Heavier Trip

This movie felt so awesome to watch. It's unapologetically itself at all times in the best of ways. Hilarious bits nonstop, badass metal music, all the characters are excellent and the villains sinister and fun, and an absolutely banger soundtrack (from the perspective of a metal guy.)

I also really appreciate the authenticity of the movie. The actors are believable metalheads, the metal culture is brought out in a way that must come from real metalheads, and I appreciate the linguistic realism as well.

This was one of the best movies of the year for me, and I imagine even a nonmetal person would enjoy this!

I think the film is more of a mess than the first one. With vibes of Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls, but also trying to be funny, while also depicting financial bullying of small enterprises from banks, with lots of metal references, but also featuring Babymetal, while actually going nowhere with it... it's all over the place.

The guys are still fun, in that childish endearing way, but their art has to come face to face with the real world of music, where music doesn't matter, and money, but not for performance, but from merch. Still, I can't help noticing that the same problems hitting the band seem to shadow the movie itself.

Overall, I think it was decent, with a rather bizarre ending that felt like someone just got fed up with making the movie and wanted to finish it quickly.

While it doesn't quite reach the quality of the first movie, it still offers plenty of lighthearted entertainment and a few good laughs.

I mean the plot "band falling apart due to an evil greedy producer guy but gets back together in the end" has been done to death but I'll always enjoy a good, tongue in cheek metal spin on it.

Just don't expect any deep, thought-out story arks, oscar-worthy acting or character growth and you'll have a good time. The music is decent and the cast is likeable.

One smaller gripe I have: It wouldn't hurt to be a little less tropey at times. The forced image change on a band to be more mainstream generally makes for a few good laughs but even that has been overdone by now.

This movie includes a fairly complex plot with twists & turns, it looks good and the main characters are all different, realistic and well performed. The setting is great, and will please both metal and non-metal fans. A lot of the jokes are dark humour, and reflect the complexity of trying to survive in the music industry quite realistically. There are several different locations, including a city centre and the Wacken festival. They have gone through some real effort to put this together. I don't know what the budget for this was, but it's very well executed. I have not seen the first movie called "Heavy Trip" but went to the theater today encouraged by a friend, you do not need to have seen the first movie to see this. The soundtrack is superb, there are a lot of different tracks that blend well in with the story..

I was a big fan of the first movie. An irreverent, creative and very funny comedy about a bunch of metalheads from a dead end town in Finland looking for their big break, encountering ever more ridiculous situations. Clearly made by people who know and love metal culture but also enjoy poking fun at its more openly ridiculous aspects.

The only moment where it started to lose me was the relatively uncreative and much too conventional finale which felt more like how an American remake of the same material would handle it.

After seeing the trailer I began to fear part two would just going to be exactly that, but stretched to 90 minutes.

And yup, that's basically what happened....

The plot couldn't be more cliched if they tried, you can see every beat coming from a mile away and the last half hour especially becomes a total slog.

It's not a complete failure, the chemistry between the cast is great as ever, there are some good tunes throughout and the constant stabs at Finland's friendly neighbor Norway did make me chuckle at least, but the bog-standard plot and lack of ideas drag this movie way down. The seemingly endless barrage of cameos from the metal scene just smells of desperation and all the music references felt way too obvious this time around.

Heavy trip was the little movie that could. This feels strangely corporate by comparison.

It brings me no joy to say it, but what a disappointment.