jussipekkaturunen Reviews

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

A really good movie

[8/10 · 1 June 2024]

I enjoyed this movie from the beginning to the end. This movies shouldn't be compared to Fury Road since it's composed completely different way. Fury Road is completely all about the action and this is mix of lore and action. Both of the movies works excellent on their own field. However, I can't really give like 9 or 10 since there are some clumsy moments in the movie. I feel that the editing is not so great from time to time as it feels like there are some small pieces missing between scenes. This doesn't occur always but on some cases. I also felt little bit of disappointing that there was lack of music in some scenes.

This movie totally shines on giving coherent complete story arc of Furiosa. It occurerd to me how perfectly seamless the whole story from little Furiosa to adult Furiosa was in the movie. A character who is completely driven by revenge. This kind of almost perfect story arc is rather rare occasion in movies. Especially nowadays. I felt that the scope of the movie, as in what details it shows from the world of Mad Max, is done extremely well. Everything in that sense clicks perfectly well.

One of the rare movies which I went to see multiple times in the cinema.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Part one worked better for me

[6/10 · 28 February 2024]

I liked the overall pacing of things much better in the first part. I can compare pretty well because I watched the first part night before the second part. First half is filled with dialogue, then second half is very rushed. Ironically, I think this movie works much better on small screen than on IMAX, where I saw this. Just because there is so much dialogue and actually not that much of visually impressive scenes which would work better on IMAX.

Feels like they used the time in less important places. Sardukan are suddenly poor cannon fodder instead of empires finest fighters. Paul and his savvy mates taking suddenly harvesters with gadgets they just suddenly happen to have. Nothing is explained via moving pictures. Not anything like how they organize the strikes against Harkonen or how they happen to have weapons of different variety and so on. Things just happen. Suddenly just because it's conventional Paul walks to different places without virtually any kind of resistance or drama just so that he can convey some lines which should be meaningful for the viewer. As it was in the first part, they don't really show the view of Harkonens. I liked the dynamic between the Harkonen baron and Rabban in the first movie, even though that they did gave very little of time for that side of the story in the first part, but they give even less time in this movie.

I expected at least something to really stand out in a production of this scale but nothing really stands out. Not writing, not actor performances, not music, nothing. The movie is kind of nice to see how things developed from the first part but that's pretty much it. That's why for me this movie is 6/10.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

Embarrassing movie

[4/10 · 6 December 2023]

This one was seriously poor movie. Everything is either poorly done or then very overacted, over dramatic and pompous. Starting from acting, to costumes, to special effect, writing, everything, it was either poor or mediocre. It felt like I was watching an over length episode of a lousy stream series which is cancelled after the first season due to poor view ratings. Then some extra things like musical style singing to reflect the story with dramatic fashion was totally overacting and way too overdramatic. Just an example of weird decision to add extra drama into the movie. Everything felt so out of the place.

Other reviews have also mentioned that the scenes were loosely connected. I also felt it was like that. Not to mention that it was very difficult to follow what really this movie is about. The story is so confusing. I had no idea after the movie that what the districts are there fore, what is the Capitol, what are these mean looking soldiers and how they fit into the concept of Capitol, what these hungergames are really for and so on. The amount of open questions was like vast. Then the sheer amount of talking with completely meaningless dialogue. Oh my God.

After the second part, the movie is split into parts by the way, I was completely lost that what the story in the movie is actually all about. Then some story lines are concluded with super lame fashion. Just suddenly something is happening just for some reason to kill the characters so that the storyline can be concluded.

This kind of movie makes me really think that how the movie industry is going so wrong with big budget movies. Somehow I believe that at 80s or 90s with this budget, people at the industry would had made something way much better. In this movie, there is virtually nothing spectacular, nothing to see explicitly at the cinema. This movie is a total filler into stream service catalog what you may watch into some point at home and then just close the movie because it's so lousy. Maybe stream services are killing the cinema industry inside out. Who knows...

