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15 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Fine Finnish crime story, 12 September 2005 Author: Lenitas from Germany
"Vares" was shown during Germany's "Fantasy Filmfest" - an international film festival of fantasy, horror and film noir - and I got to watch it. I'd been looking forward to seeing a Finnish movie with English subtitles rather than the other way round (yes, I'm easy to please sometimes) but in addition to being Finnish, the movie is also QUITE good! I didn't find anything to complain about, be it the acting, soundtrack or conversations. I had a good laugh, so did my friends, and the audience applauded in the end.The movie is exciting/tense, funny, well-paced, has some heavy action without being too violent, and you just have to love the characters.I don't know whether this was a one timer, since there are more Vares books, I hope they produce a sequel some time in the future.
14 out of 21 people found the following review useful: A detective story- finish style!, 13 September 2004 Author: LG rules
Aleksi Mäkelä, the director of excellent Häjyt and Pahat pojat, offers us an hour and a half of great and stylish entertainment. The title character Vares (Juha Veijonen) is a finish detective who sets out to help a woman named Eeva (Laura Malmivaara)in her dangerous pursuit for Russian mobs money. Based on the book of finish novelist Reijo Mäki, this movie really boasts on great characters. Vares himself is a good guy, mostly hanging in his favourite pub with his boozing buddy Luusalmi (Markku peltola) in his spare time. A Mäkelä regular Samuli Edelmann portraits a tough cop working on both sides of the law. Then there's the hilarious killer duo Hillosilmä- Munck and Tetsuo Sinkkonen played by Pekka Valkeejärvi and Kari Hietalahti. Director Jari Halonen is surely one the most devilish criminal in finish movie history as lurid Karl E. Miesmann. Good supporting cast also include Minna Turunen, Jorma Tommila and Santeri Kinnunen. Not just a detective story, but also a black comedy and good old fashioned action movie as well this one's probably the finest pop-culture movie made in Finland in 2004. Good work, keep on rockin' guys!
19 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Best Finnish actionmovie of all times, 29 July 2004 Author: tonywerner (tonywerner1969@hotmail.com) from Finland
I have read all "Vares"-books by Reijo Mäki and I'm a huge fan. When I heard that there will be movie about Vares and Juha Veijonen will portray him, I was excited. The movie was not a disappointment. Story follows quite exactly the book, but one thing makes me wonder. The jokes from the book were dismissed and screenwriter Pekka Lehtosaari has written a whole bunch of new ones. Well, maybe that's not bad at all. Anyway, the characters are marvelous - never before in Finnish movie has been so many superious characters - and casting for them just fantastic. Especially Jari Halonen as ruthless Miesmann and Kari Hietalahti as half finnish/half Japanese hit-man Tetsuo Sinkkonen. And of course Juha Veijonen in the title-role. Laura Malmivaara is also fantastic - as are almost every actor in this movie. Aleksi Mäkelä is number one action-director of Finland and he won't let us down this time around. The soundtrack is also fine. I'll give VARES 9/10.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Good detective tale, 20 March 2007 Author: tomimt from Finland
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Vares (Juha Veijonen) is a private eye, who besides boozing tries to look for some lady company, so he could booze some more and chew fat whit his happy alcoholic friends. One day, when he's at military exercise campaign he meets a woman named Eeva (Laura Malmivaara) and gets smitten a bit. But the lady is engaged elsewhere and she soon disappears from his life until a phone rings and soon after that Vares notices, that Eeva is mixed in a jailbreak of a notorious criminal Kraft (Jorma Tommila).Vares is actually quite good detective story with some good action and great characters. Sadly enough though some of the characters are left so badly in the background, that you soon start to think were they even necessary. The actors are the best Finland has to offer. Every A-list start of Finnish cinema is represented on the screen, which is good, as they nicely fill out the flaws of the script, such as pretty bland dialog.The directing is good enough, but the editing is a bit choppy in some places, but there's no bigger problems to stop you enjoying the movie.
10 out of 48 people found the following review useful: Pretty crappy, 18 July 2005 Author: SPaS (ronroer@hotmail.com) from Espoo, Finland
This film insists on hooking into everything that is wrong with Finnish cinema today and dragging them behind. It would really be easier to tell what they happened to get right with this movieediting and cinematography a total of 1 joke(s). Has to do with an 'adult' chocolate candy. And that's itDoes film school make you stupid? When there are like dozens or a hundred people working weeks and months on a rather big project, doesn't anyone, I mean ANYONE of them see that something is horribly wrong? Who the heck greenlighted that... that "script" in the first place!? Worthy a razzle, and on top of that the acting is so-so, 90% of the characters are stupid (stolen from better American films) and so on. A movie about a private eye that lacks suspense and especially ACTION. Not sure if there was a point though, cause I had a hard time sitting it through as it was, let alone start THINKING about it.Mr. Selin, Mr Mäkelä - stick to dramas if you don't once in a blue moon dare to try some SERIOUS man-to-men-combats, gunplay, explosions, car chases, wrestling with sharks and avalanches. I understand that to you they must be "subversive over-commercial and over-used Hollywood double cheese" because you try hard to be a "serious film-maker in the best traditions of the man-oriented intelligent high-brow European cinema" but hey, look who's making box office? Hint: financially back up those guys who made the straight-to-DVD "Ukkonen" a few years back. Minus the idiot director of course. See what happens. Here's a suggestion for the title and a taglineONE MILLION SQUIBS "Plot? What plot?"
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