I said it, and you might have thought I was kidding, but tonight we're going to watch the movie that actually came out before the other movie that we watched last week. I know it's a bit of a wild concept and we don't usually do that kind of thing. I have been down to kind of just do a random movie in an entire chain of movies and just never come back to it. Last week's movie was really fun though, and I like having fun, so we're going to check out the one that came before. Will it answer any questions that we might have had leading up into the second movie? Will it have anything different on offer than the second movie? These are all very solid questions that a logical person might have. No matter what questions you might have, there's one that probably isn't a question, and that's I bet the soundtrack is gonna be good. Grab the keys to the van and pack up the instruments, tonight we watch Heavy Trip.

We're introduced to one of our main characters who happens to be a classic long haired, leather wearing metalhead. He also gets bullied because of this, as people tend to do. Him and his band are hanging out in the basement of one of the band members Reindeer slaughter farm It's here that the band likes to practice their music, which at the moment is really just a bunch of covers They do good, but they want to do better and they want to go and they want to do some tours and performances and stuff like that, but they really don't want to do that until they have their own songs. As luck would have it, one day someone comes to the farm in order to get some reindeer blood And that someone just so happens to be a producer for a large metal concert. Thus the dream is born and inspiration has struck as they come up with their own song and desire to go to said concert festival. Lots of shenanigans will ensue, ranging anywhere from the casual stage fright style situations all the way up to death and almost having a land war Big stakes, big sound. If you were wondering, yes, this is all pretty much the recap at the very starting word scroll of the second movie.

Actors do a fine job here. A lot of it is all played up for the comedy stylings of the movie, but at the same time it works. It doesn't necessarily feel like it's really just trying to cash in on a whole bunch of disrespect for the subject at hand or anything like that with how the actors are playing the roles, it feels like they're just playing the roles as is intended. This will include things that we might be familiar with having watched the other movie last week wherein they might be very straight faced and serious with all of their different deliveries and motions, but it's also somehow comical because of it. There is a lot of bombastic style personalities in the movie, but not too overwhelming. Some of the villains, if you would call them that, do play things up a little bit more than the band ever does, and I feel that’s also by design. If there were to be something that I would really consider more of a weak point, it wouldn't actually necessarily fall into bad acting in so much it's just good enough acting that it feels kind of awkward or cringey, maybe you would call it. In reality, because of that, I think it's actually good acting but I mean, that's my opinion, right?

The characters here feel a little bit more and a little bit less than the movie that actually comes after this one. On the one hand, the story feels a little bit stronger, a little bit tighter, more of a coming of age kind of story where one has to come into their own shoes and really just embrace what they love and what to do instead of just living in fear. Because of that, at least one of the main band members does get to feel like they have a bit of an arc as they overcome things like stage fright or just general shyness in the first place. On the other side of that, the villains are still just kind of villains. I mean, they're they're, they're conflicting goals with the main band, but it's nothing large in scale. They also might feel a little bit over the top at times when it comes to most of the side characters that are there to kind of just fill out the scenes. It's not really the same sort of feeling that you got in the second movie when you watched it, but more of like that comedic, home grown small town gossip travels fast sort of thing.

Making a wonderful comeback is plenty of good music. Of course, your mileage will vary in this regard, because I get it, not everybody likes metal. Especially specific brands of metal with screaming and all that kind of stuff. For me it's a good time and honestly it does bring in some other nonmetal music a couple of different times as well. The band actually has their one song they perform and it does go through it a couple of different times. which does sort of feel like a little bit of padding to the movie, but not enough to really make things feel like it's dragging out more than it needs to. Other audio adds to the different scenes and various line deliveries and everything like that. From what I can tell, the line deliveries seem fine, but again, I don't speak much besides English and bad English, so most of the actual lines are being read on my end and not necessarily understood verbally. It does lead to some funny moments. When there's two different groups that speak different languages talking back and forth. There is plenty of jokes, some of them more punish than others.

