Sisu is a complicated concept. In a way it is pure stoic perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, but it is important to note that it is not just determination. It is also cleverness, that manifests itself when you most need it. Sisu is finding the solution to a problem, no matter what. This movie is definitely about that. Aatami, our "hero", finds the way.

Being old enough Finn to have known many people of this generation, this isn't even that much of an embellishment.

The movie is quite simplistic. The Finnish characters don't even talk until very late into the movie (which is actually another insight into Finnish culture). You have a goldminer with gold and a company of Nazis hunting him. You can't really go wrong with this storywise. You just have to make the characters and the action interesting enough. Do they? Yes. This might me kind of mild in the age of superhero movies and the more traditional action movies copying the superhero movies, but it works. In some ways kind of refreshing to keep it all more grounded.

While this might be more meaningful to me as a Finn, I would assume that if you enjoy mid-budget action, this will be right up your alley (although, at 6 million euros, the budget was much lower than what would be considered midlevel in bigger markets).

There aren't many directors that I monitor closely, waiting and hoping for their next film to come out as soon as possible, but Jalmari Helander is one guy I keep track off. His long-feature debut "Rare Exports" was one of the most uniquely original and pleasantly deranged horror tales of the new century, and even his somewhat commercialized breakthrough "Big Game" (starring Samuel L. Jackson as the US President crashing with Air Force One in the Finnish woods) was a lot better and more entertaining than you'd think as well.

It took Helander nearly 8 years to return with a new film. At the Brussels' International Film Festival, where "Sisu" premiered and Helander was a guest of honor, he explained that he spent several years working on a personal dream project of his, but unfortunately it got cancelled entirely due to Covid. Out of pure frustration, or so he says, Helander wrote the script for "Sisu" in barely a couple of weeks. Well, if this near-brilliant explosion of action and sheer adrenalin is what he comes up with in a few weeks, then I sincerely hope he'll still get the chance to finish his other project.

What a film! You know those movies where all the great highlights and action-packed moments already feature in the trailer? "Sisu" has a terrific trailer too, but there are still a few hundreds of other highlights left to discover in the film. In fact, this film is a one-and-a-half-hour trailer full of awesome moments. The comparisons I've read between "Sisu" and Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Bastards" are accurate. The extreme violence and narrative structure are identical, and both films feature lots and lots of Nazis getting killed. Everybody just loves watching Nazis getting butchered in the utmost brutal and sadistic ways, is it not?

Aatami Korpi is a lone hermit digging for gold in the most northern region of Finland during the last months of WWII. When he hits the jackpot, he loads up his bag with pure gold and hopes to keep a low profile while heading back to civilization. When a platoon of Nazis finds out what he's carrying, though, they obviously want to steal it. But Korpi is not just a weak and defenseless recluse, or what did you expect? He's a force so determined and indestructible that only an obscure and local Finnish term for him exists.

Evidently (and also similar to "Inglourious Bastards"), "Sisu" requires quite some suspension of disbelief from the audience. This man has the fighting and survival skills of John Rambo, but in combination with the indestructability of a T-1000 Terminator! Whether shot at with heavy artillery or a rope, he cannot die. He remains under water for a ridiculously long time and walks away from plane crashes totally unharmed. Is it plausible? Nope. Is it entertaining? You bet! Especially when watching in a chock-full festival theater with a thousand of outrageous horror fanatics shouting at a screen. Must-see!

I watched the trailer, and that's it. I knew what to expect and I accepted it. I gave 8/10. Film was 1,5 hours and never had a boring moment. Film just went on like a German tank. Better than most recent James Bonds and closer to early Clint Eastwood westerns with silent scenes and unspoken moments. Just brilliant. The guy got beaten really bad but did not give up, even when the death is obvious, your determination "Sisu" will save the day.

Not all movies are for everyone. So it is useless to complain, same as arguing of colors, is red better than green?

