Usually I am not into Finnish films with comic undertones as I probably do not comprehend the finesses of Finnish humour: I find it too straight and plain. But I as like crime films, Nordic ones in particular, I decided to watch Vares – yksityisetsivä and was pleasantly surprised. This first Vares-film has strong and logical plot, and despite strong references and links to Tarantino's and Ritchie's films, the latter neither became annoying nor seemed a poor imitation of big masters' ideas. The actors are good, characters elaborated, and the ending is versatile and includes unexpected twists. The 1 hours 25 minutes pass splendidly and make you want to see the rest of the Vares-films as well (although the sequels are seldom as good or better).

It is a Finnish film, but I watched it with my foreign friends. It was funny as a Finnish guy, I sometimes see the small problems of Finnish cinema. The problem being dialogue.But for my foreign friends this was no problem at all. They have no idea how Finnish people act or speak live. They also loved the exotic landscape, which for me of course had become too familiar.This made think, is this the same for every other nation? Do they see their films in a similar manner, and I looked into it. Apparently in the US most films before the late 60s have a style of acting coming from the theater. After the independent films came Hollywood took a more down to earth style of acting like from real life. Now it is the norm.In Finnish cinema you can still the heavy impact of the fact that most actors come from theater. Perhaps people are almost expecting it.However putting that aside it still a good detective thriller in Finland. I would recommend it especially to foreigners, as it was quite a hit in Finland itself. Also what I found funny in this film did not go down too well with especially the Indians (we watched this film as we have a club with my work buddies, where we watch films from our native countries). The two guys from India found the film almost too dark, I don't wonder why as we had to watch a bollywood film two times ago when we met. It was horrible...Funny how these cultural features come into play with films. I would hope that the cinema-complexes would show more foreign films. Perhaps they don't sell too good, but perhaps the consumer needs to become more aware. For example after this film some of the guys told me that my dark jokes were similar to what's in this film. Next time I'm going to show them some Kaurismaki... I mean this film is a little more commercial than Kaurismaki (he's style is unique, and the theater thing is not valid).Overall good film, and we should thank Markus Selin for his constant good work in producing these!

Vares (Juha Veijonen) is a private eye, who besides boozing tries to look for some lady company, so he could booze some more and chew fat whit his happy alcoholic friends. One day, when he's at military exercise campaign he meets a woman named Eeva (Laura Malmivaara) and gets smitten a bit. But the lady is engaged elsewhere and she soon disappears from his life until a phone rings and soon after that Vares notices, that Eeva is mixed in a jailbreak of a notorious criminal Kraft (Jorma Tommila).Vares is actually quite good detective story with some good action and great characters. Sadly enough though some of the characters are left so badly in the background, that you soon start to think were they even necessary. The actors are the best Finland has to offer. Every A-list start of Finnish cinema is represented on the screen, which is good, as they nicely fill out the flaws of the script, such as pretty bland dialog.The directing is good enough, but the editing is a bit choppy in some places, but there's no bigger problems to stop you enjoying the movie.

Aleksi Mäkelä, the director of excellent Häjyt and Pahat pojat, offers us an hour and a half of great and stylish entertainment. The title character Vares (Juha Veijonen) is a finish detective who sets out to help a woman named Eeva (Laura Malmivaara)in her dangerous pursuit for Russian mobs money. Based on the book of finish novelist Reijo Mäki, this movie really boasts on great characters. Vares himself is a good guy, mostly hanging in his favourite pub with his boozing buddy Luusalmi (Markku peltola) in his spare time. A Mäkelä regular Samuli Edelmann portraits a tough cop working on both sides of the law. Then there's the hilarious killer duo Hillosilmä- Munck and Tetsuo Sinkkonen played by Pekka Valkeejärvi and Kari Hietalahti. Director Jari Halonen is surely one the most devilish criminal in finish movie history as lurid Karl E. Miesmann. Good supporting cast also include Minna Turunen, Jorma Tommila and Santeri Kinnunen. Not just a detective story, but also a black comedy and good old fashioned action movie as well this one's probably the finest pop-culture movie made in Finland in 2004. Good work, keep on rockin' guys!