For costumes and set design stuff, it's there. Mostly it's kind of falls into one of those movies where everything looks believably in the time of its being, so it's not gonna stand out and really just blast you in the face like “oh man, this costume work is amazing.” That being said, we do get some costume work with our friend of black metal head that knows all the different songs he's ever heard, like a photographic memory for music. It does take a bit longer into the movie to get to that point where he starts wearing any kind of a noticeably different costume, but it is there nonetheless. There is also a group of border crossing folks in various different attire that's mostly kind of just played for laughs, but it's there. There's also a group of fantasy role players out at one point that also have a bunch of viking-ish themed outfits and one dressed as Legolas because why not. For the set side, it's a lot of outdoorsiness for the most part, but there is some indoors like the basement and some shops and some rooms with things like posters and stuff like that on the walls. It's nothing outrageous for the most part, it all feels believable and fine and it's usually used to pretty good effect. A great example of this is the speed trap camera, which the band ends up using for a relatively genius idea.

For the thinking person side of the movie, I feel like there is a bit less here than there is in the sequel. Perhaps after establishing their general feel and how they wanted things to happen and it being well received, they felt like branching out and being a little bit more in depth for the sequel. That's not to say that there isn't anything here if you want to dig into it, just not nearly as much at the surface level that’s very easily picked out by people like me who turn their brains off when they watch movies. It honestly feels much more akin to a classic growing up finding yourself and believing in yourself growth movie than it does anything specifically to deal with bands and metal in general. It does still use metal for plenty of gags and things like that, so it does still have some of the referential stuff in it like that, but it is not nearly as in depth as with the sequel. It still works fine as a movie, and I do kind of prefer the arc of the story in this one over the sequel, but I will say, having seen the sequel first, the sequel does feel like it's doing more with what it has than this one does. Makes sense given that this was the first one, and usually if you're going to be super experimental with stuff, it's going to be after you know what you have works. Don't let me make it sound like there isn't stuff that happens though. There's a bunch of gags and language, however, that I will say might not sit well with everybody in the modern audience. Some people are a lot more uptight when it comes to words and getting offended by them than others, so although it didn't really do anything as far as making me feel like “oh, this is just all in bad taste and horrible” insomuch as it just kind of felt like a product of something that's actually more of a realistic setting I can still acknowledge that some people might be bothered by some of it. It does use some of that as a kind of counterpoint when we're talking about the thinking person's sort of stuff. In that realm of, you know, taking on your biggest fears and stuff like that. But it's there and some people probably won't like that it's there.

*The origin of s*ymphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal.

It is somewhat a weird experience coming into a movie after seeing the sequel and then trying to pick things up as to when something is going to happen because you know something is different in the sequel than as is presented in the beginning of the origin movie. It does make me appreciate that the sequel stands on its own two legs without having seen this but I could also see where it's going into the second one after having seen the first would set you up for just as much enjoyment as if you didn't. The movie has plenty of jokes, although this time it does feel like a lot of the jokes might be a little bit more of the coming of age story thing. I do feel that part of that might make the story a little bit better because of it, but at the same time, it doesn't necessarily hurt either movie to be in the situation that it's in. It still finds times to try to have heartfelt moments and I do feel like, at least in this one, the actual path of the band in the story feels a little bit more smoothed out and less generic, even though technically as a coming of age story it is still kind of generic. If that makes sense to you, then cool, you're kind of on the same page as me if it doesn't = I mean, it's a fun movie. I had a good time with it, It was shot fine, the music was cool, and there was plenty of moments of things to make me laugh or just enjoy myself while watching it. As far as i know there isn't a 3rd heavy trip movie at the moment, so this will probably be the end of our metal-fueled fun for a bit. Either way, check this one out for the story, check out the sequel for the fun references. Have yourself a nice double feature and call it a good day.

@IMDB

Heavy Trip (2018)