Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

Most of this film is dark, curious, mysterious, scary and gritty and pulled me into its chilly and desolate landscape almost from the start. It feels very much like its own film until about 20 minutes from the end when it's as though the original writers and directors left and Hollywood jumped in and took over. Suddenlty we had the usual types of crazy things happening, special effects, cheesy hero type behaviour and machinery appearing which doesn't seem credible within the context of the rest of the film. I don't mind a film being fantastical as long as it's consistent within its own story. The end of this film was really unsatisfying for me.

A real shame.

Fmovies: Having seen this in the movie theaters, and being pleasantly surprised, I feel I am finally early enough to throw a little review. If you expect a movie with well built characters, and/or can't stand violence (which isn't rough at all, actually, very tame) you probably find yourself disappointed after you have watched it. But if you take it light heartedly, and manage to ditch the idea of this being an instant classic, you'll enjoy it.

The humour is great, and as a (proud!) member of the Finnish nation, I liked it. A lot. When movies like Tropic Thunder and Zombieland lack in that department (I did not laugh once when watching either of those films), Rare Exports deliver. Some of the stuff might be hard to understand if you don't get the language, but there is plenty of other type of humour available as well.

As I said already, the characters aren't that well built, but that is not what they attempted, or even wanted it seems. Instead, it brings and original storyline, which doesn't follow the usual movie scheme. I doubt you have ever seen anything like the Rare Exports, and I would suggest everyone to give it a try.

This is a great movie. It would have been impossible for Hollywood to have made this movie. They would have needed a huge special effects budget, and the continuity people would never have allowed it through. They would have played it as a goofy comedy. Thankfully it was made in Finland. If the Americans decide to do a remake, make sure you see the original first.

As it is, it is thoroughly clever, and wonderfully naively charming. The director had an idea, and chose an optimum path to realise that idea - a very tricky feat.

I'm from Australia, but I couldn't help wondering if Finnish people and New Zealanders are similar.

BTW, count the women who appear in the movie.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale fmovies. I haven't yet seen the short movies, but what i've heard is that this is a prequel to those short movies, so it won't matter.

The movie is very enjoyable to watch and easy to recommend to families to watch (families who have kids at least 13 years old). It's little bit scary for kids and has pretty dark humor, but it's still good hearted film. Especially the ending. The acting is great, especially Pietari's (Onni Tommila) performance is great. Even though it's a cliché that the adults won't believe the child, it doesn't matter, because the film makes you aware that the adults will eventually know what they're dealing with. The music is also great. Only criticism i have for this movie, is that it didn't do or show things you really wanted or expected and that the CGI-effects aren't so great in some parts of the movie and they should have been shorter so they wouldn't give you that awkward feeling that not-so-good CGI-effects give you.

Full review here: http://thewildbore.blogspot.com/2010/12/rare-exports- Christmas-tale.html Finland isn't known for it's film exports, so here truly is a 'Rare Export' but should we return it? It's not exactly in the spirit of Christmas is it? This film is rather a prequel to two short films that the director made in 2003 and 2005 (both I will stick at the end of this article) where Santa isn't the merry old fat man we've come to know and love but is rather a beast of the wild that is tamed and exported around the world. But deciding that some short films weren't enough, Jalmari Helander decides to make a feature film about his 'hunters' before the events of Rare Exports Inc. & Rare Exports: Official Safety Instructions. I have to put this film into context because when viewing the film, not knowing much about it, it seemed very strange afterwards but now it kind of makes sense. However, it might be worth watching without seeing the videos included here, but it's your choice. Either way, the story is about how some corporate diggers are excavating something from a mountain near a remote village in the snowy outdoors. But it is a young boy who works out what is buried beneath and is taking every precaution just in case, whether it's taping cardboard to your bum or carrying around a shotgun, he's not taking any chances. I read somewhere that this harks back to the kiddie films of the Eighties like The Goonies where the kids were always right and the adults were idiots, but this has much more of a horror element to it. In fact, it is very funny in different places for different reasons but always keeps a dark, sinister edge whether it's the weird wooden dolls, the crazy rich excavator or the creepy Santa they find, there's always a tinge of horror at all times. The film is very well directed and, like many have said (mainly because of the snow) reminds people of The Thing, but all the set-up's are there and around the whole thing is the myth of Santa Claus (or Claws in this case). It makes for a very exciting, disturbing experience that is set around a time where people are supposed to get together and for someone who doesn't really enjoy Christmas, like myself, it makes a welcome distraction to all the 'niceness' of the Christmas season. The acting is, for the most part, very impressive and the end sequences with hundreds of naked old men running across the mountains is both funny and breathtaking at the same time. The film finds a great balance between horror, terror, humour and remembering that it shouldn't take itself too seriously, the gag is that it's about Santa after all. I always found something creepy about a fat, old man going into children's houses at night and giving them presents, seeing if they've been 'naughty or nice' and this plays on people's insecurities especially at a time where paedophilia is all over the news these days. It also has a rather serious, dramatic edge with an obviously painful father/son relationship, a man who is frustrated with the world and a 'coming-of-age' element about sacrifice and becoming independent. It could also be seen as a war of male generations, the son against the father, and the father against his own father, which in this case is represented by Father Christmas, it would make sense seeing as there is no females in the whole film but rather a world of manly hunters where soppy things like Christmas have no place. Overa

I've just seen this film with my Finnish girlfriend who was delighted with the pin-sharp Finnish black Humour running through it. The acting was good but the young boy deserves great credit making his role believable. It is nice to see an alternate Xmas film doing what is a very limited run in Britain. There is much joy to behold in this film from the beautiful locations, the music score which enhanced the film and made it feel a much bigger picture and not forgetting an edit that did not add any silly modernistic cuts/editing style. I thought the ending just about summed up the film, dark black humour Finnish style, I hope this becomes a wee cult classic in the future. Go see it!