Totally worth of watching and the trailer nails it pretty well. Movie has a story and it is realistic filled with some comedy and "red juice".

Heard this movie was an awesome old school action movie so checked it out, and it is good. Even if it is very over the top.

On the plus side the movie gives the audience what its been starved off. Brutal, adult action with minimal CGI. And with plenty of lines like "we're lucky he didn't kill more of us" it'll put a smile on your face if you miss 80's/90's style action.

On the negative side all the bad guys are terrible shots, and the hero is almost indestructible. Which maybe takes a bit of suspence out of the movie. Especially at the end. Much like modern superhero movies then? At least it got it half right.

At its core, "Sisu" is an unapologetic homage to the one-man-army trope, reminiscent of the over-the-top heroics found in Telugu action films. The protagonist, Aatami Korpi, is a force of nature, a man whose survival defies logic, much like the heroes who walk away from explosions unscathed. His invincibility is both the film's strength and its Achilles' heel, offering a narrative that is as indestructible as it is implausible.

Yet, amidst the chaos of its plot, "Sisu" stands tall with its stunning cinematography and special effects. The film crafts a visual feast that can only be described as mesmerizing. Each frame is a testament to the filmmakers' dedication to creating a spectacle that captivates the senses.

Sisu is about a gold miner who finds the richest of golds in an underground pit. He must trade the gold for cash to a bank. Although, he lives thousands of miles away from a bank and must travel on foot. On the way there, he encounters German Nazis along the way who want to steal it from him. He must fight throughout all of them in order to deposit his gold.

The first impressions of Sisu gave me that it was a bloody, fun, and good time of a gold miner killing Nazis. Since John Wick was heavily inspired by director, Jalmari Helander, that this movie is basically the German 1940's war version of John Wick. Jorma Tommila's (main protagonist) acting skills were badass from his creative surviving skills to kill the Nazis. The deaths were entertaining with the special effects and CGI of them. Overall, Sisu is good with its acting, kills, and story. I would recommend Sisu in theaters for a good action watch.

This was a pleasant surprise! We have Tarantino-inspired bloody action, silent and very charismatic protagonist, beautiful imaginery from actual locations in Lapland, really good soundtrack and some innovative fighting and survival scenes, and of course Finnish Sisu.

Jorma Tommila as the leading man does a phenomenal job. He has only one line in the whole movie (an instant classic), but he is acting very well just by using his face and body.

"He is not immortal, he just refuses to die."

Congratulations for the writer/director Jalmari Helander, the movie looks really good, flows forward easily and is overall very cool and original, despite the overused tropes of evil nazis and action. With just 6 million budget this looks much bigger.

Some nitpicks: the nazis speak English, even when talking with each other, which is kind of weird. But it makes sense for scenes with some Finns.

I really hope this gets much views all over the world.

Don't take the movie or events too seriously, just enjoy the ride :)

I had fun watching this, therefore, i recommend it. However, you should know that it's not remotely realistic and convincing. In fact, Superman is more vulnerable than our hero here. This doesn't look like a comedy but it feels like a comedy. At its core, this movie is pure comedy.

Pace was not very good for a 90 minutes movie. And it's shallow, everything here is shallow and naive.

But it was entertaining. Ok, suspension of disbelief is fully required in order to enjoy it. And you will enjoy it if you like this genre. Movie's hero was very likeable, you root for him all the way. Good action and fights. Well acted for sure even though these were cartoonish characters. In conclusion, it's always nice watching bad guys get slaughtered!

Finland. Such a gorgeous landscape even when war torn. It's 1944 and a rogue commander now wanders the Laplands looking for gold, oh, that precious and sweet yellow metal. The Second World War is rumbling to a noisy end, and still a reminder that it's there off in the not so far distance and occasionally it's even closer in the air overhead.

This elder and his really cool-looking dog (I want one!) search this ravaged world, just the two of them and a horse as well. Panning for riches.

