"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" Blu-Ray Review - Written by Anthony T

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Year: 2010
Director: Jalmari Helander
Stars: Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Tommi Korpela
Studio: Oscilloscope Laboratories
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 82 Mins


Plot Synopsis:

"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" takes place in the depths of Lapland's Korvatunturi mountain, where the secrets of Christmas are hidden. The film focuses Pietori, a young boy who is living with his strict father in Arctic cold of Finland. On Christmas eve, an explosion happens in the mountains. The next morning the boy along with his father find a bunch of reindeer slaughtered and the children in the town have gone missing. Only Pietori knows that the explosion awaken the evil Santa Claus of local lore. Meanwhile, his father has rounded up a group of people to capture the evil Santa Claus and sell him off to the highest bidder. But unknown to them, Santa has elfs who will stop at nothing to free their boss. But what ensures a weird holiday adventure that will test the bond between Pietori and his father.

Film Review:

Going into this film on paper, this looked like one of those films that was destined to be bad in a good way. With a story that looks totally weird, it surprise me that this film isn't the guilty pleasure that I thought it was going to be. Instead, there's a lot of good things about this film, especially with the way the film was shot.

"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" is a very demented film that keeps your interest throughout. Writer/director Jalmari Helander does very good making this film and creating a story that doesn't feel like a bad movie that you would see on Mystery Science Theater 3000. One of the things that I liked about his direction, the way this film is shot. It has the magical feel that a Steven Spielberg film would have. Don't get me wrong, this is still a dark fantasy with people getting killed. But the way that the film was shot with the snow effects added in, it really give a magical feel to it. It makes you forget that characters are getting killed. The other thing that makes the film work well was the acting. I liked how, Helander handles the actors here. His ability to get good performances out of his cast, which made some of the subplots work.

Helander's screenplay is probably one of the most original screenplay for any Christmas film that I've ever seen. One of the things that make the screenplay very good, the way he takes his time to develop the situation and the characters. By doing that, it makes the whole subplots work very well and gets you invested with these character. The other that I liked about this screenplay, the fact that the story is different from other films. Helander does a very good job creating something different than you normally see out of these countless Christmas films. By creating something different, it allows the film to stand out from the countless number of Christmas releases that been released already.

DVD Extras:

First on the disc is to are two prequel short films "Rare Exports Inc" and "Rare Exports Inc - The Official Safety Instructions" Both film are definitely worth a look, especially if you liked the film. Both films have a different structure than the feature film, as it mostly narration driven. Still, this is worth a look for fans of the feature film.

Next on the disc is "The Making of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. I enjoyed this twenty nine minute featurette, as it covers all aspects of the filmmaking process. From the rehearsals to behind the scenes of the actual filming to post production, you get to see how everything was created. This is a very good featurette, as it lets you see the process on how this film was made. I wish more behind the scenes featurettes would go more into that process.

After that, there is a three and a half minute look at the conceptual art of the film called "Blood in the Snow". This three mintue featurette goes into the storyboards of the film and how they translated on screen.

"Animatics & Computer Effects is the next on the Blu-Ray. This feature compares two of film's climatic scenes with and without computer effects in a split screen format. It kind of neat that there is a featurete dedicated to that, as it shows you how the effects were constructed.

The disc wraps up with a stills gallery, both the US and Finland trailers for this film, trailers for other Oscilloscope releases and a bonus film "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", which is making its Blu-Ray debut.

Final Summary:

This film is sure to be a cult classic for the holiday season. "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" is a demented and dark fantasy that has a very original story that is very entertaining for this or any upcoming Christmas Season.
Film Review: Four Stars
Blu-Ray Extras: Four Stars