Riot On! (2004) Online

I am reviewing this documentary about the company I worked for. Riot Entertainment (RIOT-E) was a Finnish mobile game company set to produce mobile games based on famous brands from movies like Lords of the Rings, Marvel Universe (X-men, Spiderman etc.), Bridget Jones Diary etc. What made their story unique that RIOT-E originally had just 6 Finnish guys with a Powerpoint show. They didn't have any products, technology etc., but they managed to get $21 million venture capital. All this money was spent on years 2000-2002, when the firm finally went bankrupt.

The film is directed by Kimm Finn (alias Kimmo Saksanen), who worked as content specialist for RIOT-E. The film is produced by John Hakalax, who is was one of the founding members of RIOT-E. They both know their subject well, perhaps too well, because the film could have benefit more from outside view. They have done good job on finding the backgrounds and interviewed people all over the world, but all the dialogue is edited short, taken often out of context to repeat the same message.

Although the film has no factual mistakes, it gives a one-sided view on the subject. Working for RIOT-E was not so much partying (actually the parties were normal and not so glorious compared to many other IT companies of that time). Most of the workers did not have access to company credit cards.

I went to see this film in a movie theather full of people. The 500 head audience was laughing all the time, so the documentary is certainly very entertaining, better than most comedies by far.

The film is edited extremely fast, like MTV's music videos, using lots of special effects and short animation clips, real video footage and photos from the days of the company. End result looks very stylish, gamelike, unique.

The first two third of the film are good and hilarious fun, the last third being boring and slowing down, showing too much John Hakalax, who plays to be suicidal, but doesn't succeed well on that role. The beginning is glorious, the end being sad.

The film features one of the best sound tracks found in modern documentary films, lots of classical music remixed into modern dance and hip hop, enhancing the fast and chaotic mood of the film.

Despite its weakness the film gives a very realistic view on the attitudes, the general atmosphere of the crazy years of 2000-2001. RIOT-E was an entertainment company, on the top of its field, with all the possible side effects from drug use to paid women. Especially Americans could learn so much from the film.

Do not go see this film for its sex scenes (they are short and fuzzy), go to see it to have fun and learn from it!

I suspect this film may not have done very well at the box office here in Finland, not least because it seems hardly to have been marketed. That's a pity, because it tells a good story of greed and folly in a very vivid way, and gives insights into the Finnish mindset which are usually open only to those fairly few foreigners who have a grasp of the language. (And in doing so, it overcomes some of the more tired clichés about the Finns, which I fear Kaurismaki's films sometimes exaggerate.) It looks good, there are some very funny moments, and the soundtrack - featuring some very tacky versions of well-known classics - complements the visual material very satisfactorily. It would be a pity if it failed to reach a wider audience.

This documentary serves as an interesting insight into the heady days of investment madness before the .COM crash. It details the rapid rise and fall of a mismanaged media company who staked its reputation on SMS based games for mobile phones. Enigmatic characters from real life either impress with their balanced credibility, or amaze with their lack of grasp of reality. The documentary goes from serious to bizarre, and is interspersed with interesting animations that underpin the ridiculousness of some of the events that went on in the company. It neatly takes us from getting start up capital from investors, through to setting up employing, and ultimately self destructing under the weight of mismanagement, poor insight, and ultimately a business model that was unlikely to work.

Anyone interested in the technology sector will probably find this an interesting insight, and will marvel at some of the poor judgement exercised, and giggle at some of the tech anecdotes. People interested in investing will probably look a little more closely at their investments after seeing this, and everyone else will really wonder if nude dining and "manly" nude male wrestling in restaurants on company money is really acceptable in Finnish culture.

In the year 2000, six young Finnish men are at the cutting edge of mobile technology with their company Riot Entertainment. Investors such as Nokia and Rupert Murdock are rushing to their door with about $21,000,000 to get on with. Suddenly finding themselves the hot new property but with the requirement to now deliver on their investments, Riot start employing – anyone, looking to be seen to be booming. They purchase the rights to film franchises for mobile conversion purposes and set out to deliver on their promises. Two years later Riot Entertainment is bankrupt and there is no money to be had anywhere. What happened?

The example of Riot Entertainment does rather show the huge risks and assumptions that exist within the models that currently make up what we call global economics. It always amazes me that an effective rumour could be enough to wipe millions off the value of a company and, conversely, good management of image and the figures can see a company become worth millions over a short period. Last year I saw a fascinating documentary on Enron and it was with a similar interest that I came to "Riot On!". From the start though, the ground rules are laid down as we are treated to a dancing woman over animated graphics and the narrator asking "where the f*** did all the money go?". It was here (30 seconds in) that I worked out that this film was very much going for the youth market rather than being a more serious documentary.

But there is nothing wrong with that as the approach – god knows sometimes with this stuff if you don't laugh about it you only have the other option left available. The delivery is relentlessly MTV-style but mostly it works because it brings the story out well enough. At times I would have appreciated a bit more of a level-headed delivery but overall it works and indeed some stories are well brought out by animation in a way that talking heads would not have been able to (the story of the Lord of the Rings rights for example). The story was fascinating though and even the sometimes clumsy delivery cannot hide that. I was gripped to hear of their successes (and lets be honest, getting 7 year rights to LoTR for the amount of money that a premiership footballer earns in a month is a success) but also their greed and excess which saw them employing relatives, conmen, orgies in the sauna downstairs and so on. It isn't really a cautionary tale so much as an amazing look at what is possible if you are just really good at blagging.

The frantic MTV delivery may put off some viewers and indeed I would still like to see a more serious documentary on the subject for in a way the style does suit the madness and excess that the film informs about. Maybe not for everyone in style but the material makes it worth seeing if you know nothing about Riot.