Let's Get Skase

Rather like the guy who jumped from his hotel window into a cactus patch, making this flick must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Granted, Matthew George had no way of knowing Skase would cark it just a month before the film's release, there is now, limited humor to be derived from watching the antics of failed restaurateur and wannabe conman Peter Allessandro (played by co-writer Hulme) as in company with his inept henchman, he bungles attempts to kidnap the renowned fugitive businessman. Three of Australia's better actors, Alex Dimitriades, old stager, Bill Kerr and one-time Frank 'n furter, Craig McLachlan, playing a security fruit-loop heading up a rival team of Skasenappers, all try their best with a script from K-Mart. Skase himself (played by Wayne Hassell) doesn't even appear until two thirds of the film has passed into forgetfulness. There is something vaguely grotesque about watching these guys put the boot literally into admittedly an icon of greed and cowardice, when the family in Spain has barely settled up with the undertaker there. For a film aspiring to be an action-comedy it can barely lay claim to either.

Inspired by a late-show's segment where they raised money to pay for a bounty hunter to return an infamous con-artist of the grandest scale, this film is full of that bizarre Australian humour that just can't be done anywhere else in the world. It wasn't quite what I expected and as such I possibly enjoyed it less than if I had no expectations, but it was on the whole an enjoyable film.

The movie has a good mix of real and fictional events. It reflects much of the sentiment here in Australia about Skase, who fled to Spain with millions of dollars of other people's money. It's also quite prophetic, off-handedly predicting that Skase would fake his own death, which I believe to have happened.

For me, icing on the cake is that the majority of the external shots were filmed in my home city -- a rare event.

How this will be received outside of Australia is anyone's guess. Unless you've been following the real chase for Skase a little more closely than just water-cooler talk, you're unlikely to appreciate some of the movie. Subtle integration of minor fictional and real events may be lost on you unless you're familiar with the actual real players and real events.

This is a movie I went to, to support the local film industry. Also because I wanted to see some people kick the crap out of Skase, even if it was only fiction. I enjoyed it. I would imagine that many people who were adversely affected by Skase would also enjoy the majority of it. Your mileage may vary.

I was astounded that a film like this was even made. The premise for this film would have been mildly amusing for a four-minute laugh on 'FULL FRONTAL' or something like that... but a full-length theatrical release?

For those of you who don't know who Christopher Skase is, he was a notorious corporate criminal who embezzled a great deal of money from a company in Australia named Qintex that filed for bankruptcy, and then fled to the island of Majorca in Spain. His crimes were overshadowed by the fact that the Australian government and his pursuing creditors couldn't get their hands on him due to the fact that Australia does not share an extradition treaty with Spain, and every time Australia came 'so close' to getting him back, Christopher Skase would have some sort of a 'medical emergency' at the last minute which would deem it unsafe to his health to have him removed from Majorca. He is probably known as one of Australia's most infamous criminals who didn't actually kill or endanger anyone, and his case was dogged by the Australian media for nearly 10 years, right up to his death earlier this year that came as a result of his battle with terminal Cancer.

Even after his death, his name is still ridiculed and most Australians find some sort of humor in it, some skeptics even believing that his death was an elaborate hoax.

'LET'S GET SKASE' was apparently in production and on the drawing boards long before Christopher Skase died, and it is apparent that his death has not affected the release of this film in any way whatsoever -which is really inappropriate because the premise of the film is based on a 'search and retrieve' mission to bring him back to Australia, the subject of the film having passed away this year.

It's almost like making a movie on someone like Elvis Presley... a cherished musician who has been long deceased - it just doesn't make any sense.

'LET'S GET SKASE' wants to be a satirical film that looks at Skase as someone who is like Dr. Evil from the AUSTIN POWERS films. He entertains lavishly, surrounded by bodyguards while pretending to be wheelchair-bound and in need of an oxygen tank. It certainly sounds funny. Back in Australia, a fast-talking con man sees the opportunity to reap gold from the situation. Financially backed by the creditors, he hires a group of misfits to head to Spain and kidnap Skase. Alex Dimitriades plays Danny D'amato Jr, the son of the creditor chairman in charge of the operation. He hires a sleazy television host, Eric Carney, played by Craig McLachlan, who is secretly hatching a plot of his own to kidnap Skase.

When D'amato Jr. finds out what Carney is up to, it becomes a race to see who can kidnap Skase first. D'amato Jr. forms his own 'team' of bumbling goof balls portrayed by Adam Haddrick, Torquil Neilson, Bill Kerr and Nick Shepard. Of course, there is a bigger sub-plot to all of this garbage so far... Christopher Skase has been scheming all along to resurrect his business empire... across Europe! I thought I could picture him with his baby finger in his mouth, holding the U.S. President and the world at ransom for one million dollars.

I am certainly not a Christopher Skase sympathizer in any respect. For a fact, I laughed at him in the 10 years or so that he was still alive. He was often the brunt of many jokes between myself and friends, and my ears always perked up whenever I heard his name on the news. Countless skits and gags were acted out on comedy shows like 'FAST FORWARD' and 'FULL FRONTAL' and yes, I found them to be riotous.

I just didn't find anything amusing about this movie. If he were still alive, I might have found something funny about this film, but due to the fact that in real life he has passed away, this movie can't possibly try to be serious... it can only be deemed as a comedy. And in that regard alone, I did not find anything particularly funny about the movie in itself. The acting wasn't awful... it was kind of like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I just felt that the actors involved should have been displaying their talents in something much more worthy than this trash.

While this 'Australian gem' is not as evil as other recently released inane pap such as "MULLET" and "WELCOME TO WOOP WOOP", this movie certainly should have gone straight to video or another place that has four letters in it and starts with 'H'.

2/10

LETS GET SKASE is actually a very funny very well made film. Clobbered by the sneering media upon release and sinking without a trace - or a Skase - this film had the unforgivable fault of bad timing. The real Christopher Skase of the title actually.....died. And did so unpleasantly....so did the film at the box office. Now all that aside and separated from the media clutter upon release what do we have: a great looking film with a hilarious caper mentality beautifully filmed with a fun group of well cast males. Even the Skase impersonator is astonishing. Lachy Hulme (who?) stars and writes and heads a cast with a few great surprise performances: especially the normally seriously dramatic Alex Dimitriades offering a genuinely hilarious droll turn along with handsome lifesaver/commando Craig MacLachlan. The real delight for me was the absolutely charismatic and goofy Torquil Nielsen who has one of the great faces in Australian films. He is hardly ever seen ...maybe needs a better agent to get more profile. Like the equally disastrous timing of another comedy release DIANA AND ME (Princess Di was killed) which starred Toni Collette heading to London to meet you know who SKASE is overshadowed by the real demise of the real character it was lampooning. The Title comes from the bounty idea actually proposed one night on National TV. I remember well sitting in a deserted cinema laughing uproariously and wishing there was a big crowd equally delighted at discovering what a clever and well made comedy this film is. The media of the day did their very best to off put the entire population of Australia and unfortunately they listened instead of finding out for themselves. But I did and so should you.

OK, the film is based on real life, and real life is complex. However, it does not pretend to be a faithful re-enactment, so WHY include a whole lot of unnecessary characters and plot developments? Nothing much happened in this film until the last half hour, and that was pretty silly. If it wasn't for Alex Dimitriades looking as cute as he gets, this film would be terrible.