When the US president (Samuel L Jackson) is forced to abandon Air Force One during a ground-to-air missile attack, it falls to plucky 13-year-old Finn Oskari (Onni Tommila) to bag the bear, save the day, and earn the right to call himself “a man”. While it’s good to see Rare Exports director Jalmari Helander dropping a Hollywood A-lister into the European wilds (Germany doubling for Finland) rather than decamping to America, this cheekily ridiculous Boy’s Own adventure falls awkwardly between target audiences; Jackson’s signature use of the oedipal expletive has been partly trimmed to secure a 12 rating but it still seems utterly out of place in a film that can’t figure out just how grownup it wants to be. Helander cites 80s action and rites-of-passage movies as an inspiration (he was aiming for Die Hard meets The Karate Kid, apparently), but there’s a touch of Airport 1975 about the proceedings, which may not be entirely parodic. Mehmet Kurtulus chews the scenery; Jim Broadbent chews a sandwich.
