Underbelly Files: Chopper

I really enjoyed the first movie with Eric Baner. Poor acting by the new guy in the underbelly series

I read the books and watched the movie, saw this and got excited.

Parts of his life are included that weren't part of his celebrity but also there're weird parts in this programme where they've fleshed it out I.e.we don't know if it's his psyche or if it actually happened.

Set up? Dream? Usually a scriptwriter will indulge us with a hint but this is supposedly a true story so why the added drama? The guys life is drama enough we don't need Scorsese moments!

The guy who plays Chopper is excellent and lost out to Eric Bana which is not a fail but you can see why he's not Hollywood fodder.

I'll keep it short with no spoilers. This storyline is terrible, the script is terrible, the acting is terrible. The whole show seems slapped together, looks low budget and this bloke does not have Read's mannerisms down at all.

The problem with making a show about Chopper is that in reality he was a joke in the criminal underworld. The stories in his books are fiction, so that leaves little to talk about.

If you want to see a brilliant portrayal of Chopper Read, watch Eric Banner in Chopper.

This was easily the worst Underbelly series made.

It is hard to see how this show didn't end up on the cutting room floor never to be released. Didn't anyone watch it before it was screened.

It was just horrible. Aaron Jeffrey was a pimple on the bum of Eric Banner. He didn't sound anything like the original and his mannerisms were just not there.

The other really confusing thing was all the flashbacks and imagined events. WTF was that all about. Obviously no one did. needed to have a good harsh work with the people who were making it and tell them to just stop. I watched the first episode and thought that it was bad. But I thought that it must get better so I tried the second episode as well I was wrong, it was worse and a lot worse.

Three hours of my life I will never get back.

Don't make my mistake.

Yes Eric Banna did a brilliant Chopper Read, and yes it was a brilliant film. What was floored in that film was a lot of artistic liberties that were taken that even Read himself condemned. If yiu watch some interviews with him you will see him say for example that the potrayal of Tanya as a junkie was untrue. Mark "Chopper" Read was a man of myth, contradiction and folk law. This potrayal of a series of events in his life not focused on in the film presents the cerebral side to the man and the enigmatic and complex manner that was the split personality almost that was Mark and that was Chopper. Give this a chance, watch a few interviews with Read and approach this with an open mind and you may just enjoy it. I did.