Wog Boys Forever

First off I have to say I am a huge supporter of home grown Australian cinema, its critical to a country's culture to maintain a health arts scene which includes making movies with its own voice. But this movie, despite best intentions, shows really only the worst. Its based on a racial stereotype which is very out of date. Fine - you went into the movie knowing that, so its acceptable, even though the entire cultural and racial stereotype is over-milked through the entire movie. What isn't acceptable is just how poor the script writing, direction and cinematography is. Its like this was written and shot by a 13 year old, full of staid gags which fall flat and are poorly timed - the whole 'Alexa' scene was just embarrassing. The plot was awful and made little sense, the acting was beyond wooden, the script was written by a gorilla. Come on Australia, surely you can do better than this.

Wog Boys Forever (The third movie in what the fans call the "Blue Valiant Trilogy") follows the continuing adventures of its main character Steve, following on from the first two movies. Giannopolous (who wrote it and plays the main character) is a funny creative guy, but to me, I think his problems sometimes lay in putting a story together. Wog Boys 3 has some great comedic material, but the problem is with the story, and perhaps, the villains. While the two main protaganists, Steve and his long time Italian Australian friend Frank (played well by the talented Vince Colisimo), and Cleo (also well played by Sarah Roberts)- its the villains of the piece, the daughter of his original foe from the first movie, and sleazy night club owner Goldie, are very one dimensional. Overall, the plot and some of the characterisations are a bit simplistic, though the targeting of Conservatives in Australia is perhaps warranted given the current political climate in Australia.

Giannopolous is a good comedic actor, and can write, and with the Sooshi Mango team's obvious contribution, there were a few moments where I laughed out loud. There are some funny observations of the Italian/Greek Australian culture, that anyone who knows will be able to laugh at. But overall, the plot probably needed some work. As others have said, this is perhaps the weakest of the the three (my favorite is Wog Boys 2:Kings of Mykonous, which gets a crap rating on IMDB but is actually quite good), but for those Australians who have a connection to migrant culture, or those who liked the series, its a must see. I do hope Giannopolous makes another one, but spends a bit more effort polishing the script.

There were some good jokes and some of the old nostalgia was great. Some subtle references to the original (my favourite was Franky calling Steve's jacket "mad", a classic line from the original!)

But all this is overshadowed by the very poor storyline. It was a little sad and depressing for a comedy and I felt like Steve really never came above it all. The Raylene's kids thing is a bit ridiculous and the left wing political commentary is loathsome and cliche.

The movie had so much potential to showcase some true and proud Aussie culture that us wogs have embraced, but instead it decided to just make proud Australians look like a'holes. This movie really missed the mark and was a huge disappointment.

Vince Colosimo and Sooshi Mango somewhat saved this movie. Without them, it would be a 1. They lift it up to a 4. They were great. Everything else - extremely poor.

It definitely had some strong moments and good themes, but it's like this was the first draft of the script or something, and the good moments were not utilised to their maximum potential. The director used way too many shots that were half way between a close up and a medium close up. As Rowan Atkinson said, for comedy, you need to show things from a wide angle so that we can see all the actions from all the characters.

Sooshi Mango were clearly thrilled to be able to use some of their best gags in a feature film, and they were mostly very good. Nick Giannopoulos's acting was actually superb, and works so well with this style of humour.

Overall, strong moments and a few weak ones, but it did not reach its potential due to a lack of polishing and not great directing.

Any fan of all things Nick G would surely expect that it's impossible to top the first Wog Boy - can't and won't ever be done as it was a unique piece for its time and resonates because of that fact.

The storyline of this film is as lightweight as the others were and that too is to be expected going in. These movies are about the humour and the moments, they aren't meant to make you think too much.

The only true criticism is that while the Wog BOYS are well cast and memorable - as they always have been - the rest of the cast is fairly forgettable at best and downright dreadful in some cases (particularly the ladies - Vinnie's wife, Raelene's daughter and the party his chick) It's a shame given Australia has so many awesome female actresses but ... then again... apart from the incredible Mary Coustas, many of the ladies associated with the "Wog" phenomena have been pretty dreadful.

Expect to be entertained, if this humour appeals, and expect that it's "more of the same" as opposed to anything "new". I laughed a great deal in a packed cinema with many others who were doing the same. Granted it was at a premiere but still... it's clearly worthwhile!