This is a silent film for the first half hour or so, but where conversation may lack, the beauty of everything else on screen fills in those gaps rather nicely. (You'll think as you watch, I want to visit Finland. I want to live in Finland.) But this is the mid-1940's and there are Nazis being pushed out of the country at the moment and they are losing this war and their death-grip on this land and its' people.

This movie is told in six announced chapters. It's a gloriously short hour and a half. Tarantino's influence is heavy but more so from his Westerns than from Inglorious Basterds as one might think.

The kills are awesome. The fights are realistic and not like the choreographed dance fighting we see in most modern productions these days.

Though there is little dialogue as stated, it is told here in English and there are no subtitles.

The action sequences are breathtaking and hearten back to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I'm serious!

This is a good story and it is timeless.

A man and his dog want to live comfortably, in peace, and be left alone.

This is one of the Best Films of 2023.

This is one of the Best Films of the 2020s.

For as much as there is to like about Sisu, and there is a lot, the film does ask the viewer in equal parts to continuously suspend reality. Sisu is at its best in close quarters combat, when the fists and knives take center. The cinematography plays with the vast landscapes and camera techniques (one forced perspective shot of a tank staring down the gold prospector left me awestruck). The brisk runtime of 91 minutes ensures there aren't many lulls between Nazi blood being spilled. There is copious gore from both Nazis and our protagonist's unwilling desire to die. There are even damsels in distress.

I cannot say Sisu is exactly what I expected from the trailer, because truth be told, I wasn't expecting mimicry sequences of Mission Impossible hanging from a plane, Rambo stalking with a survival knife, or the other half dozen far-fetched antics. The film's unwilling desire to never take itself too seriously is both why it works so good, and perhaps what ultimately keeps it from being even better...

Who doesn't enjoy seeing evil Nazi's beaten to a pulp, torn limb from limb, and generally getting what they deserve? (Answer: other Nazis). Director Jalmari Helander dedicates Sisu to the art of killing goose-stepping fascists, pitting the despicable jack-booted German's against Aatami (Jorma Tommila), a hard-as-nails Finnish commando who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'quit'. After Aatami strikes gold in the wilds of Finland, he makes his way back to civilisation to cash in his hoard, but crosses paths with a Nazi platoon - and we all know that Nazis like to steal gold!!

However, trying to take Aatami's treasure proves to be a big mistake: no matter what the German's do to him, he simply won't give up until he has gold back and every last Nazi is dead. The fact that the Finnish soldier is so indestructible takes some swallowing, until it becomes clear that his nickname - The Immortal - is to be taken at face value: this bloke has more lives than a cat. Once you wrap your head around the fact that Aatami simply does not die, the film becomes all the more fun, as the enemy come to realise that taking an immortal's hard-earned riches is an even dumber move than nicking a leprechaun's pot of gold.

In terms of style, the film is very Tarantino-esque, split into 6 chapters, each introduced with a big bold title; the violence is graphic, with lots of blood and guts. There's even a group of female Finnish POWs who lend Aatami a hand in killing the baddies - and there's nowt more Tarantino than a gang of women unloading machine guns into a truck of Nazis. The ending takes the craziness up to eleven as the nastiest Nazi, Bruno (Aksel Hennie), makes his escape on a plane, unaware the Aatami has hitched a ride. The action ends with a bang for both Bruno and Aatami, but only one of them is immortal...

One might argue that the plot is slight, and the film derivative in terms of execution, but if you're after a bit of mindlessly violent popcorn entertainment and found John Wick 4 needlessly overblown and overlong, this one should do the trick: it clocks in at a far more reasonable ninety-one minutes.

Sure, it was ridonculous and fun, but this could've easily been so much better had the filmmaker spent less time with the repetitive logic-defying suspension of disbelief with the outrageous confrontations and deadly fight scenes, and focused more on a singular theme and tone for the dramatics, with expanding on the narrative - instead of plugging in pointless chapters. You can take only so much nonsense before you start thinking if this is a war parody film. A little more dialogue and character building would've also gone a long way. Even at a mere 91 min runtime and the decent pacing, there was barely a story here to make a short film, let alone 91 mins. At least the cinematography, S/VFX and gore were top-notch though. Nevertheless, an entertaining popcorn actioneer.

