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Big Game

Self-serious, simplistic, and openly silly

In this hilariously awful film by Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander, Samuel L. Jackson shows us just how low he’ll go for a paycheck. He plays a U.S. President whose Air Force One is shot down over Finland by a rich terrorist who wants to hunt him for sport. I’m not making this up.

The Prez must rely on a 13-year-old lad out in the forest on some Finnish hunting rite of passage (Onni Tommila, the director’s nephew, doing an uncanny impersonation of a piece of wood). By turns self-serious, simplistic, and openly silly, this has some bad movie value, but go with friends and get very drunk first. Japanese title: Big Game: Daitoryō to Shōnen Hunter. (90 min)