Outback

Australia is hot, so hot, and full of animals that won't hesitate to munch on you. We've seen all kinds of menacing outback stories, their villains include weather, snakes, crocodiles, psycho killers and even ghosts. In this one, for Wade and Lisa, two American tourists, the biggest villains might be their own decisions, before it's the outback. However, it does claim to be based on a true story, but, as you read the facts they present before the end titles, does it make the movie better in retrospect, justified?

Lisa Sachs and Wade Kelly are a young couple on a vacation in Australia and very much down for an adventure. Naturally, a string of shabby and a couple of real questionable decisions get made, before they find themselves in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but desert. the scorching sun and the smaller dangerous outback inhabitants. The latter of which there's a lack of, if we take into account what all the posters are selling. Speaking of which, one poster tells "based on a true story", and the other "based on an urban legend" - not knowing much more beforehand, the "urban legend" part originally intrigued me. Well - and I believe this is not a spoiler - in the very first minutes of "Outback", it tells us that the true story (that took place in 2015) is the urban legend, has become one. A little lame, if you ask me. Though I gave it all but 20 minutes, in my research I found lots of stories about missing persons, deaths and survival adventures in the outback, but not a single one that could be what "Outback" is based on - even though there's a fair amount of usable information presented in the movie itself, information that's passed as true in our non-fictional world.

Big part of the movie is also about the couple's relationship problems, the values of love and being with your loved ones. It's a slow melodrama and it pokes holes in the already not-so-stable grit of "Outback", but in return it prompts sympathies from the audience, as it is indeed quite human. Almost exclusively the only stars of "Outback", Taylor Wiese and Lauren Lofberg give good and grounded performances, helping "Outback" maintaining its level of engagement. The summary moving speed is still rather unhurried, and it's a drama before it's a thriller.

As it is no surprise for many indie films nowadays, what's lacking in substance is tried to make up for in the aesthetical side of things. Tim Nagle, cinematographer of the stylish zombie flick "Wyrmwood", has taken care of that and given us a consistently well-composed cinematography that really could not be described as lazy. As far as special effects and gore go, you're in for very little. We mostly survive heat, desert and dryness in this one.

I can say that despite the slow pacing, it didn't require much dedication to keep being in it, but there are plenty of questionable parts, plenty of underwhelming turns, and once again I must say it's a case of "it's lesser than the sum of it's good parts". It's a 4/10 from me. In some places I just wanted our favorite outback menace, Mick Taylor, to come out and save this trip.

If you ever feel dumb,just watch this movie...Anyway 5 stars for cinematography and average acting of the animals.

This is difficult to rate, because on one hand the film-making craft, vision and sound, is fantastic, but on the other hand the characters are morons, thus difficult to connect with. The male twice as dumb as the female. The decisions they make in the story are so thoughtless and stupid one can have little empathy or sympathy for them. They are 100% responsible for their own downfall.

There's some truth in this with the GPS. In the countryside we once had similar issues using GPS around the town of Trentham. The thing was making us go up dirt roads, driveways and so, completely ridiculous. They don't perform well out there. There's heaps of country-side in USA. They should have known this. And why didn't they have a real map as backup? This is just one of dozens of things they stuffed up on. I had no urge to want them to survive they were so brainless.

Why waste time making a film where there is no real challenge except from their own badly functioning brains?

The movie wants to make us believe this really happened in 2015 to a young American couple, but from everything I can find out it appears to just be a fictional story, based on an urban legend.

The young 20-something couple travel to Australia for a "get away" trip, on the flight over he presents the ring, he asks her to marry him. But she doesn't appear ready, she says she loves him but hasn't decided yet what she wants to do with her life. That gives a bitter start to their trip but they try to make the best anyway.

Their troubles start when with inadequate preparation he relies on his phone GPS to guide them to a destination. However it seems to give them faulty guidance, they basically get lost and from there the poor decision just mount and mount.

I watched it on DVD at home and I must admit I skipped quickly through the scenes where he drank his urine.

I have watched a lot of movies, averaging roughly 200 to 250 new movies a year for the past 20 years. I can recognize a poor movie when I watch one and this is a poor movie. I find myself wondering "why was Outback made?" If I were to arrive at a summary it would be "preparation is everything when traveling to a strange place." They did not, they made stupid decisions, they suffered the consequences. It doesn't take 90 minutes to deliver that message.

I didn't find anything particularly interesting in the characters or their predicament. I could not recommend this movie to anyone.

As an Australian, and from the outback, constantly suprised that people don't know a few simple rules. Never, ever travel without water, and if you break down, never ever leave your car, and always tell someone where you are going. Dirt roads, you better know where you are going. I don't know about the windshield water though, looks like he was drinking radiator water, which i was always told never to drink as it has coolant in it?, but having always filled up my windshield wiper water resivour with water only, i would have drunk that. No snow or ice in the outback, so no antifreeze.