Sadly Over-hyped

An action-packed slog

A lot of fun.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The best thing about "Leningrad Cowboys Go America" is that it gave its creator Aki Kaurismaki a chance to take his cinematographic career to a higher level of elegance.This is one of the few films where Finnish cinema author has felt as if he has really been able to question some basic cultural differences of two entirely different civilizations. There are various kinds of sentiments attached to this film.Most viewers can experience comic,tragic as well as dramatic moments which have all been rolled into one in order to create a perfect symmetry of human emotions.As usual longtime Kaurismaki collaborator actor Matti Pellonpää is simply outstanding in his role as the leader/manager of a glamorous Finnish rock band.He is a key element if a viewer were to find out how some Finnish musicians look at American way of life ? Aki Kaurismaki does not appear in a mood to surprise us at all when he questions American way of life by asking a very straightforward politically correct question. What do non American musicians need in order to be accepted by American public especially in the field of Rock N Roll ? This is a great film which attempts to answers many such questions.

Today I saw my second Aki Kaurismaki film, was this one, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and was on the big screen. It's a film with good laughs, with good charm, a little film about a, insert your favourite music genre here (yes, there's rock 'n' roll and country for you), band. Is the American dream for a band that had no success in their homeland, is the story of a band that has little voice outside the stage. The humor comes since the very first minutes and for us is just impossible not to love the Leningrad Cowboys (that's the name of the mentioned band): you have to love their look (sort of Blues Brothers but also with a f****** unique hairstyle!), their music, their dog, their frozen pal, the grandpa (see this film and see Abraham Lincoln as, well you better check that out!). However we can't launch them, we can't help their music career so yes we love them but practically nobody else does or at least not the producer that at the beginning of the film says to the manager of the band that they should go to America, the producer knows that there people like, well you know. The humor of the film is often just truly great but practically there is not a scene that ain't at least a little bit amusing. The thing of "you should go to America, you should go to Mexico" is hilarious and is an indication that the Leningrad Cowboys are not having a really great time but not only that since their manager is just about the quintessential manager that treats the members of the band just like tools. The humor is great sometimes with this stuff, the manager is having a great time drinking lots and lots of beer and practically saying to the band "now you will play rock and roll, now country" and stuff. We have versions by the Leningrad Cowboys of classics like "That's All Right" and "Born to Be Wild" and we have the Cowboys finally finding their market! And this film was, by the way, part of a season at the Cineteca (very pretentious "art-house", located in the south of Mexico City, but nevertheless good stuff plays there) of rock films that ended today. I missed all of the films of the season but this one. Oh and I'm almost sure they projected a VHS of Leningrad Cowboys Go America on the big screen, but well at least I saw it since I really had desires (the cameo of one of my favourite filmmakers of all-time, the awesome Jim Jarmusch, was one of the reasons. And Jarmusch appears as a guy that sells the Cowboys a car, a Cadillac – "for you guys $700" "that's all we have" "I know, that's why"-, yet not everything will go fine for the Cowboys with their new car and not only because of the car's capacity) to check it out and while I was more enthusiastic before seeing it than after it ended I liked it a lot, a little Kaurismaki film that deserves a DVD release. It's all right!

This is the story of a terrible band of musicians for Finland called (bizarrely) The Leningrad Cowboys. They want to come to America and make lots of money. Of course it is not as easy as that.I guarantee you will not have seen anything like this. You need to watch it with a couple of beers in you as it it is very silly indeed. There are some extremely funny episodes in this film such as the band's manager who is in charge of the money gets the shopping in. He buys a six pack of Buds for himself and a bag of onions for the band to eat. He sits in the front seat draining the bees and throwing the cans into the back hitting the guys in the head. Another good bit is where the band has turned on the manager they spend the remaining money on booze and one of them, fur coat and all, falls over whilst dancing drunk into the fire. Any road up, watch it for yourselves and you will enjoy it, I did.

This is without question one of the greatest rock and roll movies ever made. It's sort of THE BLUES BROTHERS meets STROSZEK with some MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON thrown in. Aki Kaurismaki has to be admired for making this gutsy and crazy film. There is not much of the European "art film" here, nor is there any real serious social commentary or aesthetic stunts underneath the comedy here either. There is also no condescension toward America or Americans. In fact there is a wide-eyed, dreamy fondness for America, especially its messy landscapes that hug the interstates and its simple, likable working-classes (but definitely not its prick cops). Here we get to meet the immensely likable dreams, music and attire of the Leningrad Cowboys, the misunderstood, maligned, salt of the earth band that comes to America to live out its rock and roll dream. Personally, I simply admire the actors for driving around the American South wearing those fantastic mullet pompadour quiffs and pointy shoes. That takes guts.Kaurismaki has a special fondness for characters with big dreams but little or misunderstood talent, who can scrape up just enough cash just get by. Here, as in his another of his great comedies, LA VIE DE BOHEME, there are some characters who are unambiguously untalented (in LENINGRAD COWBOYS: the singers; in LA VIE DE BOHEME: the composer) and there are some characters who have some or much, but quirky, or misunderstood talent (in LENINGRAD COWBOYS: the band; in LA VIE DE BOHEME: the painter). All of the performers and artists are immensely likable and amusing and their patrons and audience are just as suspect as they are in their taste, but great to be around nonetheless. Moreover, their detractors are cold, a-hole jerks.Jim Jarmusch makes a funny cameo as a used car salesman. Matti Pellonpää, probably Kaurismaki's favorite actor, is hilarious as Vladimir, the band's beer slugging, tyrannical manager. I love the scene early in the film where he meets with the New York "cousin" of the Finnish talent scout (who also, by the way, has a "cousin" in Mexico). When the New York band booker tells Vladimir that he needs to hear the band play, Vladimir says, "Is that necessary?"Anyone who loves rock and roll comedies, weird hairstyles and movies about little people with big dreams need to see this film. If you like Kaurismaki films then you may or may not like this film, depending on how square you are. I say check it out. I think it's one of the funniest films I've ever seen. But then again I have had some crazy hairstyles too.