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A mildly interesting story about an Australian bush-ranger that runs about half an hour too long. Very slow moving and not-engaging. By halfway through I'd completely lost interest in finishing the film, much less the "history". Apparently, for a review to be valid, it requires 5 lines of text, but I'm not sure that there are 5 lines worth of useful thoughts on a movie where almost nothing happens in 2 hours.

When we think of Australian bushrangers it's highly likely that the first name that springs to mind is Ned Kelly.

The armour wearing Irish outlaw that to this day remains one of Australia's most well-known figures has had his fair share of the spotlight when it comes to feature films, documentaries and countless other iterations, so it's about time we are treated to another bushranger fuelled local production and up and coming director Matthew Holmes is here to answer our call.

Based on the true story and inspired by Holmes work on the short film The Last Days of Ben Hall, The Legend of Ben Hall sees us transported to the dangerous and violent lands of a burgeoning Australia in the 1860's were wanted bush bandit Ben Hall and his various band of fellow trouble makers are hunted through the thick surrounds of the bush as they try and secure themselves fortune by various robberies, hold-ups and other dastardly deeds.

I for one must admit to not knowing about Ben Hall and his tribulations as an outlaw of the local lands but Holmes captures the time and place in our history fantastically to give us a first-hand insight into the later life of this everyday man turned hunted criminal.

The film looks great, filmed with a steady hand and a keen eye; there really aren't many local productions that feel this polished. From gun fights, hand to hand brawls, through to simply capturing the rugged natural wilds of a yet to be civilised Australia, Holmes and his production team have nailed the setting completely but Legend's failure to connect us emotionally to Hall, some disappointing acting and a runtime that needed some extra trimming all hold the film back from becoming the truly great experience it could've been.

While he certainly looks the part, in the lead role of Hall, actor Jack Martin struggles to convey the necessary range we needed to invest ourselves into Hall as our central figure and he remains a somewhat mysterious figure throughout, as we're never shown his early beginnings or real reasoning behind becoming the figure he became and while the man never took a life as far as we know, it doesn't exactly make him a likable persona.

The other notable downfall of this otherwise cut-above local production is the supporting turn of Jamie Coffa as Hall's outlaw sidekick John Gilbert. Coffa's turn is at times nigh on unbearable as his Gilbert cackles and crazies his way through various scenarios and it feels like a turn dialled up to 11, when it needed to be dialled quite a ways back and while it's nice when actors try and liven up dramatic proceedings, Coffa's turn feels way out of place here.

The Legend of Ben Hall shines a light on a little known piece of Australian history and showcases Holmes often impressive skill as a director, that should make local and international audiences excited for his next outing, the horror tinged Territorial, that hopefully will be finding its way into cinemas sometime in the near future.

Not always on the mark and frustrating in some of its execution, particularly within its performances, The Legend of Ben Hall is however a finely put together independent local production that deserves a larger audience on home video formats than it was afforded in a brief cinematic run towards the end of last year.

3 trigger happy officers of the law out of 5

This is a true story.

In Australia 1864, Ben Hall (Jack Martin) wants to give up being a Bush-ranger (A bandit), but is convinced by his friend John Gilbert – aka Happy Jack – (Jamie Coffa) to give it one more go to make enough money to go to the United States. John Dunn (William Lee) joins them and together they rob mostly travelers. Ben Hall has unfinished business with his wife Biddy (Joanne Dobbin) who left him and he wants to take his son Henry (Zane Ciarma) away from her. The government is in the process of passing The Felons Apprehension Act which would make Ben, Happy Jack and Dunn OUTLAWS and could be shot on sight by any citizen.

This movie is about the last 9-months of Ben Hall's life. Before that he and his gang robbed at will and then Ben's gang was disbanded and he led a quiet life until John Gilbert came after him to continue the life of crime.

This is a very good western, and some may compare him to Jesse James although all we saw was Ben, Happy Jack and Dunn only robbing travelers and not trains and banks as Jesse James did. Later we did see an attempt to rob a mail coach with a lot of money, but it was not successful. Ben Hall was known all throughout Australia and was known to never have killed a man.

