This is my first Finnish film and I will acknowledge at the outset that my review may be influenced by subjective cultural factors. However, there are certain universal elements to good filmmaking, and that is where I will try to direct my criticism. I haven't read any of the other reviews before writing this.Ambush follows a Finnish reconnaissance unit at the beginning of the Continuation War in 1941. For me, the pace of the film was painfully slow, with very little suspense, even during the battle scenes, which I found to be unrealistic. It takes more than explosions to film a compelling battle scene and the director just didn't do his homework in filming the combat scenes in this film. You are informed at the beginning of the film that most of the platoon members were veterans of the Winter War, yet they never behaved like experienced soldiers would under real combat conditions. The cinematography was mediocre throughout the film. The director and cinematographer failed to take advantage of the beauty of the natural scenery available to them, which would have been one of the stars of the film if someone like Lars Von Trier had been directing. The recon platoon is searching for Russian soldiers in a vast isolated wilderness and you never get the sense of how small they are and how big the wilderness along the border is. This was my biggest disappointment with the film since I had eagerly anticipated seeing the natural beauty of Finland's wilderness. This is the first time I've seen bicycles used by a recon unit in combat, which was interesting, although I don't know why they wouldn't have been using horses instead of bicycles when it seemed as if they were covering quite a bit of terrain. I can see why the practice didn't catch on with most armies, as reflected in the scene where one of the soldier's bicycles is disabled and he is unable to continue with his unit. In another scene the recon unit is being shelled from the opposite river bank and they have to drag their heavy bicycles with them as they retreat. Finally, they must abandon their bicycles as they are being blown to pieces by what appears to be mortar fire. How a recon unit winds up drawing such intense shelling in a forest is a mystery to me.Overall, the film reminded me of a big stale limppu that you have to soak in water before you can choke it down. The FInns are rightfully proud of their country's fierce resistance to both the Soviets and the Germans in WWII, but this film didn't do the subject matter justice.

I will start by stating this is a review about a movie, not about the conflict itself. I am sick of reading peoples personal opinions on the conflicts themselves, this site is about discussing movies not actual conflicts so you should watch a movie with a neutral standing. And you should certainly post without prejudice, because at the end of the day, it is just a movie!Although I watched this movie and to an extent enjoyed it, I can't really recommend this movie to anyone. Again let me illustrate the fact I am basing all my opinions on the movie itself, not the war it is based on! I don't wish to offend anyone, but the characters were mostly annoying, there was no cohesion amongst the soldiers or the commanding officers and the soldiers didn't for one second convince me that they were soldiers. Added to this there was zero discipline shown which even the poorest American war movie has a little of. I'm not sure if it was poor casting or poor script but it was unconvincing. And to me this was a let down.This is a 90% drama 10% action war movie, which needs seriously good plot, scripting, acting and very strong characters to keep you enthralled. It almost pulls it off, but there is something missing, as such this is a good movie - not a great movie. Also if the film was made to showcase the little known war, then it failed, because I am non the wiser now as I was before the movie. Also, these guys went deep into enemy lines to do re-con yet I failed to see any re-con being done? And the only way they could get word back to HQ was to send injured people back?I am married to a Finn so I watched this because I am interested in Finland, however to anyone who doesn't have ties to Finland, I think this is just another uneventful war movie. Which there are hundreds if not thousands of. Although as I said, this movie had the potential to be great, but something let it down, I can't put my finger on what, but after the movie I was left a little empty inside. For this reason I rate it 7 out of 10.It is worth a watch, but I couldn't say to people "wow, you must watch this film" because it brings nothing new to the table, there is nothing here that stands out or that hasn't been done before.

Very well done film about the battle between Finland and Russia in the early stages of World War 2. Well shot, well acted and exceptionally moving. I found this film on DVD at Vidiots in Los Angeles. Never had heard of it before and found it to be a big treat. The label lists Vanguard Cinema has the distributor. I highly recommend it.

I saw this film at a Finnish cinema, with only swedish subtitles. As I can only speak a small amount of Finnish and no Swedish, I expected it to be an uncomfortable film to watch, but I found it uniquely interesting to watch a war film in which everyone spoke their own language, instead of an American with an accent. I would recommend this film to anyone.