The Ztems are massive in Finland but have yet to break in the UK despite having released over 17 albums, one of which spent three weeks at number 2 in Finland's main download chart. In order to try and make it big, they have arranged a series of 9 gigs in the UK. The cameras follow them on their road trip, with small venues, cheap hotels, motorway service station dinners and rhythmical differences.
Channel 4 in the UK may be responsible for bringing a lot of American imports over and it does sometimes seem like all it does is rerun Friends ad nauseam, but it also does something that other terrestrial channels don't seem to do as easily encourage talent and promote short films. Its "Outside" showcase is a big part of this and I'm always surprised that Channel 4 takes such a role where really it is the publicly funded BBC that should be taking the risks with stuff like this rather than the commercially driven stations. Anyway, Ztems was shown as part of this collection of short films and it is enjoyable even if the approach has been done before. Rockumentaries are always good if they get it right and Ztems pretty much gets it right for the most part. The Finnish band are funny and the dialogue has plenty of lines that are memorable and fans of Spinal Tap could do worst than to give this a try.
The puppets are very weird and would likely give children nightmares if they saw them, but they are distinctive are look good considering the budgetary constraints. I laughed a couple of times but was amused for most of the film overall an unoriginal concept but one that has a good script and is helped in the "originality" stakes by being a puppet show to boot. Overall an enjoyable film with enough laughs to make it work.
Channel 4 in the UK may be responsible for bringing a lot of American imports over and it does sometimes seem like all it does is rerun Friends ad nauseam, but it also does something that other terrestrial channels don't seem to do as easily encourage talent and promote short films. Its "Outside" showcase is a big part of this and I'm always surprised that Channel 4 takes such a role where really it is the publicly funded BBC that should be taking the risks with stuff like this rather than the commercially driven stations. Anyway, Ztems was shown as part of this collection of short films and it is enjoyable even if the approach has been done before. Rockumentaries are always good if they get it right and Ztems pretty much gets it right for the most part. The Finnish band are funny and the dialogue has plenty of lines that are memorable and fans of Spinal Tap could do worst than to give this a try.
The puppets are very weird and would likely give children nightmares if they saw them, but they are distinctive are look good considering the budgetary constraints. I laughed a couple of times but was amused for most of the film overall an unoriginal concept but one that has a good script and is helped in the "originality" stakes by being a puppet show to boot. Overall an enjoyable film with enough laughs to make it work.