Big Game. (12A.)
Directed by Jalmari Helander.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson, Victor Garbor, Mehmet Kurtulus, Felicity Huffmann and Jim Broadbent. Partly subtitled. 90 mins.
Non-American film makers have always made films that take aim at, or for, Hollywood and now even the Finns see Hollywood as fair game. In my experience (3 or 4 Aki Kaurismaki films) Finland is a land of quiet melancholy and acceptance but this Finnish/ German/ UK co-production boldly shoots down Air Force One in the Scandinavian wilderness and has the US President (L. Jackson) relying on a 13 year old boy (Tommila) out on a coming-of-age hunting trip to save him from terrorists.
Helander’s debut, Rare Export, was a jokey horror film about feral Father Christmases. It was one of those films that seems like a great idea in advance, and right up to the moment it starts. Helander’s main problem is a failure of targeting – Rare Exports was a children’s film that was too violent for children to watch. His latest is a Hollywood calling card that insults America.
Helander clearly dreams of a future where he takes meeting with Disney executive about helming a new Marvel franchise or testing his abilities to coax a recalcitrant Bruce Willis from his trailer but that’s not going to happen if makes films where the US President has to be rescued from the woods by a kid who can’t fire a bow and arrow and where that US President is a yellowbellied coward. He also won’t make it if he makes action films where there is a big hole where the action should be. Just as it seems to be getting going, the film jumps straight into the finale. It has its moments and is endearingly silly in places; but more often is just silly.
Big Game. (12A.)
Directed by Jalmari Helander.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson, Victor Garbor, Mehmet Kurtulus, Felicity Huffmann and Jim Broadbent. Partly subtitled. 90 mins.
Non-American film makers have always made films that take aim at, or for, Hollywood and now even the Finns see Hollywood as fair game. In my experience (3 or 4 Aki Kaurismaki films) Finland is a land of quiet melancholy and acceptance but this Finnish/ German/ UK co-production boldly shoots down Air Force One in the Scandinavian wilderness and has the US President (L. Jackson) relying on a 13 year old boy (Tommila) out on a coming-of-age hunting trip to save him from terrorists.
Helander’s debut, Rare Export, was a jokey horror film about feral Father Christmases. It was one of those films that seems like a great idea in advance, and right up to the moment it starts. Helander’s main problem is a failure of targeting – Rare Exports was a children’s film that was too violent for children to watch. His latest is a Hollywood calling card that insults America.
Helander clearly dreams of a future where he takes meeting with Disney executive about helming a new Marvel franchise or testing his abilities to coax a recalcitrant Bruce Willis from his trailer but that’s not going to happen if makes films where the US President has to be rescued from the woods by a kid who can’t fire a bow and arrow and where that US President is a yellowbellied coward. He also won’t make it if he makes action films where there is a big hole where the action should be. Just as it seems to be getting going, the film jumps straight into the finale. It has its moments and is endearingly silly in places; but more often is just silly.
