Welcome to Woop Woop

I can understand how non-Australians might not get "Welcome to Woop Woop". As an Aussie, I don't get it either.

Australian cinema has produced some off-the-wall comedies over the years, but this one is in a league of its own.

Teddy (Johnathon Schaech), an American rare bird smuggler on the run ends up in the Australian outback. He meets Angie (Susie Porter), a sexually veracious girl who drugs him and takes him to her community in the ex-asbestos mining town of Woop Woop run by her father Daddy-O (Rod Taylor).

Teddy wakes up to find he is married to Angie. He gets caught up in the weird lifestyle of the isolated community whose only source of entertainment and connection to culture is old videos of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals - a little like "Galaxy Quest" where the alien Thermians only understand human behaviour through the signals they have received of old television shows.

Along with the most strident of Australian accents, the changes of mood in the film are bewildering - singing, dancing and fornicating one minute and shooting dogs the next. This slice of Australiana makes the characters in "Wake in Fright" seem like Oxford dons.

I only saw "Woop Woop" recently (2015) when it appeared on "World Movies" about the same time as a documentary called "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!" Apparently Quentin Tarantino championed the documentary and I must admit it was more entertaining than most of the films it featured, including "Welcome to Woop Woop"

The cast gave it everything they had, and seemed to be in on the joke. Rod Taylor has one great scene where he does an electric tap dance to "Shall We Dance" on the bar with leads on his shoes connected to a battery. But as far as I'm concerned these were the only sparks generated in the film.

Stephen Elliott had made "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" the year before. "Priscilla" was outrageous with souvenirs of ABBA, ping-pong balls etc. - but it was funny. "Welcome to Woop Woop" is outrageous and tedious.

Would I recommend the film? Well that all depends on what you like. Some people relish a good bad movie. By bad, I don't mean poor editing or shoddy sound, far from it, "Woop Woop" is polished as far as production values are concerned - I mean bad in concept. It has a certain cult following, but that's one cult I managed to escape.

Well, I've read the responses to this little Aussie accident, and so far everyone's been slagging it off as a drivel, as offensive, as failing in its goal to be politically incorrect...etc etc etc. I have to admit that Aussie humour is an acquired taste (even though I am now a more complete man for knowing the phrase, "Part me beef-curtains!")but all I have to say is this: why are we getting hot under the collar about something called "Welcome to Woop Woop"? As I suspect Big Daddy would say, "If it don't make yer crack a fat, then it don't. Crack open a frosty and wait for the next picture. It's "South Pacific" tonight, ain't it?"

I tell you folks, that was THE FUNNIEST line of irreverent dialogue I've ever heard! Seriously, I can somewhat understand why Aussies who have reviewed this very smart, funny and VERY whacky film are besides themselves over the stereotypes and how some of their brethren are depicted here. Now, yet another group of people understands and feels what minorities everywhere feel when the same type of satire is done to them, but to an extreme! But, hey! Loosen up a bit-just let that "Breezer" rip! It's all good! I exchange emails with several Aussie folks Down There regularly, and they seem to talk and act very much as I do. So I can watch this film knowing that what I see is "over the top" in it's characterization, and NOT indicative of all Australians. Every ethnic group has it's "lower elements" for sure. But, I'm sorry, this was some hilarious stuff! All these characters were two sandwiches shy of a picnic! I've always been a Rod Taylor fan, and he steals this flick wholeheartedly. That guy is still one of the finest actors still working, and I know he's up there in age now. These folks live in a world far removed from reality. The remarks ("beef curtains", etc) are fresh (most of us here in the US have NEVER heard these expressions) and the whole town gathering nightly for 'Rogers & Hammerstein' movies (and a LOT of beer guzzeling) as the high point of another dreary day reminded me of the Wizard Of Oz's munchkins singing. Yup, sure enough, the plot had some holes for sure, but otherwise, the performances were great, from Johnathan Saaech on down.

I flat out loved this film. It was quite a pleasant surprise and yes, I agree it has cult status written ALL over it! See it for a monster laugh! I'll be willing to bet it caused quite an uproar when released!

I am quite amused that Australians have some sort of issue with how "this portrays them," which makes no sense to me whatsoever. You don't hear Americans complaining when a film like Deliverance is made. Give the rest of the world some credit. Its as if every export must be somehow ennobling to the country of origin. This is ridiculous. I suppose a case could be made for this insofar as apparently Australian tax dollars went to support this film (why any country, which no doubt has problems with poverty and so forth as all countries do, would spend precious tax dollars on movies, is another issue altogether). But come on folks. Its not as if every Australian is some kind of brilliant, witty intellectual any more than that is true of any other country. I wonder if people whined about the portrayal of rural Scots when The Wicker Man was released. Having the idea that somehow characters in film must be idealized ethnic, racial, or national archetypes dooms any movie to being insufferably boring. No doubt Australia, just like the United States, has its own home-grown version of rednecks. And if not, so what. Does anyone really think that this is going to set some expectations of what Australians are like abroad?

Welcome to Woop Woop is not a brilliant film, but I found it entertaining and offbeat enough. From the beginning it is clear that the film doesn't take itself very seriously. I enjoyed the performances in this film, and the ending with the giant kangaroo actually made me chuckle a bit because I never thought they would attempt to use something that silly. I guess some people who were for some reason desiring realism or plausibility in this farce, were upset by this. I, on the other hand, applaud the use of nonsense like this. Were the rest of the film some kind of serious drama, this would have been idiotic, but given the film's tone, I thought it was an appropriate device.

There's a time for serious fare and a time for silly movies, and this one is extremely silly, but good-naturedly so. It is beyond my comprehension how someone could get angry over something so harmless.

Set in the Australian outback you might have thought this movie would have had more in common to the directors previous movie Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The (1994). At the London Film Festical screening director Stephan Elliot started off before the screening that this definitely wasn't the case, and telling us it was about the more obnoxious of his country folk.

This shows a side of Australia that is being rather swept under the carpet. Although raucous and rude in the first half of the movie the mood turns darker towards the end.

And don't forget to wait till after the credits end for an amusing extra.

There are some very funny scenes including Barry Humphries as a blind petrol pump attendant - which so outraged the US lead that he had to spend time recovering in his trailer - it was done fortunately in one take with Humphries ad libbing the scene. And an excellent performance by Rod Taylor as the leader of the community.

Shot in the height of the summer, due to Stephan Elliot becoming ill just before the original start date, the crew needed 36,000 gallons of water per day to survive and in one scene they had to fit the dogs in the scene with shoes to allow them to run across the set.