Simply A Masterpiece

Fresh and Exciting

Captivating movie !

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It may irritate Finnish viewers by its un-Finnishness, perhaps it was intended by the creators. I guess they were trying to appeal to American and wider Europe and, in my view, they succeeded. This movie may particularly appeal by its unamerican flavour to the audiences used to American movies. The father of the boys comes across as quite a menacing character who at the end gets what he deserves. A bit simple but don't expect any depth from this movie. It is though based on a true story doesn't make an impression to be "real" It is just pure entertainment. Not each of the boys is equally well developed as a character but the main the youngest one, who has a separate story line, falling in love, is OK.

I saw the film "Pahat pojat" on television for the first time on 14th December, 2005. It is a story about four boys who do not drink or smoke but who have committed nearly 100 robberies. These boys are known as "Daltons of Eura". I found the movie great - a little action, human relation and even religion. I felt relatively uncomfortable when watching the scene where the father of the boys (role played by Loiri) kills a police dog that was sent to catch the young men by the police after they had been caught red-handed. However, the brothers succeeded to escape and the one who was caught up by the Alsatian could actually tame it and it became the boys' pet. For some time. The father, Jouko, probably isn't very human in this film (well, he suffers from mental illness) but still I felt sorry for him in the end where he is killed when the Volvo explodes. I felt a little bit sorry too somewhere in the middle of the movie as Jouko visits the grave of his deceased spouse. My Dad happened to watch the film as well and he thought it is of quite high standard for a domestic motion picture. =)

As I'm having a week of Finnish movies, I also watched this one. And I must say it was a way better than I expected (and I did expect a decent movie), actually it's the best Finnish movie I've seen on this special week of mine.With all its well played and thus believable characters and their dialogs, an above average story, great camera work and the lack of stamps and cheap one-liners it surely is a great film experience. I totally enjoyed the beginning and other parts concerning the father - though those scenes with their garbled filming and darker tones, background voices and echoes were more suitable for a horror movie and they weren't well balanced with the rest of it.The usage of Finnish-only music was a good call as well.I totally recommend it.

When you take off the nice explosions and the "this is based on a true story but we just don't admit it"-attitude this doesn't give much.There are all the basic elements of a film here, but the story telling as a whole just doesn't work. I guess they haven't heard about timing when doing this film, it's just action from the beginning to the end. No climax, no peaceful scenes. Just when you think you can really concentrate on the characters they throw some action on the screen again. It suffocates the relations between people and gives very one-sided view of the characters.The action is mostly like "hey we could do this and this" and I found most of it unnecessary. There are also good things in this film though. It was partially filmed in my home town and it's always nice to see some places you know well. Also the director Aleksi Mäkelä's father showed in two or three scenes. The boys had trained their muscles very well and looked good. If I had been turned on by those sixpacks I would probably have gotten much more out of this film. Vesa-Matti Loiri was ok.Aleksi Mäkelä has made some attempts to make a big budget action film in Finland and this film is a good practice ground, but it doesn't convince me yet. Hope he will some day make something really thrilling and new, not just average material mostly copied from Hollywood action films. It was also a bit fun to see Finnish businessmen, known of very different relations, producing the film. This is not only a film, it is also an investment. If I had to describe this with one sentence I would probably say: Finnish big budget action films have come and succeeded. Go watch it if you like but don't expect too much.