A sleeper hit in 2022, Jalmari Helander’s “Sisu” was a cartoonish, dirty adrenaline rush for action fans, much like the OG “Mad Max” decades earlier. This particular comparison becomes even more apt with the arrival of “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” in which Jorma Tommila’s seemingly invincible protagonist must battle countless villains at high speed on various means of transportation.
Bigger isn’t necessarily better, and this larger-scale sequel almost inevitably lacks some of the freshness that made the original such a kick. Still, the director’s undeniable talent for gleefully excessive chaos and propulsive pacing will more than satisfy those who loved its predecessor. Its relatively meager and average progress seems especially welcome after so many recent screen-based thrill rides that have delivered much less punch for much greater length and cost.
Last time, decommissioned Finnish army commando Aatami Korpi (Tommila) only wanted to stay put at the end of World War II. Alas, finding gold in the Lapland tundra awakened the greed of the Nazi forces who set out without any idea who they were attacking: a “one-man death squad” who had already claimed the lives of many Russians in uniform after Soviet forces killed his family during the brief but brutal “Winter War” of 1940. His revenge was sweet, bloody and spectacularly over-the-top.
This time, the protagonist in his sixties, in great shape, is encountered in 1946, when the world conflict is now officially over. He drives a huge truck to his former home which, thanks to the redrawing of borders, is now on Russian territory. He plans to dismantle it, then reassemble it in what remains of Finland. But the Soviet authorities have not forgotten that this “legend” alone wiped out more than 300 of their soldiers.
Red Army officer Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang) is released from a Siberian prison – where he is being held for committing countless needless wartime atrocities – by a KBG bigwig (Richard Brake) to ensure that Aatami never sees Finnish soil again. The two adversaries are ideally suited, in that Korpi knows the other brutally murdered his wife and sons, while Draganov won’t feel like he’s truly finished the job until his father is dead as well.
This setup takes about 10 minutes, after which it’s one dynamic sequence after another: Aatami manages to escape an initial roadblock-ambush, then attack by a phalanx of motorcyclists, followed by fighter planes equipped with machine guns. After a brief aquatic interlude, there is an extended climax aboard a train speeding back to Siberia, carrying myriad armed Soviets and a bloodied and chained prisoner. Needless to say, the odds of survival are stacked against the poor Russians, of course.
Divided into six titled “chapters,” these episodes are mostly standouts in terms of directing, stunts, and CGI. Sometimes the violence is so intense that we don’t really know what just happened. And even within the established limits of suspended disbelief, a few jaw-dropping escapes are absurd, notably the one where Aatami forces a tank to do mid-air acrobatics to get over a barrier.
As entertaining as it is, such madness is not as well supported by a dark comedy thread as in the first “Sisu.” You could also say that there’s a little too much focus on the general nausea here, as the manliest man in the Far North frequently appears to be extracting bullets and other objects from his lacerated flesh. (Spending the last half hour or so bleeding in his underwear in freezing weather doesn’t seem to bother him at all.)
But Tommila’s turn retains a certain degree of flinty humor, even a certain warmth – even if he never has a single word to say. Lang’s expletive-riddled speech makes up most of the dialogue. While Draganov isn’t the most distinctive villain role he’s ever attempted, he nevertheless fills his place well, receiving a particularly explosive outing as a reward. Brake’s role is brief, while the other actors provide nothing more than cannon fodder. The canine performer playing the protagonist’s Bedlington terrier disappears for a while, into one of the many minor, if notable, holes in Helander’s script that are best simply walked through.
Filmed largely in Estonia, “Sisu: Road to Revenge” is muscular rather than seductive in most aspects, from Mika Orasma’s widescreen cinematography to the physical design contributions. The fairly standard action emphasis of Juri Seppa and Tuomas Wainola’s original score takes on an idiosyncratic flavor via passages of spaghetti-Western-style throat singing and whistling. The English version reviewed contains a bit of subtitled Finnish speech towards the end; a separate Finnish edition is also being published.
