John Wick’s grandpa sure kicked some Nazi ass during WW2, amiright? That seems to be the premise of this crazy over-the-top action flick that actually kind of lost me with how over-the-top it went. But maybe I’m not the target audience?

Sisu is set in Finland and follows a grumpy old cuss as he unearths a walloping heapin’ helpin’ of gold. Getting these riches to the bank is tough, what with all the Germans invading. The result is a bit of a culture clash as the old man and the Nazis debate the finer points of ownership using knives and guns and landmines.

It’s undeniably a pulpy, raucous, blood-splattered good time. This film sneers at your cultured stuffiness as it stabs Nazis through the head and explodes them with great gusto. It’s a pretty hardcore flick… and the hero is a pretty hardcore dude.

Maybe a little too hardcore though, at least for my tastes. Maybe this flick works better in Finland where the film might reflect a bit of that Quentin Tarantino wish fulfillment… or maybe it’s like what RRR is to India. Like this old timer is a cultural salve, single-handedly exorcising a nation’s historical demons.

The idea of Sisu… this untranslatable Finnish word for an unrelenting determination in the face of the worst of times… I get but translating that into this man who simply refuses to die was overdone. I look the other way when John Wick takes a lickin’ and keeps on killin’… but this film’s hero survives to such a ridiculous degree that it took me out of the movie entirely. I think that’s the gimmick or the gag, but it kept bothering me while watching.

But it still has some cool, bad-ass moments and it still looks great and and has very satisfying levels of Nazis exploding. I think if I got more out of my head or was a Finnish person with some cultural wish fulfilment being explored, I’d have loved the flick. As it is, it’s a pretty good time watching Nazi explode.

Score: 78