Bad Boys: A True Story (2003)

I saw the film "Pahat pojat" on television for the first time on 14th December, 2005. It is a story about four boys who do not drink or smoke but who have committed nearly 100 robberies. These boys are known as "Daltons of Eura". I found the movie great - a little action, human relation and even religion. I felt relatively uncomfortable when watching the scene where the father of the boys (role played by Loiri) kills a police dog that was sent to catch the young men by the police after they had been caught red-handed. However, the brothers succeeded to escape and the one who was caught up by the Alsatian could actually tame it and it became the boys' pet. For some time. The father, Jouko, probably isn't very human in this film (well, he suffers from mental illness) but still I felt sorry for him in the end where he is killed when the Volvo explodes. I felt a little bit sorry too somewhere in the middle of the movie as Jouko visits the grave of his deceased spouse. My Dad happened to watch the film as well and he thought it is of quite high standard for a domestic motion picture. =)

As I'm having a week of Finnish movies, I also watched this one. And I must say it was a way better than I expected (and I did expect a decent movie), actually it's the best Finnish movie I've seen on this special week of mine.With all its well played and thus believable characters and their dialogs, an above average story, great camera work and the lack of stamps and cheap one-liners it surely is a great film experience. I totally enjoyed the beginning and other parts concerning the father - though those scenes with their garbled filming and darker tones, background voices and echoes were more suitable for a horror movie and they weren't well balanced with the rest of it.The usage of Finnish-only music was a good call as well.I totally recommend it.

Yö - the best liverock band in Finland is the only good thing played in this movie. One can see worst finnish acting when watching J. Pääkkönen having just one look at his face whatever happens. Some good acting is also seen when Vesa-Matti Loiri (aka Uuno Turhapuro - magnificent comedy roles in over 15 Uuno-movies) gives an excellent rolemodel for fathers... If one hasn't seen any Finnish movie he shouldn't begin with this. I should recommend for example Winter War on Häjyt for starters in Finnish movie. And the name of Vesa-Matti Loiri one should also remember. He acts and sings and is something very finnish. Just like the band mentioned in the beginning.

I´ve never been a big fan of Aleksi Mäkelä´s films but Pahat Pojat hit´d the rock bottom. Everything is wrong in this movie. The acting, the writing and specially directing. In fact there isn´t any directing. Acting is as lame as in the Finnish soap opera "Salatut Elämät". Scenes are lame too with no dynamics in acting and that has been tried to cover with a fast pace editing. But nothing can fix the bad taste of Aleksi Mäkelä in directing. But i gotta give it to the marketing of the film. Now I believe that you can make s*** look like gold if you convince the audience enough.