Sisu: Road to Revenge – Review. By Daniel Rester.

Writer-director Jalmari Helander’s Sisu (2023) is a wild mix of war picture, spaghetti Western, and post-John Wick (2014) action. The sequel, Sisu: Road to Revenge, delivers more of the same genre insanity as its predecessor. It’s an 89-minute rush of blood and bullets that equals the first film in quality.

Jorma Tommila returns as Aatami Korpi, the silent former Finnish commando. Last time he was fighting Nazis in post-WWII Lapland while protecting his gold. This time Korpi is trying to move his house after border lines are redrawn after the war. He is hunted by Draganov (Stephen Lang), a Soviet Red Army officer who killed Korpi’s family.

Sisu: Road to Revenge is thin on story and dialogue and heavy on plot momentum and set pieces. All of the chapters are essentially just different ways for Korpi to off antagonistic troops. There’s a truck-and-motorcycle chase, a plane bombing, a gunfight on a train, and more in its short runtime.

While the costumes and production design look authentic for the time and place, the action is more ludicrous and fitting for a cartoon than realistic. Helander is fine with having missiles pushing train carts and a tank using explosives to do front flips. It’s all pretty stupid, but the film knows it is and goes with it in fun ways. It feels like a nonsensical video game inspired by a ‘70s grindhouse film.

A standout scene involving stealth and sleeping soldiers allows for a stretch of quiet suspense. Lang also has a great scene where he gets to deliver a menacing monologue, which probably takes up half of the film’s few spoken words. The ending has a surprisingly emotional touch as well. Such sections help break up all of the noisy action found in the other scenes.

Sisu: Road to Revenge is a ridiculously entertaining B movie. There’s nothing particularly fresh or intriguing about it, but it uses its genre tropes well enough. If you need a break from Oscar season dramas, Sisu: Road to Revenge offers fast and mindless escapism.

Rating: 6.75/10

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