The cinematography was stunning, the dialogues were spot on, the acting by all was very good, and the music was low key, but okay. The shooting scenes were carefully done and were impressive. The movie may be a little too long, but very engaging.

Ben Hall played by Jack Martin seems to have been a reasonable man who wanted no part of killing. He even allowed a lady he was robbing to keep a necklace she wanted badly. Jamie Coffa as John Gilbert aka Happy Jack was a bit of a clown and a loose cannon sometimes. William Lee as John Dunn was simply a good follower and loyal to Ben Hall.

You keep asking what happened to Ben Hall at the end. Ben Hall was betrayed by his good friend Mick Coneley played by Adam Willson and was ambushed by the police Mick's wife Mary (Erica Field) always had a thing for Ben.

At the end of the movie there are statements what happened to all. (7/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: Yes. Language: Some F-bombs, but not many,.

A better film than it's more famous Hollywood-produced cousin "Ned Kelly", and starting life as a crowd-funded short film, Jack Martin plays the titular anti-hero Ben Hall, who terrorised all comers in my home state of NSW, particularly around Jugiong and Forbes in the 1860's. The scenery is spectacular, even though Victorian locations (shock, horror!) stand in for NSW, and used sets from another of my all-time favourites, The Man from Snowy River to create that Australian countryside feel.

By all accounts, the film is about as historically accurate as one can be, with some of the dialogue coming from newspaper articles and eyewitness accounts. Impressive attention to detail from the filmmakers.

Bushrangers were a big part of Australian history - nice to see a homegrown film about someone other than old Ned. Sadly, without the backing of a Hollywood studio, few of my countrymen will see it.

I read review after review from Australians hailing this as having amazing acting, etc, but I couldn't get through 15 minutes of the horrible and unnatural acting. Great actors make you forget they are acting and absorb you in to the story. This felt like a low budget primary school play. I don't blame the actors. The director is the one that watched the playback of the scene he just shot and probably yelled how great it was, while everyone else on the set wondered if he was watching another movie instead. No wonder the best Australian actors run to Hollywood as soon as they can. This is one of those films you get drunk, etc with a bunch of friends to laugh at, because of bad it is. Then after you watch it, you all go to the bar and repeat the lines as bad as the actors to laugh about.

But these guys were really special.. I don't know how accurate this is, but it looks like they tried at least.. I think the problem is in the script tho.. Should have focused more on Hall and how he managed so many robberies without killing anyone.. That would have been very interesting to me.. This was just a typical Western buddy movie.. Not sure why all the hate.. Certainly wasn't that bad and better than a lot of the tripe these days.. Acting was ok, tho the Happy Guy was a bit annoying.. Cinematography was pretty good I thought.. Flow was decent.. Production quality ok.. Just felt a bit too black and white.. Except for the kids there were zero likable characters and I think that made it a major bummer.. Really just approached it wrong and focused too much on the negative.. Too slice of life for me.. Still, I'd have given it 6 1/2 stars if possible as it's still a passable Western..

What a beautifully shot film!! Excellent cinematography, it almost out shone the stars!

After reading copious amounts of Ben Hall literature in my youth this is the best historically accurate telling without adding the usual 'Hollywood' style fluff to pad it out and make a more 'interesting' movie to the detriment of the real tale. It shouldn't, and didn't need it. Well done Mathew and crew!

Jack Martin bought to life the best portrayal of Ben Hall yet, as did the rest of the gang and support cast. Even though Jamie Coffa's John Gilbert, with his 'boyish laugh', was a bit over the top and sometimes annoying, I reckon the real Gilbert probably was too.

The costuming and set detail is one of the best I've seen to recreate an accurate picture of the period. That's something that's usually goes astray. Even right down to the accurate detail of the weaponry used which would have maybe even impressed the late bushranger historian Edgar Penzig. A hard man to please.

The great music score only added the majesty of the scenery and the use of traditional music off the period, always a must, added to the authenticity. The song Ben Hall as the end piece was beautifully haunting. The stunning work of Ross Morgan's portraits during the credits must also get a mention.