No need for dialogue. The protagonist tells his story through carefully choreographed movements and facial expressions. He earned a name and showed why it was deserved. Like RRR, I appreciate taking a legend or regional lore and building a new story from it.

I like the villain as well. He was believable, tough and cocky. Not sure if he improvised or directed to do the little things that stood out to me. A look here, a gesture there. I liked him.

I'm willing to suspend belief when in the cinema, but there's one glaring problem, for me. His sidekick. Especially at the very end. It doesn't compute. In all, worth the money spent, great pacing, made me feel something and great length. A minute longer would've ruined it. Yes, some suspension of belief is needed, but I loved First Blood with Sly, and the Spartacus series, so I'm loving this. 7.5 for me, but there's no decimal here.

With even the John Wick franchise now getting chock-full of complex lore, it was nice to sit down with a small-scale action thriller with toned-down stakes and gleefully destructive violence.

The silent protagonist gets a few small satisfying moments of character, and the quick runtime & simple premise kept the movie engaging and a more-than-pleasant watch.

That being said, this definitely isn't a groundbreaking piece of work by any means-it lacks the polished direction and awe-inspiring stunt work of other recent action flicks, and the writing dives too far into absurdity.

My suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far with a gritty movie like this, and this film surpassed the limit many times with implausibility piled on top of implausibility.

I liked the unpretentious, funny, and zany nature of Sisu and had a good time with it, even if it's not something special that I'll come back to.

Just watched this UK premier at Glasgow Film Theatre and sure hope it gets the full general release it deserves.

If you like your movies to motor along without the usual padding of most films nowadays... This is for you!

The main character is a cross between Clint Eastwood's man with no name from Sergio Leone's western trilogy,Big Arnie's Terminator and Jean Reno's Leon with a sprinkle of pissed off hobo thrown in for good measure.

Plenty of viceral demise of the bad guys applied with humorous aplomb.

A perfectly applied soundtrack for this particular movie genre combined with truly beautiful desolate landscapes makes for a memorable experience.

Some reviewers have mentioned the similarities with Quentin Tarantino movies, which it definitely takes a lot of its style queues from. But I would add the proviso, that the Director has just dipped back into the same movie tool bag of 70s style that Tarantino did.

All in all I will stick my neck out and say this has all the hallmarks of a cult classic,an hour and a half of pure enjoyment rarely seen in cinema nowadays,especially produced on such a budget.

Or I should have TRIED to watch the trailer...Because I guess I would not have been able to make it till the end of it...The trailer, I am sure, as any trailer, would have given me an idea of the true spirit, atmosphere of this garbage trash...This stupid, lousy piece of s.... I have rarely seen such a stupid film. It is brutal, bloody, but it is smooth actually, because the victims are people whom the story shows as beasts: Nazis...Oh what a surprise, what an unusual thing.... Evil Nazis !!!!So what the use to show Nazis being exploded, turn to pieces, wiped out.... It is gritty, riveting, when it is quetion of "normal" folks, see? Then it grabs your guts, it shocks you, then it is really a hit in the face.... The same with the nearly final RAMBO film series JOHN RAMBO, when Stallone kills all the bad guys with a 12, 7mm machine gun.... It did not excited me, nor amused me. I prefered one million times, and still do, THE WILD BUNCH final shoot out, mostly because you already like the characters, feel empathy for them. No, really, forget this SISU junk. Whoever you are, I am sure you deserve better than this crap.

I'm not sure but i believe this film is loosely based on the Finnish sniper Simo Hayha, "the white death". Or at least the protagonists back story.

