Heavy Trip (5 Stars)

I used to chat with a Finnish friend online. I'll never forget what he told me. "Finnish music is great, but Finnish films suck". When he said Finnish music, he was referring to heavy metal. I haven't spoken to him for almost ten years, so I wonder what he would say about "Heavy Trip"; a Finnish film about Finnish music.

The film is about four friends in their twenties who've been practising in the cellar of a reindeer slaughterhouse for 12 years. So far they've been playing the songs recorded by their favourite bands, such as Cannibal Corpse and Children of Bodom. Now they feel they should make the big step of writing their own song. They're inspired by the sound of a reindeer being ground to pieces in a meat grinder. They also need a name for their band, and they choose Impaled Rectum. Did they really need 12 years to pick a band name? It's what I would have done first, before picking up the instruments for the first practise session.

They have a chance meeting with the organiser of the Norwegian heavy metal festival, Northern Damnation. That's a fictional festival, so the name is up for grabs! They give him a demo tape of their first song, which they describe as "symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme Fennoscandinavian pagan battle metal". He's impressed, but he says all the bands are booked, so they'll have to wait a year. This doesn't stop the band. They steal a truck and head to Norway to gatecrash the festival.

The film is mildly comical, but it's primarily a feel-good movie with great music. There's also a serious message. It's repeated several times that you can succeed at whatever you want if you only have courage.

This film has the seal of approval of the Roman Catholic Church. You won't go to Hell if you watch it. If you don't believe me, ask any nun. They sit and watch it when they have a girls only film night.

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