very straight-forward, but it's very entertaining for someone who is into conspiracy plots.
I've heard a lot of complaints about Onni Tommila. Some of them are about his acting skills, some are about his english. But let's be honest, all 15-year-old Finns speak English exactly like that, no matter how bad they want to think otherwise. And for someone his age, his acting is alright. And of course Finnish acting is different from Hollywood. We are much more minimalist with our expressions and such, and that's not just us, it's pretty much all Nordics. I've seen several Danish movies so I'm basing my ideas on that.
Visually this movie was amazing. It was very detailed and very colourful. And the scenery... That was so perfect. And because it was so perfect, it's very obvious that it was filmed elsewhere, in this case, Germany, if I recall that correctly. And the music was also surprisingly good. I don't know what I was expecting.
When I saw the trailer I didn't quite get the idea why Oskari was sent into the wilderness. To be honest, I still don't quite get it.
Big Game is a very entertaining film. It looks amazing, the story is fun, and it has amazing cast, it has American superstars and Finnish actors and basically many different kind of actors in between of those two. It is definitely worth a watch, and I'm not just saying this as a Finn.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
7 / 10
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