Kelly l'intrépide

In Australia, there is a legendary true Robin Hood like hero named Ned Kelly. His descendants still live on their own special island where the "newest" son is also named Ned (Yahoo Serious). A master of gunshots, Ned can and does shoot down flies if they bother him. He's also into bank robbing, where he meets a beautiful, Shakespeare reading bank clerk (Melora Hardin). She doesn't care for him. In addition, the bank head, Sir John (Hugo Weaving) detests Ned and is out to stop him. Soon, John has located a Japanese firm to buy the Kelly's island out from under them. Since Ned's bank heists in Australia must go to the poor, Ned sets off to rob banks in America. Along the way, he is asked to shoot a movie, using his skills as a shooter and a motorcyclist. Will Ned return in glory to re-buy the lsland with a boatload of money? This funny film is one of the few made by Yahoo Serious and it is highly entertaining. Just as its star, the movie has an offbeat charm and humor that has to be seen to be appreciated. Also fine are the supporting cast (Weaving is hilarious), the exotic scenery, the clever script and the fast-moving direction. What fun it is, seriously, to discover the gems of past movie making, Aussie style.

Serious humour may well be a bit of an acquired taste, it's cheesy and juvenile (not in a Farrelly brothers sick kind of way, more just silly really, with lots of rock'n'roll'n'motorbikes thrown in) but I laugh like a crazy man every time I see this. It is a bit disjointed in parts but overall is a worthy successor to the great Young Einstein, particularly the visuals which in parts are quite stunning, I'd love to see this in a cinema or at least in widescreen on a really massive TV, it's quite beautiful really. Serious again plays a lead who aims at supercool but comes over more as cute, in a cute-little-puppy kind of way, Alexei Sayle and Hugo Weaving (of Matrix fame) make good villains and our hero's trip to Hollywood is magnificently over-the-top. A real treat for the initiated, others should give it a go, you might just end up loving it.

For surreal Australian silliness you can beat Yahoo Serious' recent film Reckless Kelly (1992). From the opening shot, a high speed helicopter shot heading over the ocean towards the land (a classic film cliché, made interesting by being shot upside down--cause this is the Australian coast, mate!), you know you're in for some inspired silliness. Yahoo plays the grandson of legendary bank robber Ned Kelly (played by Mick Jagger in an earlier film). He lives on an island paradise--a rundown pub in the middle of a national park--with his extended family, and still dabbles in the redistribution of wealth. When a villainous bank president threatens to sell his island to the Japanese, Ned must travel to America to raise the money to pay off the mortgage, and in the process become a low budget film star. With Alexi Sayle (The Young Ones) as Major Wibb and an assortment of Australian character actors and other marsupials doing their own accents.

This was so bad I felt embarrassed watching it. Young Einstein looked very amateurish, but Serious seems to have regressed a long way since then. The jokes are exactly what you would expect from a teenager's home movie. What is Hugo Weaving doing in a film like this?

I have just watched this movie for the first time. I have long loved Yahoo Serious' first film "Young Einstein" and as such I had high expectations for this picture. The movie does have a few very funny moments but it seems hacked up and undeveloped. The American release is 23 minutes shorter than the Australian version and I'm wondering if many of the unsatisfactory issues in this movie might be resolved in that vast cut. I have no clue why the American version is missing 1/5th of the entire film or what that footage consists of but it lends hope that the entire 103 minute film might prove of more substance. As it stands now I give Reckless Kelly a vote of 7 which is under Young Einstein which I gave a 10.