Rikky and Pete

Australian cinema has always captivated me. Their cinema is refreshing. "Rikky and Pete" would revive memories of the young rebel in one's life. As a film, you cannot compare it with great cinema of top directors--yet it is charming because it captures the non-conformist in all of us. The mechanical genius Pete invents a gadget that uses the childish paper-plane concept to deliver a newspaper. The brother sister bonding is well portrayed. The jabs at soft-headed evangelists are also well done. The anti-establishment note of the film is the refrain throughout the running time--with one realistic line "I am afraid" coming from the jailed Pete after contemplating the willfully open jail door.

While the film is about cars, inventions, inefficient cops, Eartha Kitt, loonies--the work appears disjointed and immature. Yet some of the minor characters are superb. Examples are the two ladies--the young Tetchie Agbayani as Flossie (Pete's girlfriend at the mine) and Dorothy Alison as Pete's rich mother.

The element of satire that runs through conversation and actions lifts up the product to a level of above average cinema.

Hollywood has never known what to do with Asian actresses. It took an Australian woman director to bring out the full potential of the lovely Tetchie Agbayani as Pete's girlfriend in this gentle Aussie comedy. The scene where she is negotiating to get a rise out of her boss (double entendre intended) shows her to be a highly talented comic actress.

I actually saw the film because of Tetchie's participation in it, and was pleasantly surprised by the movie as a whole. It delivers quiet chuckles rather than belly laughs, but leaves you feeling good. It deserves to be more widely appreciated.

A sister and her younger brother from a rich family in Melbourne flee to the Outback for a much-needed break. Ricky is a minstrel with a geologist degree while Pete is a subdued mechanical genius and inventor, albeit penniless. They find sanctuary in a desert mining town.

This decent Australian production from 1988 is not a comedy as touted; it's a semi-offbeat drama with some amusing touches. It's reminiscent of flicks like "Joyride" (1977) with Anne Lockhart & Melanie Griffith about youths fleeing the big city and their misadventures trying out a new life in the vast wilderness (not to be confused with the 2001 road rage flick "Joy Ride").

Nina Landis comes across as a plain Jane at first, but grows more alluring as the movie proceeds, particularly when she's in tight jeans later in the story (just kidding, not really). Tetchie Agbayani is also on hand on the feminine front, a kinda cute Asian. The guy who plays Pete looks like an Aussie version of Charlie Sheen.

At the end of the day, "Rikky and Pete" may not be great, but it ain't bad either, particularly if you're in the mood for a quirky misadventure flick like "Joyride" (1977).

The movie runs 1 hour, 42 minutes and was shot in Australia (New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland).

GRADE: B-/C+

Nothing much happens in Rikki and Pete, but this is not really a criticism. It's a character comedy and the time spent with the titular oddball brother and sister pair is not time wasted. Rikki is a bored researcher who wants to be a country music star and tries a few wacky stunts to get her second career going. Pete is a rather anti-social, housebound type with a real genius for creating fascinatingly useless, Rube Goldberg style devices. Watching these weird toys work is one of the genuine pleasures of this little movie. The style is intimate, with a lot of close shots of one of both of the sibs, and the setting is effectively littered and cluttered, as any world would be that had a mad little builder like Pete in it. There are few bright colors and no big message here as their odd little story lines play out, just a quite appealing portrait of a functional sibling relationship in a somewhat dysfunctional and frustrating life situation. Worth a look.

Like most Americans, I think I have a deep respect and even envy for all things Australian. I think it reminds us of us of the days before we became politically correct. Australia is not only an original, but an aboriginal. We long for the rough and ready good old days, and the Aussies remind us of them.

This movie is no exception. Pete is a loose screw who has a grudge against the local plod, and a genius for building indescribable gadgets that seem to do the impossible. Rikky, his sister, is the only family member that either understands him or cares about him. When Pete gets himself in a fix, she hustles him off in the family Bently and heads from the big city to the great Outback. Their adventures and misadventures along the way, as well as the breathtaking location scenery rounds out the story. Some of this stuff is really hilarious but not silly. This movie has a heart.

Rikky, played by a very appealing Nina Landis, is an aspiring country and western singer who becomes a troubadour to help finance the trip out to the wilderness. They arrive at a desolate mining camp hoping to hide out from the coppers till the heat dies down and hook up with a bunch of losers in a mining venture.

The country music was terrific tho I was a little disappointed to find that Rikky's voice was dubbed by a pro named Wendy Mattews. Just when I was falling in love too. Nina Landis made this movie, and I was sorry to find that I was 15 yrs late in discovering her. My chances of finding another Nina Landis movie are slim at best. Take my advice. If you find one - don't miss it.