Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho: A suberb amateur feature film kicks Star Trek's ass
Wow.
I'll just say wow.
All is now forgiven. Awsome movie.
So Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is an amateur production. There isn't much in the film that betrays this — even most of the acting would fail to put a Hollywood B production into shame, and there are some brilliant cases of casting, and even a couple of suberb actors.
In the Pirkinning is above all an action-adventure film with seemingly big-budget special effects — except that the special effects budget is dirt cheap. It is also a fairly well working comedy — of the darker kind, with a touch of political satire and a heavy dose of teevee science fiction parody.
Oh yeah, and it has scantily clad females on the bridge (but they have an EDGE!).
There's something intangibly Finnish about all Finnish movies, and this one is no exception. I don't know if it is the language, or if it is the people, or if it is the landscape — perhaps it is all of them. This movie would look and sound very different had it been produced in just about any other country by people of any other nationality. Bizarrely, it also is, in my opinion, one of the best films ever made in Finland. (I'm sure some other people will disagree.)
In the Pirkinning is a direct sequel to a previous movie by the same producers and main cast, a fan film Star Wreck: Lost Contact, which retells the story of Star Trek: First Contact with a heavy parody note and more enthusiasm than skills. At the end of that movie, our anti-heroes Captain Pirk (Samuli Torssonen), Commander Info (Antti Satama) and Commander Dwarf (Timo Vuorensola) were stranded in turn-of-the-millennium Earth with no access to tech from their own time nor a way back.
In the Pirkinning sets in motion when Pirk gets the idea that he should ensure that the future they came from comes into reality... and decides to run for Emperor. Of the World. And also when fan favourite Fukov (Janos Honkonen) fucks up again. Pirk enlists the help of President Uljanov of Russia, played by the nationally celebrated actor Kari Väänänen, and finds a worthy opponent in the Commanding Officer of a future space station Babel-13, Captain Joni K. Sherrypie (Atte Joutsen). The rest I leave for you to discover... and I promise you, there's plenty of exploding spaceships in there.
The movie is in Finnish, but the DVD includes subtitles in English and Swedish. Although some of the jokes rather depend on understanding the Finnish language or the Finnish culture (does a sled called CPP Stiga bring up any childhood memories to anybody but Finns?), they are in the minority, and most of the fun is universally understandable. Of course, a loyal teevee scifi fan will find a lot of extra laughs (and recognize several subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) references to memorable shows and movies, often with a twist).
In short, In the Pirkinning is Mel Brooks' Spaceballs with actual balls, Finnish style. In my personal ranking this movie gets nine out of ten; as a movie in general, I'd cautiously put in a seven out of ten.
(Oh, and the movie is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–No Derivatives–Noncommercial license. An all-regions DVD is available now from the producers, and a general Internet release is set for October 1st.)
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning starring Samuli Torssonen, Atte
Joutsen, Antti Satama, Timo Vuorensola, Satu Helio, Janos Honkonen, Jari Ahola
and Kari Väänänen; written by Samuli Torssonen, Rudi Airisto and Jarmo Puskala;
music by Tapani Siirtola; produced by Samuli Torssonen; directed by Timo
Vuorensola; 100 minutes; http://www.starwreck.com/. DVD release
presented in 2.35:1 with 5.1 surround and stereo sound, subtitled in English
and Swedish. Extras: Trailers, Making of, Deleted scenes. Update 2005-09-16: Since the movie has
not been presented to censors by the proudcers or distributors due to financial
limitations, the movie is currently forbidden for people under 18 years old
under Finnish law. The movie has been rated by the Finnish censors as K-11, only
for 11-year-olds and older people.
2005-09-09T00:06+0300 - /en/reviews
Trackback url: http://antti-juhani.kaijanaho.info/blog/en/reviews/itp.trackback (trackback on rikki / trackback is broken)
Re: Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning - NOT!
Byhyy... what a cry. Grow up.
- Mika, la, 20 elo 2005 21:54
Re: Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning - NOT!
If you don't care about this, why do you care that I care?
- Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, su, 21 elo 2005 20:59
Re: Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning - NOT!
Oh cry me a river.
- V, ma, 22 elo 2005 00:01
Re: Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning - NOT!
Sorry. You can order the DVD now. Or watch it online on first of October.
Re: Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning - NOT!
Thanks, ordered now. A review will be forthcoming as soon as I have seen the movie, and I expect the review will be enthusiastic :)
- Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, ma, 22 elo 2005 09:55
Re: A suberb amateur feature film kicks Star Trek's ass
Still waiting for the dvd to arrive. I really want to see this one! :) Can't remember CPP, but I had a "Stiga bobsled" here in Sweden.
- Jon Åslund, la, 10 syys 2005 16:10
Re: A suberb amateur feature film kicks Star Trek's ass
The CPP is the Wreck-equivalent of Trek's USS, so it's not a part of *that* joke.
- Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, la, 10 syys 2005 18:18
good site
Realy good site!
- Mond, la, 17 syys 2005 01:15
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