I'll keep it short and sweet. If you like rough action and satisfying villain deaths, watch it. It's grimm and hard. There is not a whole lot of dialogue in the movie. I think it's not until the very end of the movie that the hero speaks. It's well filmed with beautiful shots at times and the score fits well.

That being said, it's at the end where it all goes off the rails for me. There is some stuff that happens with an airplane which is just ridiculous. It's a bit of a shame because it was not necessary for me for the movie to have such a fast and furious style end sequence.

I enjoyed it but yeah... that end bit just didn't do it for me.

The movie is an exciting and captivating adventure, with stunning natural landscapes mixed with electrifying action scenes and lovable characters. It's got a funny and heartwarming storyline that celebrates Finnish culture and resilience, all while giving off a unique testosterone vibe. Helander proves once again to be one of Finland's most talented directors, creating a movie that'll satisfy fans of all ages with its story of inner strength and perseverance, spiced up with some adventure, humor, and a whole lot of testosterone.

What sets Sisu apart from other movies, though, is the unique testosterone vibe that it exudes. It's a celebration of what it means to be a man, with themes of inner strength and perseverance woven throughout the narrative. Helander is truly a master of his craft, and his direction of Sisu is proof of this. It's no wonder that he's considered one of the most talented directors in Finland.

Quirky is an understatement.

I spent a bit of time deliberating of this one. Did I like it, yes or no, was it any good yes or no?

In the end I fell on the positive side to the scales.

I was entertained (eventually) which I guess it the aim of the game.

It took a while to get there though.

I ws taking the film a little too seriously at first so I was finding the movie frustrating, once I changed my approach to the movie and took it for the absurdity that it is then I started to enjoy it.

So the first half of the movie is a bit of a dud but the second half I felt was much better and had some slightly classic scenes :)

The opening scene with the geographic map along with the narration of the war was a good introduction into this movie. The cinematography was very nice. There were a selection of wide shots and picturesque landscapes as the main character navigated the land. I enjoyed the colors of this film that added to the grittiness of the action taking place.

The film was broken down into chapters which I thought was fine but wasn't really necessary considering there were only a limited amount of characters all following the same plot line. There wasn't much of a story to this film. Basically a guy who wants no part of the Nazi war encounters some Nazi's that want to take his gold. He fights them in order to survive and keep his gold. While that story is simple it would have worked much better if there was more character development. Perhaps starting the film off showing how the main character lived before the war. A backstory into his life with some flashbacks maybe. There just wasn't any thought put into who this man was aside from the fact that he was dangerous and people knew of him.

The look of all the characters was well done. The part of the Nazi leader was well acted and he had the look of a villain. He had the most dialogue in the film contrary to the main character who barely said a word until the end.

The action in this movie was good but it was very much on the unrealistic side of things. The main character was basically indestructible to the point where it felt like he was Superman. Once again this could have worked better if he was given a backstory of somehow possessing superpowers. But since we were made to believe that he was just a human with special skills/ training it was a bit of an eye rolling experience.

If you can go into this film expecting unbelievable action sequences then you'll be entertained enough for an hour and a half.

It feels like a spaghetti western with John Wick kind of violent action without the intrigue those films offer. The performances and action are really good but there's something lacking in the whole thing and it really feels like stretching out a small story even at 90 minutes. The protagonist who barely speaks and doesn't waste any words unnecessarily reminded me of the Westerns but his being disillusioned by war was apparently inspired more by First Blood. The way it is kind of a chase with captive women makes it a little similar to Fury Road, but the themes barely feel like scratching the surface. There are no characters only one-dimensional sketches and even though they use slow motions and music to show what they want you to feel, it just doesn't feel powerful enough for that one dimension either.

Then there's also the use of English by characters when it isn't needed. If everyone did use English it would've made more sense but they included just a single scene towards the end where they speak Finnish which makes the use of English throughout the movie very weird.

Even with all these problems, it does deliver some nice action sequences and build them up properly. Most of these are already shown in the trailer which affected my expectations but it was still a nice movie.