The Craic

Jimeoin and a good many of his mates apparently were on the run from our Immigration Department in the early 80's. Many of the incidents in his first film The Craic are based on the sorts of things that happened to the lads and lasses as they made their quick getaways. We'll have to assume that he's now made his peace with the authorities.

I've only glimpsed Jimeoin on TV a couple of times but I'd imagine that The Craic probably mirrors his on stage and perhaps his real life personality pretty closely. If Jimeoin is a quietly spoken Irish Immigrant with a gentle but acute wit; an everyman good bloke who's difficult to understand, then here he is.

Jimeoin also appears to be pretty self effacing and disinclined to big note himself, which is a pretty good trick considering that he's an entertainer in his own first film. I wonder if he's as nice a bloke as he makes out to be. Nobody is that nice, and funny as well, are they?

The Craic is like a pretty well made home movie, one obviously written by Jimeoin. You've seen most of the really good bits on the shorts but The Craic does rise to sand dune heights every now and then.

The camera hasn't ventured in amongst the back packing world too many times and The Craic suggests that the time might be ripe.

This first major screen effort for Irish comedian Jimeoin has a few genuine belly laughs, but it's generally like the man's stand-up act: lots of smirks, smiles and the odd giggle with quite a few slow patches in the middle. It has an almost 'Crocodile Dundee' feel to it, ie. using plot devices to show off the wild Australian outback to a (hopefully) overseas audience. Not a totally disagreeable way to spend an hour and a half, but it's no comedic classic.

The outstanding feature of this film is its "feel good" quality -in the best sense of that expression. I must admit that I'd never seen Jimmeoin before, so maybe I'm just enamoured by first impressions. Nevertheless, I laughed out loud more than once while watching this movie, and I left the theatre feeling glad that I had seen "The Craic." Can't ask for more than that can you? Go see it.

Jimeoin writes and stars in this cheerful little "fish-out-of-water" flick about two Irish guys in Australia on the run from Immigration and

a head-case IRA man.

Some of the scenarios are clearly developments of Jimeoin's stand-up comedy routines. Australian audiences will be best placed to pick the gleeful reworkings of Aussie "culture". The dating game spoof in particular is a hoot.

Good use of outback locations, but that's a bit redundant. Have you ever read a comment "there was lousy use of Australian outback locations - it didn't look good at all."? Point a camera pretty much anywhere in outback Australia and you'll get decent footage simply because of the light, colour and space.

Another highlight - Perennial character actor "Bud" Tingwell as a mad melon farmer.

Drawbacks - the Irish characters need subtitles at times due to their impenetrable accents. Too many set-pieces linked by a threadbare plot. But for all that, acceptable light entertainment.

The Craic is nearly as good as 'Welcome to Whoop Whoop'.There are about two laughs in the whole movie.Why did they bother.Doesn't anyone read the scripts before they make these movies.