The Backpacker

Not a terrible movie but not a great one either. The Backpacker in its favour is a very good-looking movie, one of the better low-budget movies I've seen recently, with rural Australian scenery so striking and authentic in atmosphere and for low-budget it's very atmospherically lit and stylishly edited with no signs of trying to be too flashy. The photography is impressive and really makes the most of the beautiful scenery. The music score has a real spooky element to it, helped by the impressive sound quality, the movie has its heart in the right place and gives off the sense that it knows what it's trying to do and be and Vincent Stone while going overboard on occasions does strike fear in one's heart. The rest of the actors are not really to his level however, Nathan Waring did come across as wooden and never makes you believe that his character is part of the military and Laura Andersen doesn't strike much enthusiasm either. You never really get to know much about the characters let alone care properly for them, like with Ben Cross you know that he is part of the military but that's pretty much it for him, we know Malek is calculating and out for revenge but his motivations are a bit vague otherwise and it's not clear why Nina would willingly go with somebody she'd literally only just met. The story is well-intended but was too drawn-out and lopsided, the first half-hour was basically just throw-away filler and it was at that point when the movie started to get going. Albeit not ever quite with enough momentum or tension, the latter of which was dissipated by some of the action that would have made things nail-biting being off-screen. The dialogue is rather stilted and could have been structured much more tightly with parts lacking any kind of expression. Overall, looks good but not as involving as it could have been. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Not bad for a man hunt movie... but not really good either. It was a bit too drawn out and the acting was weak although not abysmal. But the protagonist had a motivation other than just surviving because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and although at times he was kind of stupid he was not just a clueless twit like so many 'victims' are in such movies. The "bad guy" was fairly well played, and at one point when he is injured, he plays it consistently which is nice. There is also one of the neatest little minor characters about half way through which i enjoyed. If you watch the movie you will know what I mean. In fact I didn't see any completely unforgivable incongruities, so all in all I say give it a watch if you have the time and nothing better to do.

If you can get past the opening scene with the locals then you can get through the rest. The locals playing pool top the ham awards for me. The movie was watchable but only just. When you shoot a movie in rural Australia you have nothing to rely on but the script and the actors. The scenery was okay but you have to question why these people are there to start with, especially an educated ex vet who can't even organise transport to their destination. I don't think it would have taken the actors long to learn their lines because there wasn't that many of them with the scenes drawn out a little bit long without conversation. The script was there but it was hard to swallow. A decent director could have made it better.

Low budget is no excuse for poor writing and production. The intended storyline is more than enough meat to construct a quality segment with. That said ... this has to be the worst trained soldier in the history of training soldiers. He is more like a high school tight end than a well trained soldier. Get snuck up on, falls asleep while on watch, fails to secure prisoner when has a chance to, no sense of direction, no sense of survival skills ... how can this story be based on such a false character... the female ... is scripted to be even dumber than the soldier. Sorry, this is a poor effort to support such a storyline. Please do not make anymore films for the public. Practice with shorts, very short shorts and rebuild your approach. Investors beware of these types of producers, they give real film makers a bad stigma and expose the industry to excessive risk. Films can be very lucrative and well made, even if a modest budget is involved. This gets a single star for the attempt. And negative stars for the execution.

It's always a funny thing going to see low budget (I'm talking micro micro) films, you're never sure what you're going to get. I was in Canberra last week and my mate and I were approached by 2 sexy girls in red shirts giving out fliers for The Backpacker, a film I'd never heard of.

The film's a thriller, set in the Aussie bush and I was blown away by how great the story was. Having been out of the country for a while it was refreshing to see a home grown flick made for next to nothing that satisfied both of us. The story wound out nicely and I could never tell what was going to happen next.,

The music blew the film along and the guy who played the psycho Malek was awesome. There's a few bits and pieces that could have been tighter but overall we came feeling like we'd be on a pretty cool ride. Good one guys.