‘Sisu: Road to Revenge’ (2025)
A holiday alternative to “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” (1987)? It’s a stretch, but all of those entities – and a tank or two – find their way into this follow-up to the hit 2022 Finnish actioner about a one-person army kicking the stuffing out of Nazi hide in World War II Europe. The title of the series stems from an “untranslatable” Finnish word referring to inner strength and unrelenting energy (sounds like a translation to me, but okay). In the first “Sisu,” Atami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), a former commando with hundreds of kills to his credit, was the target of Nazis retreating in the waning moments of the war. Bad idea to pick on Sisu. That movie was Rambo meets “Fury Road” with WWII relics. You might even say it was Indiana Jones-like, without the humor, wit and family appeal, as heads exploded, limbs were blown off and Atami was ever smeared in the blood of himself and others, akin to Alexander Skarsgård’s berserker in Robert Eggers’ Norse epic, “The Northman” (also made in 2022). Atami never speaks; the ire and rage in his crystalline blue eyes say it all. In “Road to Revenge” he’s marked by the Russian lieutenant (Stephen Lang) responsible for the butchering of his wife and progeny before the first “Sisu” (low on ammo, the bad guys used shovels and axes). Plotwise, it’s pretty convenient to have the bane of your existence come to you so you can settle matters. The film has Atami porting a massive load of lumber (his deconstructed family home in Russian-occupied Karelia) across the tundra and though the boreal forest. The plot doesn’t much matter, as men in medieval armor on motorcycles give pursuit to the lumber-laden truck and planes drop frequently from above. Through it all Atami remains committed to protecting the vestige of his family and his loyal Bedlington terrier. There are some inventive twists from director Jalmari Helander, sharp, well-choreographed stunt work and rich framing by cinematographer Mika Orasmaa. It’s bloody fun nonsense with a snarl and fist in the air. Tommila embodies the never-say-die warrior, and Lang makes for an aptly grizzled offset. At 80-something minutes, “Road to Revenge” is lean, and necessarily so, as it’s one note. The bloody orgy of bullets and metal mangled mayhem likely isn’t for all, but will certainly please fans of the original.
At Apple Cinemas Cambridge, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge Highlands near Alewife and Fresh Pond, and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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