I have read all "Vares"-books by Reijo Mäki and I'm a huge fan. When I heard that there will be movie about Vares and Juha Veijonen will portray him, I was excited. The movie was not a disappointment. Story follows quite exactly the book, but one thing makes me wonder. The jokes from the book were dismissed and screenwriter Pekka Lehtosaari has written a whole bunch of new ones. Well, maybe that's not bad at all. Anyway, the characters are marvelous - never before in Finnish movie has been so many superious characters - and casting for them just fantastic. Especially Jari Halonen as ruthless Miesmann and Kari Hietalahti as half finnish/half Japanese hit-man Tetsuo Sinkkonen. And of course Juha Veijonen in the title-role. Laura Malmivaara is also fantastic - as are almost every actor in this movie. Aleksi Mäkelä is number one action-director of Finland and he won't let us down this time around. The soundtrack is also fine. I'll give VARES 9/10.
Review of Private Eye Vares