Gran Turismo (2023)

Flat as a pancake

[3/10 · 28 August 2023]

3 stars only because of David Harbour's performance. Otherwise, I don't know if you can call this piece even a movie. It's such an oddball. It's like sequence of 5-10 second moving picture clips without any kind of interesting connection between the clips. This picture misses everything what I would expect from a movie. Drama is flat as a pancake. Virtually all the characters, all the happenings in the movie are meaningless. Action scenes are really lousy. LeMans 66 is like a masterpiece compared to this. The movie just jumps all the time to different scenes and brings very little of information about the main character and how he is developing from zero to hero. And that should be the point of this movie. A zero to hero movie. But it's not that. It's totally uninteresting commercial movie.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Animation big time

[8/10 · 23 August 2023]

I'm not super fancy about video game movies (don't actually know if TNMT was first comic and then the video game) but I gave this a shot since it didn't look like a cut scene movie (hello, super mario bros) and because of positive critic reviews.

I must say that the movie looked splendid. It felt like a real old school 2D animation movie, instead of a look alike from Pixar catalog, but not something directly from 80s with bright pastel colors. I was really impressed about the level of expression and animation technique.

The story was ok for my taste for the first half of the movie but after the midpoint to the end it started to have a bit of too many different turns. It felt like that they just need to keep everything together and conclude some way two story line paths.

Post credit scene hints a possible sequel. I really hope they keep the same style but refine the story writing.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Tom Cruise show

[6/10 · 17 July 2023]

It's a decent cinema movie, preferable to watch from iMax screen. Kind of movie that I wouldn't bother to watch at home. As an cinema experience, the movie works. It's big, loud and looks and sounds good, but that's pretty much it. To be honest, anything above rating 6 is overrated for this movie.

The movie has way too many let downs for any better rate. Action scenes aren't executed that well. To be honest, they are clumsy. Way too many coincidences which saves the character. There isn't actually any thrilling bits in action scenes which would stand out from the movie. The biggest missed opportunity was the car chase. The idea was hilarious. Old fiat 500 upgraded with electric motors. Super cool shout out to old-meets-new technology. But the execution of the car chase? Nah, wasn't nearly as good as it should had. This movies would had really benefit kind of director from John Wick 4. That movie executed the action scenes almost perfectly. Most of the action scenes in this movie was just lame. The whole train act felt really almost like a random thing that as just added there for reason why not. Tom Cruise motorcycle stunt, wasn't totally worth of the hype. The issue with the stunt was the execution.y. With probability of 1 to million he hits the target with the jump and without any shred of a thrill if the stunt goes wrong or he misses the target. Also what happened after the jump, was probably worst part of the movie. Super agent just happens to lose the thing he's most after which then leads to final action scene on the top of the train. There were just too many good coincidences in the movie.

Why it feels like Tom Cruise has some issues with female actors and the characters they portray. Some of the scenes with Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson, which should tell that Ilsa and Ethan starts to get fond of each other and really cares of each other, looks so artificial. Almost like they would run a relationship in real life where they have agreed, that hey let's just act this thing out. The execution of that relationship in the movie made me almost facepalm. Virtually two scenes with some really odd cuddling things from kindergarten which should tell us that these two really care about each other? Oh my god. The hugging scene looked like it's the last thing Rebecca Ferguson would really want to do. And it's not only that. Also connection to other characters is super artificial. Which is ironic, since the whole point of the movie is about caring and trusting to people which are closest to you. The exact same thing happened with Top Gun: Maveric and that made me think if it's ego of Tom Cruise and that if he wants it's him who really should be noted at the movie and rest it's just there.

Also the plot from Top Gun: Maveric has another similarity with this movie. Which is the faceless enemy. I really wonder why to repeat the same thing in this movie? Tom Cruise believes faceless enemy and that there's something evil out there who just wants to destroy us. Oh my God. This movie would had totally benefit from bunch of characters that clearly are behind of this thing and then with some reason why they are actually doing that. Or then, if the thing is with self developing computer program that wants to control just because it's programmed that way, then the movie should be clear about that. Now there is just some thing called the Entity which is doing things just because the thing is the Entity. Oh my God. This movies really had issues to convey believable villain..

The final act where Gabriel, the villain, shouts "Ethaaaan!" was yet again another facepalm. Total random thing from a character you least would think to act that way. It was embarrassing. Like, what were they thinking? Lets take the last credibility out of the character which had issues with credibility in the first place. Another oh my God.

So in overall: mediocre action scenes, poor relationships between star act and side act with really poor writing, silly plot, unconvincing story with unconvincing coincidences at the scenes. So how somebody can give this better than 6?

