Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

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Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - 1/12/2010 4:55:37 PM

Empire Admin

Posts: 26526
Joined: 29/6/2005

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Post #: 1

RE: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - 2/12/2010 1:07:34 PM

elab49

Posts: 52033
Joined: 1/10/2005

I only heard of this for the first time on Saturday and found the trailer and original shorts. Really looking forward to it so I'm hoping it gets a decent release.

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Post #: 2

RE: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - 6/12/2010 9:06:49 AM

tftrman

Posts: 3192
Joined: 15/11/2005

Saw this on Friday night. Really enjoyable, and strangely festive despite lots of shots of old men's bits!

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Post #: 3

RE: Not as good as I was expecting.. - 8/12/2010 1:49:58 PM

Wild about Wilder

Posts: 1509
Joined: 9/4/2010
From: Hertfordshire

Wanted to see this but as per usuall m

y World of Cine have not bothered to show a film even though they've shown trailers for it can't let those 6SNOTTER screens go I suppose.

Post #: 4

- 22/12/2010 6:08:06 PM

sephiroth7

Posts: 151
Joined: 14/10/2009

Rubbish in the extreme. Clip made it look like a fun ride. It was a CRASHING bore with no redeeming features....NONE!

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Post #: 5

- 30/12/2010 1:37:42 PM

Pelle

Posts: 81
Joined: 19/5/2008

Carzy-ass ride!

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Post #: 6

- 2/1/2011 10:53:11 PM

reminn

Posts: 142
Joined: 22/10/2010

Tragic.

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Post #: 7

Good premise, but so dull... - 5/9/2011 2:10:02 PM

sweetladybrick

Posts: 129
Joined: 20/12/2008

I loved the idea of this film, but it fails to take off. It's weird, sure, like the film 'Cheyne' is weird- any decent ideas are ignored and tension is substituted for tedium (no Russian peasants or malformed feotuses here though). The opening scene is quite delicious though, and that's what makes the whole thing so disappointing. If only the director had followed a classic Carpenter approach, but it's played more as a straight drama than a horror (except for the hundreds of stampeding geriatric childkillers at the end, admittedly, that got a laugh) and to suggest it's an essay on kid-friendly eighties horror by way of Gremlins? Not even close. Gremlins is still the best Christmas creature feature. I have heard that this unfortunate misfire is getting the remake treatment. For once, I'm looking forward to that. Euopean horror is usually a masterclass in how to tell an affecting story (Let the Right One In is outstanding, as we all know), but this is an idea that could be handled better by a mind like Wright or Cornish, or if you have a time machine, Dante.

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Post #: 8

A very good, different Xmas movie - 29/11/2011 11:31:29 AM

dannyfletch

Posts: 586
Joined: 25/5/2008
From: Bromley

After reading a lot of positive reviews I decided to give this strange little Finnish Xmas tale a go. The result was a pleasant little surprise with some good acting from an unknown ( to me ) Finnish cast.
The young boy in the lead, Onni Tommila, gives a very impressive performance which makes for a likeable lead. The evil Santa's are great fun and the snow bound scenery perfectly captures the feel of the festive season.
The humour is very black and it is a bit of a weird mix that may not appeal to everyone's taste. But having said that, it is quite original and has the balls to be different.
I'm not sure why some people on here are calling it boring, it does have a bit of a build up but me and the 3 other people I watched it with were certainly not bored and were very entertained.

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Post #: 9

Very good - 10/12/2011 2:26:25 PM

Caster

Posts: 5608
Joined: 30/9/2005

Excellent Finnish horror adventure

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Post #: 10

RE: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - 18/12/2011 12:50:15 PM

matthias_sk64

Posts: 2
Joined: 19/1/2008

I've been meaning to watch this for a few Christmases now and finally got to watch it with a couple of friends. The collective agreement was: dross. This felt like a badly made film; the cinematography was pleasant enough but the narrative is a mess. There is the feeling that lots of the film was either cut or is missing - the beginning gives the impression that the film is setting out to build up this great danger but instead it cuts from opening exposition to (anti)climatic showdown with no build up in-between. At no point did I feel that the character's were in any danger because any deaths previous to this were cartoon-esque: a flurry of off-screen noises, screams and a helmet bouncing into view. When a whole crew of workers get wiped out like this in a single second that isn't scary it's just silly. If they're doing this to make it more child-friendly then why show us a pick-axe to the head and a plethora of old men's ball bags later on? SPOILER ALERT: Worst of all, they never actually show us the Big Bad himself. I subscribe to the Alien school of thought that the less you see of the monster the scarier it is but when you see nothing but a pair of horns (and I mean 'nothing but': none of the deaths in the movie are attributed to him. His role is purely Macguffin) then the audience is just left feeling frustrated. The only thing that kept me interested was the alternative view of Santa Claus, and the opening credits of the movie built this evil figure up wonderfully but then never capitalise on it. Instead our only enemy is a crowd of leering, naked old men.

There were a couple of occasions where I laughed out loud and the closing sequence confirmed what I had been thinking all the way through: this could have made a much better black comedy, but the film never commits to the humour, it just hang between the horror and the laughs like an anti-Shaun of the Dead.

As soon as the film finished I shouted 'How the hell did that get 4 stars? I bet Kim Newman reviewed it!' I appreciate the man knows his horror movies but I think he's spent too long in his Video Dungeon and has lost all perspective on what makes a good movie.

If you want to enjoy this film just pretend it's a movie about paedophiles. That at least makes the last quarter entertaining.

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Post #: 11

RE: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - 22/12/2011 9:12:19 AM

Discodez

Posts: 777
Joined: 2/9/2010

Unfortunately Kim Newmans review makes this sound much more bloody and horrific than it actually is so I kind of understand some of the criticism here. This is a darkly comic fantasy, not a horror film.

I thought it was great, sarcastic and silly, nicely understated and with a lovely central performance from the kid playing Pietari.

My only dissapointment was that we never fully saw Santa in all his 50ft high child destroying glory.

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Post #: 12

Looked good but... - 28/12/2012 12:46:35 PM

chris wootton

Posts: 385
Joined: 15/9/2006

Biggest pile of shite I've seen in a while. Made no sense by the end.. reminded me of Super 8 in the sense that you had to sit through hours of boring build up to something that doesn't actually happen. Avoid

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Post #: 13