Best of the Day: Big Game – July 1, 2015
Welcome to Best of the Day, our daily recommendation for what to check out around town. If you do one thing in Boston today, consider this.
Big Game promotional image
Even though it’s not July Fourth weekend quite yet, admit it: Your brain has already packed its bags for vacation. So why don’t you take it somewhere fun? We suggest you bathe your gray matter in something that’s the cerebral equivalent of a piña colada—like, say, a gloriously ridiculous, over-the-top action flick chock-full of explosions, plot holes, and lusty scenery-chewing.
And we’ve got just the thing for you.
Big Game, the latest from Helsinki filmmaker Jalmari Helander, pays homage to cheesy ’80s action thrillers while adding a Nordic twist: After his plane is hijacked by terrorists, the U.S. president (Samuel L. Jackson!) crash-lands his escape pod in the Finnish wilderness, where he’s rescued by 13-year-old bow-and-arrow-wielding hunter Oskari (Onni Tommila). Together, the unlikely pair must evade the baddies and escape to civilization. Considering that Helander’s previous work includes the demented Christmas horror romp Rare Exports—in which a band of Finnish reindeer herders tangles with a demonic Santa Claus—you should have a sense of the kind of deliriously off-kilter spectacle you’re in for.
The film premiered at our beloved indie cinema the Brattle last week—but you still have two days left to catch it.
Screens through July 2, 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m., Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-6837, brattlefilm.org.
