MOVIE REVIEW: SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE

 

Korpi dismantles the house where his family was murdered and loads it on a truck to rebuild it somewhere safe. He soon finds himself in a violent cross-country chase as the Red Army commander who killed his family comes back to finish the job.

Director: Jalmari Helander

Cast: Jorma Tommila, Richard Brake, Stephen Lang

Release Date: November 21, 2025

Genre: Action, War

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language

Runtime: 1h 28m

Review:

Jalmari Helander's Sisu: Road to Revenge, his follow up to his 2022 original, ups the ante on the over-the-top grindhouse carnage by taking it to a cartoonish level of excess that's as lean as it is bloody.  Helander gleefully delivers another barebones story packed with massive action set pieces that get increasingly insane and nonsensical as the film goes on.  While his original film was more grounded and self-serious, this entry possesses a wry sense of humor that takes a minute to take hold.  The film plays like a bloody mashup of The Passion of the Christ in the form of a Looney Toons war movie which makes for an interesting experience to say the least.  The film throws out any semblance of logic in order to deliver some of the crazier action sequences in recent memory.  At the center of it all is the eternally stoic and driven Jorma Tommila who returns as the bloodied and battered Aatami Korpi.  Tommila just exudes intensity throughout while never uttering a single word of dialogue.  It’s another fascinating turn for Tommila in this role as he's again able to communicate so much emotion via facial expressions, something on full display in the last moments of the film where the character finally lets his guard down.  Stephen Lang serves as the primary antagonist in this entry, a role he's perfectly suited to his talents.  The role, much like the story, isn't terribly deep but Lang is menacing enough to serve as a perfect foil to Tommila's vengeful Korpi.  The film would have been well served to have given their relationship a bit more time to breathe so that you get a real sense of the animosity between the two before the final showdown.  Alas, Sisu: Road to Revenge doesn't concern itself with story or characters all that much which keeps it from being something truly special.  

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 1

 

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple is forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.

Director: Renny Harlin

Cast: Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Richard Brake, Ema Horvath

Release Date: May 17, 2024

Genre: Horror

Rated R for horror violence, language and brief drug use

Runtime: 1h 31m

Review:

The Strangers Chapter 1 is a tired retread of the original film which offers little intrigue for the already completed next two Chapters which leaves you wondering why a prequel exists or even necessary.  Renny Harlin is a capable director, but this film is terribly bland from start to finish, leaving it a lifeless experience.  It doesn't help that the film never delivers any sort of tangible tension or scares.  It’s all entirely predictable with the victim doing some truly stupid things throughout which might have more than a few people rooting for the killers.  Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez do the best they can with the material they've given as the couple being terrorized.  They have decent chemistry together, but their characters are so terribly stereotypically written that there's very little to the character that makes them interesting or engaging.  Once the main action gets going, Petsch does show some strong potential as a scream queen with a believable sense of playing terrorized paired with an impressive scream.  It’s a shame its wasted on this uninspired opening entry in the coming trilogy which might make more sense once everything has been released.  As a standalone film, The Strangers Chapter 1 doesn't offer anything new to the franchise which gives the "Why are you doing this to us?  Because you were *here*" exchange near the end of the film a weird sort of meta context that could be applied to the audience.

D-