In Like Flynn

Apparently how Errol Flynn lived his early days adventuring in Australia before Hollywood beckoned.

Whilst there are one or two fun set pieces here, this is a pretty feeble Indiana Jones lite adventure with 2 dimensional characters, some questionable acting talent and a script that must have taken hours to write.

Avoid.

This film follows a well known Australian, Errol Flynn, and tells the story of how this adventurous man discovered the cinema screen.

After escaping from a jungle exploration, Flynn decides to steal a ship from a Japanese pirate and assemble his friends. Flynn and the crew will sail the seas in hopes to finding New Guinea Gold.

With an opening sequence that can be compared to Raiders of the Lost Ark, we understand that Flynn is a man who loves a great adventure and really loves women (seriously- the amount of women Flynn goes for is crazy!). Other than that, there's very little to no development for our leading hero. Flynn is also surrounded by his friends, but once again there is no character development for them, which in return gives the audience zero desire to care. Without these characters being built correctly, the film continues on with a story of little interest. The one character that does try to open up about his past is given such a poor introduction that when he gets deep in discussion, I didn't feel anything emotionally.

The film's costume design and sets are amazing and it's obvious for an Australian film that much attention and focus has been given to provide a top looking Australian adventure film for 2018.

As for the plot, like the film characters... there's not much here other than Flynn being keen to sail with his friends for gold- that's really it. The film spends a large majority of time on trying to make consistently cheesy jokes for its audience rather than tell an exciting story. Considering our leads are in a hurry for treasure, there is also plenty of time for the film to take a moment and make jokes, fight a boxing match or even play on the beach instead. Many jokes are also dragged on, and the worst part is that the jokes don't actually land and cause a laugh (well, for me anyway). By the 3rd and final act the jokes disappear and we are then given a dramatic film instead.

Overall, In Like Flynn tries to be the next adventurous Australian blockbuster but instead gets cheesy dialogue and poor character developments, which in return hurts the film story like a sinking pirate ship. I feel there was so much potential but sadly I found the end result to be a complete misfire and a disappointment.

2.6/10 Walkden Entertainment

This film is a moderately low budget film that uses the 2010s social lens that describes an historical incident. Applying patches of modern irrationality does not help make a good historical film.

The story is interesting in that it captures some of the events and the culture from the era. Australia was only founded a few decades earlier and this movie captures pockets of that cultural ruggedness you'd expect.

Where the movie lets itself down is in the portrayal of Achun (Grace Huang) who should not have been let near a camera. If she had researched an Australian vagabond like Tilly Devine she may have had some idea that tough women of that era didn't run around pushing girl power or behaving like Achun does. The performance of Rose (Isabel Lucas) was almost as misguided. I watched this movie to see William Moseley in action and it was reasonable. David Wenham playing Christian Travers was great fun. There were also solid moments from Clive Standen (Charlie) and Thomas Coquerel (Errol Flynn) who were both solid performers.

The Australian film industry needs a shakeup. It needs to take more risks and it needs to stop pandering. This film doesn't satisfy anyone. The last decade has not been a positive step.

Cheesy, terrible script, clunky dialogues and terrible acting. If they tried to be cheesy on purpose, it didn't work. Instead, it was painful to watch. The action sequences were the exception-maybe that is where those $10,000,000 went- but they didn't make up for all the flaws. Felt like a waste of time watching it.

The movie opens in 1930 when Errol Flynn was only 21 years old. The thirty year old actor who played the title role looked like a man fully grown,and was simply not credible as a young guy barely come into adulthood.