The Honourable Wally Norman

This is a very funny movie, with hilarious performances from a host of famous Australian comedians, especially Kevin Harrington, HG Nelson, Micallef and Brian Dawe (of the Clarke-Dawe interviews series on '7.30 Report). I'm very surprised by the film's low score on IMDB. As some critics pointed out at the time of the film's release, the scene between Micallef and John Singleton (Micallef's fake political ad) is just about the funniest thing I can remember seeing in an Australian comedy. The film copped some flack when it came out, but I think most of that was tied up with the very bad rap most Australian comedies got in 2003. There was also a bit of controversy when the film was chosen to open the Sydney Film Festival (a pretty snooty affair usually reserved for 'arthouse movies'). Over time, I really hope this one will be up there, with 'The Castle', 'Big Steal' and a few others, as a classic example of laid-back, Aussie comedy. If you get a chance, don't miss it! Ted Emery (Fast Forward, Kath and Kim) has done it again.

The promotional trailer had been promising, but unfortunately all of the amusing bits of the film were in that trailer.

Consequently all I got out of the rest of Wally Norman was one snicker and a smirk (and I had to wait 30 minutes for the snicker).

The film is incredibly bland, and for a comedy that's pretty disastrous. There was a good sized crowd in our session, but very little real laughter - and several people, like myself, were clearly unimpressed.

It's got a fairly crappy script, old jokes, nothing more than predictability in its plot and some pretty shabby editing.

I would have walked out after 30 minutes, but there was a slight suggestion that Wally Norman's son might be gay, so I stayed on to see where they went with that. The son smiles whimsically on two occasions when he's looking at another young male character. The smile was obviously taken by some of the audience (who guffawed briefly) as meaning that Wally's son had as much interest in this man as did his daughter. However the son's sexuality is never even alluded to in the rest of the film, and the son doesn't look sideways at the other character again - proving that this was merely a directorial blunder.

It'll be interesting to see what the "Kath & Kim" devotees make of it (that's a popular current Australian TV series by the same director) - perhaps you require a special bent to see this film as being truly funny, rather than merely pleasant.

I wish I hadn't wasted my $2.99 in the bargain bin at Harvey Norman. I couldn't even finish it. I really wanted to like this film, but it was embarrassingly awful. Sorry. I felt like I had seen it all before - it was like the writers had just taken every old joke they knew out of a book of old and hackneyed jokes and tried to tie them into a script - who were they kidding. The most remarkable thing about this film is that someone actually funded it! And that actors of the calibre of Shaun Micallef and Roy and HG actually agreed to take part. And how on earth did it get to open the Sydney Film Festival?!? Avoid this film at all costs.

Glad to see this very witty political satire finally beginning to improve its scores on this site. It's overall shape is definitely familiar, but to see it as just another 'Castle' knockoff totally underestimates it. It's by far the cleverest of all the recent 'Aussie battler' comedies, as a few critics pointed out, and it's by far the best performed, with a great appearance by Kevin Harrington (who I see scored an AFI nomination for Best Actor for this, which is pretty unusual for an Aussie comedy), and Shaun Micallef (who should have won an AFI for his performance). 'The Castle' is funnier overall, but the Micallef political ad is by far the funniest thing in any Australian comedy I can think of. Also, this is the most honestly touching of any Australian comedy I can think of, except perhaps 'The Big Steal' or 'Malcolm', and the scenes between Harrington and his wife, played by Ros Hammond, are lovely. In time, this will be regarded as an Australian classic. It's a bit slow moving in parts, and it could have been funnier, but corrupt Aussie politics has never been taken apart better by an Australian movie, and this is a movie I can watch again and again, just for the great one liners and moments.

This is one of the biggest laughs I had at the movies last year. Like one of the other comments, I can't believe the low score. It's a classic Aussie comedy, with one scene in particular (the Shaun Micallef and Prime Minister ad) that's got to be one of the funniest things in any Australian movie.

Performances are all great, especially Micallef, Kevin Harrington as Wally, HG Nelson, and Tom Budge as Wally's son Normie.

For readers in Australia, the commentary on the DVD is a must: hilarious comments from the director, as well as Micallef, Kevin Harrington and the writers.

See it, and you won't be disappointed.