Cairo Conspiracy (2022)

An excellent movie

[9/10 · 9 April 2023]

This movie totally surprised me of how good it was. I had virtually no expectations for the movie. I didn't read any reviews or haven't seen any trailers about the movie. I actually went to see it because the title sounded interesting and other movies about Muslim world recently has been really good. Such as Holy Spider and Ballad of a White Cow. I'm really happy I went to see this because it was actually all I wanted from a movie. Captivating and holds from beginning to the end so that you don't think anything else. You just want to see what's going to happen next.

I really don't know how much the movie reflects reality in Egypt. And doesn't even matter. I learned something new about Muslim world and the movie was super interesting to follow.

Piggy (2022)

Cruel movie, but fascinating to follow

[7/10 · 12 December 2022]

From technical point of view, the movie is probably 6 stars movie. However, the movie does small and little things right and it does the basic stuff right. After the final act, it almost feels like I want to give it 8 because the movie concludes everything what is required considering what the movie gives at the first act. Story gets captivating to follow that what is going to happen next. It's actually brilliant in that sense.

The movie is cruel in places but I suppose that it is the purpose of the movie and thus it delivers what it's expected. What comes to violence or gore, I think that it's managed very well. Not too little or not too much but good balance in right places.

Laura Galan (Sara) makes actually superb performance. She plays her part very well and I think she manages to kind of trick the viewer by the end of the movie. Too bad that the villain is not that convincing since it's almost like a the beauty and the beast kind of story. I also did like Carmen Machi (Sara's mother). She plays her part very well. I think she actually turns some things in the movie to comedy but at the same time she's very convincing.

The movie would be totally 8 starts or even 9 with a little bit of bigger budget and little bit of refinement in the overall production. Go and see it.

Emily (2022)

Should had been 30 min shorter

[7/10 · 4 December 2022]

At the beginning, like let's say the first half an hour was promising. I was actually expecting to see more about Emily's creative work or where she got ideas for the novels and what was her work process of writing the novels. Really pity that it turned into rather naive Bold & Beautiful kind of drama. As if the boat would have had suddenly turned around that "hey, we actually want to show this instead of that". The relationship what Emily had with her brother and her lover had way too much weight and that actually made the movie boring. I think shorter cut would have done a service for the movie. For my taste, there were things that could have left out from the movie for viewer to consider if certain things happened or not. Maybe that kind of things end up to the movie to make the movie more appealing for the younger viewers.

I really liked Emma Mackey's performance. That was the best part of the movie.

Bones and All (2022)

What a pointless movie

[5/10 · 4 December 2022]

Really hard to say even a one thing what I consider good in the movie. Let's say the story at the first third was captivating and it actually gave me high hopes for the rest of the movie. Unfortunately, after the first third everything got kind of pointless. People got killed here and there, that didn't invoke much of dynamics that would have had an impact to the story. Couple of characters were introduced, same thing, didn't matter. They were just to there to look canny and cool and throw couple of lines. Then finally the whole Romea & Julia act was a total pancake. The final conclusion for the movie was totally odd. Almost like if the whole point of the movie was that small relationship between the two characters. Even the whole cannibal thing by the end was totally meaningless. Oh my God. Yet again, another movie for my watch & forget list.

See How They Run (2022)

Thanks to Ronan, she makes the movie a comedy

[7/10 · 23 October 2022]

I gave the movie 7 just because I actually did how it looks and sounds. To be honest, I think the movie is actually top-most 6 stars movie. Or even 5. Everything in the movie seems to be rather flat. No really interesting dynamic between characters. Comedy depends pretty much on solely Ronan. The story is actually a mess. Good that Ronan manages to deliver her character and it's actually she how manages to keep the movie in comedy. Rest of the cast, they are there to do their thing but that's it and that's the issue. The movie almost cries for better dynamic between Soppard and Stalker. The issue is not Ronan but Rockwell. It just looks like that it doesn't click completely between the actors. Maybe it's due to writing or directing, I don't know. For me it did look like that Ronan throws herself better in to the character than Rockwell.

Whatever comes to the story and how it's delivered, it's bit of a mess. It was rather hard to follow how the investigation is actually going and how they come the conclusion about the murdered. Also, the final act does look like that it's really hastily put together. A molotov coctail to rescue the heroes? That was probably the worst scene in the movie. Also swearing and shooting was so totally out of the place for this kind of movie. The movie so desperately cried for a proper ending instead of this. There is probably some connection to works of Christie Agatha which I should perhaps know in order to get most out of the movie.

