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Two loosers who live in a trailer park live for their favourite soap opera. When it's cancelled, they hatch an audacious plan. | score E |
moviereview rates films from A (unmissable) to E (unwatchable) |
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| Cast Nathan Phillips, Angus Sampson, Rachel Hunter Director Mark Gracie Screenwriter Dave O'Neill Country Australia Rating / Running Time M / 84 minutes Australian Release May 2005 Official Site (c) moviereview
2005
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
Unforgivable
practices by Australian funding bodies cause train wrecks like this.
Phillip (Nathan Phillips) and Jeffrey (Angus Sampson) are friends who
live in a trailer park, and for their beloved soap Sons And Surf.
Jeffrey runs an unofficial fan club and gets wind that the show is to
be axed at the end of the season. They begin a two man campaign to save
it but timing is against them; the government has decided that these
layabouts should finally do some work for their dole. With the help of
local Scouts and the park’s sex-siren, Rachel Hunter, the boys
hatch a plan so audacious only they could screw it up - that’s
according to Hoyt’s promotions department. Even by the standards
of daytime TV which this tirelessly emulates, You and Your Stupid Mate
is half-baked comedy at its least convincing. The hopelessly thin
material is a junky conceit that shamelessly promotes its maker’s
masters. With an eye on the marketplace and little else, You and Your Stupid Mate
is as funny as the title suggests. Love him or hate him, Nathan
Phillips has an undeniable presence and under the right circumstances (One Perfect Day)
he can even prove charming. Under these circumstances, he and Sampson
are irritating and unable to move the coarse material. Thankfully, film
institutions recognised that their policies were not working and have
signalled a quantum shift in the way projects are funded. Their
acknowledged drive is now to support the creative, not marketing,
process. Films made under these guidelines should be arriving in
cinemas later this year. We can only hope that those like You and Your Stupid Mate are the last of their breed.
// COLIN FRASER |