Anyways, really pity that it turned out to be only a decent watch&forget movie.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

OK until the last act

[6/10 · 18 October 2022]

The movie was enjoyable follow until like the midpoint. For me it did look like that the movie got little bit of lost that what it tries to explain to the viewer. Until the midpoint, it did look like the movie is almost all about the djinn and its background. Very little was actually told about Binnie, the character that finds the djinn. After the midpoint, which I believe is then the last act, feels very unbelievable. The movie never gives a good reason why Swinton's character Binnie actually does the decision which the whole last act is then about. I really did like all the mini stories about the origins of the djinn and how the djinn end up to the place where Binnie eventually found the djinn. The movie had perfect change to be very dramatic, but I think they really didn't use the opportunity at all. Which is really pity because that is the thing what the movie was missing all the time. Also, the connection between Binnie and the djinn is very thin. Lol, even one of the mini stories manage to create deeper connection between the djinn and its owner. To sum it up, watch and forget.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Surprisingly good

[7/10 · 26 September 2022]

I really did like the movie. I actually was expecting some, say 5 /10, jumpscare movie with the most used story where some villain is hunting poor young people one by one and then last minute save for one of the bravest character. Luckily, it turned out to be something totally different. And what that different is, you have to watch and see it.

I think the movie is actually very heavily based on the dialogue, which I found really clever. If you don't really get the dialogue or you miss the point of the dialogue, you probably miss all the fun in the movie. For me it did look like that anything that happens in the movies is actually a result of the dialogue. I personally did like the approach in the movie and for me it did work really well.

I kind of understand some of the 4/10 reviews where people have had some expectations regarding the genre and in that context the movie hasn't just worked for them. I think that as a production, the movie is actually really well done. Probably one of my favorite A24 production in a while.

I would even go as high as 8/10 but the last act was a small let down for me. Not really because what happened at the last act but more like that it missed some really good high peak of the movie. It wasn't just so juicy as other acts in the movie. There are some really good use of music and sound effects and some nifty camera work that requires a theater. I don't expect the movie work so well at home with a TV.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Interesting until midpoint

[7/10 · 24 September 2022]

The movie was interesting to follow until midpoint. For my taste, the gave too much screen time and weight on action sequences from midpoint to the end of the movie.

Action sequences at the middle of the movie was okay, not anything spectacular. You see better on James Bond movies, and they are actually rather mediocre. The last act of the movie was kind of wrap up to the story and it's actually really poorly done. Couple of fighters here and there, somebody missing a shot, somebody making a last-minute save. Vader talking to himself at the fighter, oh my God. Yet again, you can see more interesting disarm-the-bomb-until-it's-too-late scene on a James Bond movie. Oh yeah, and Luke learning how to flight on X-Wing and how to use its weapon system. Little bit of unbelievable. But on the other hand, it's total fantasy-scifi film where virtually anything is possible. Speaking about anything is possible, where I have heard that one?

I would have appreciated if there had been more weight on introducing rebel and empire as factions and roles in the factions of two main characters, Vader and Leia.

Besides the story, everything is really solid, music, filming, acting. And what comes to acting, people sitting on fighters and talking to themself is not particularly interesting. That's why the last scene was total disappointment.

Don't Worry Darling (I) (2022)

A solid movie

[7/10 · 23 September 2022]

I had virtually no expectations for this movie. I haven't seen the trailer, I haven't read ay reviews, all I did know was that it features Florence Pugh, which is why I went to see the movie.

Overall, I'd say it's a solid movie. Everything kind of works. The plot was interesting, and I think there wasn't really plot holes. It has an end for the thing it introduced and it kind of wrap things nicely. I think it's a movie that is worth to see at the cinema.

In my opinion, the plot could had been a little bit riskier. Say more scifi-thriller than how it eventually was. There was little bit of too much of going back and forth repeating same thing, when the movie would have been much better with more straightforward approach. Like, let just things roll forward, for example like The Thing.

By the way, I think the title and the poster is kind of silly. I think it doesn't match with the movie at all.

Anyways, all in all, I was pleased.

Ballad of a White Cow (2020)

Interesting movie

[8/10 · 11 August 2022]

I believe the movie tries to make a message about the irreversible consequence of execution penalty by court system and how it eventually destroys life on rather large scale, not just life of the prisoner, but also life of the relatives of the prisoner and also life of the people who are serving the court system.

I really did like the plot in the movie. It is mainly conveyed via dialogue which was enjoyable to follow. You can guess in some point what the final act is going to be. Once you realize that, it is actually really interesting to follow how things evolve to the conclusion.

Good movie. Give it a change.

One interesting notion during the movie. I think it has only one music track which is played only once at the movie.

The Innocents (2021)

An excellent movie

[8/10 · 14 April 2022]

I am surprised if another horror movie tops this experience this year. From the first minute of the movie until the last minute of the movie, I was all the time very keen to see that what the movie shows next.

There was almost nothing that I didn't particularly like. Everything just seems to work really well. The movie is pretty much carried by children and it works very well. They are directed well and they manage to give what is required from them. All the adults acts side characters where one or two of them are more important considering the plot. Very minimalistic use of special effects, and I think it works really well. Special effects are used where they really brings some value for the movie and those few moments where special effects are used, they are made with good quality. Scenery is small scope. I believe it's couple of shooting locations at the same suburb area in the whole movie and couple of different apartments. Nothing bad in that, like everything else, it just works.

What I really like is that the movie just presents things and concentrates on that. It doesn't even try to explain the happenings. The movie gives facts that ok, this is what these people can do and this is what they do with what they have.

I think this movie is almost perfect example of take full advantage of what you have and then it boils totally down to the fact that do very basic things right in movie like scripting, editing, shooting, acting and directing.

Well done.

It's actually really pity that the local cinema gives very poor show times for this movie. Almost all of them seems to be during the week 8pm or so. If you planning to see this, just go! It totally deserves it.

The Wait (2021)

Just boring

[3/10 · 3 April 2022]

3 stars: 1. Hirviniemi is able to throw some good lines and able to squeeze something out of his character. 2. Some really nice shooting and scenery. 3. After movie you can talk with your friend how lame the movies actually was.

The movie offers very very little. I had no foggiest idea what this piece was actually all about. Perhaps the idea was that people just want to invoke some drama when there's a change.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Good in places but the devil is in the details

[6/10 · 28 November 2021]

I left out the cinema with mixed feelings. It was OK to spent about 2 hours watching the movie but it left kind of empty. Only thing in the movie, which I think did really work, was CGI and the action pieces. I honestly have to say that they managed to capture very well the 80s stuff as a combination of props and CGI. Biggest issue in the movie was overall orchestration of things happening in the movie.

The kids (Phoebe and Podcast) find some old Ghostbusters stuff and just star to using them. I mean, Phoebe even builds a mini nuclear reactor which the proton beam weapon basically is. Then they just start to use ghost traps quite fluently out of the blue and are totally fine when they see real living ghost. How they actually know that you must shoot the thing with the proton beam?

The kids destroy couple of building in the town with unlicensed weapon while driving with unlicensed car violating probably almost every single traffic regulation there is and then they are set free with like fines of couple of hundred dollars? Nobody even questioning why they did that and what the heck the illegal weapon even is. Then another issue is that there is apocalypse going on in the town, but the movie doesn't really show that the apocalypse actually has to do something with the people living in the town. Just some vaporized level 5 ghosts roaming free, you know, what ever. The issue is that they use the effort to build some menacing apocalyptic thing which doesn't do any kind of menacing thing by the end. I think the movie spends too much time of building the tension between the main characters and the tension and the dynamic between the characters is actually really lousy. Everybody saying to Phoebe how lousy her grand father was but Phoebe never gets the change to show to the people that her grand father was right all the time.

Then the introduction where all starts to happen fails to deliver any good reason how come the spirits from the first ghostbusters movie is starting to come back and why they're hunting Spengler?

Then there is just some odd random happenings. Like, three of the original members just popping up without any kind of introduction that how they were able to be in the place. Then they show some odd parts of school system in the states where teacher shows horror movies from VHS tape to kids while the teacher is doing some won sciency stuff at the backroom. Why you even show that? Some sort of joke how in lousy shape the education is at some part of the states? If that was the case, I surely didn't understand that.

I think the movie probably works the best for kids who really doesn't care all of these things. But it's odd that the movie uses quite a lot of effort for nostalgy where kids actually fins very little of value. Then using stuff directly from the first ghostbusters is really odd. Because it basically means that you must know the movie to understand the value of the things. Anyways, 6/10. Some people bash Ghostbusters (2016) and keep this as a better one, but I think in overall quality this is pretty much the same thing. Depends on totally what you prefer.