The gun battles were excellently and excitingly shot while the last scenes of Ben's demise were very moving to say the least. Those bastard traps!

And the most amazing thing? It was crowd funded and shot on a very limited budget …but you wouldn't know.

This is a mostly forgotten history lesson that needed telling. Move over Ned!

The film tries to celebrate this Aussie villain by casting a charismatic demeanor to play Hall in contrast to the personality give to Happy Jack, who was portrayed as a borderline fairy with Napoleon syndrome. The film is a little dry as there was little direction as to what drives the main character after giving up on retribution pretty early on in the film. In short the film had fillers scenes that drove up the run time. In all, this is a period drama with a (true to) life lesson that to every man's downfall is a woman. The cause for the fracture between trusted friends was over a woman. 6 on a ten scale because I can't pull for villain main characters and the movie was too long. Higher than avg due to good acting performances.

Dreadful. Sceanery is nice though. Acting was appalling. The movie moved between comic, drama and utter silliness. I like Australian movies but this was a turkey. Costumes okay, script terrible. Actors had really nice teeth...... which is quite odd for the time period. Beards looked realistic, all I could think about was that least a few 'hipsters' were earning a few bucks!

I thought the actual story line, costumes and setting were very good. Being raised in the Lachlan area I could relate to a lot of locations and homesteads and reference to other locations. I am not sure if the film was made at those locations as the vegetation did seem to vary a bit. The only negative I found with this film was Jamie Coffa's acting and hair piece. I think his performance was a little "thespian" and be more suited to movies like Priscilla Queen of the desert. Historically this was a good film and the director did a good job to capture the time period and how people lived in those days. A much better choice than Ned Kelly and his clan for a movie.

There was no Legend in the story and named Ben Hall first seemed to be a cowboy western movie like Clint Eastwoods' The Outlaw but here it was none. Can't blame the Aussies for this but rather the director and the script was simply awful. I would say this to director - if you make a fact or true story based movie then make it like "The life of Ben Hall or The Story of Ben Hall" but don't just call it a "Legend". I would tell viewers worldwide to skip this movie and go for another which has good script and story.

Sadly, the distribution of this film is patchy, to say the least, and it will not be found in most mainstream cinemas. That is a real pity, as it is far better than many "big name" films (I'm tempted to write a spoiler here about the one we saw a few days ago) and deserves to be seen more readily. We had to travel to another town to see it.

For a film made on, essentially, a shoestring budget, the quality on all scores is excellent. The Australian bush is captured beautifully, the casting and acting is entirely credible as are the sets and production values. The script brings out good character development in the main characters and the story itself is historically accurate to the point that it could almost qualify for documentary status.

Trying hard to look for negatives, the most I could suggest is that there could have been slightly tighter editing of some of the "moody pensive" shots and horse riding. But that was a minor consideration. I also should mention the great musical score.

Definitely worth seeing to visit the Australian bush of the 1860s and to learn of one of the most legendary of our bushrangers.

Bad. Bad,bad... Dude... AWFUL! At so many levels... Script, acting, so bad... pénible! Good image, but the rest...It is so left-handed, and the lines, so plain, so nothing... and the little helper... who moves like a drunk fairy ... oh.... There is a little girl somewhere in the movie, she is the best actress!

This movie is nowhere near the 1975 13 part tv series; which followed the legend, and what is known about Ben Hall, pretty closely. I had to watch this film in two parts because it was excruciatingly boring. Please, please, somebody re-air the 1975 tv series.

As an Australian actor/director I found navigating this appalling piece of melodrama a tiresome trek With a cast straight out of "Home & Away", with their whitened teeth, manicured beards and hair and make-up that is atrocious, the film gets off to a bad start. I haven't seen such dreadful acting on the Aussie big screen since "Red Billabong", another shameful melodrama attempting to be a horror film, and missing widely.

Perhaps I've been spoilt by "Mystery Road", ""High Ground", "Sweet Country", "The Proposition" and lately "The Drover's Wife", but this is horrendous. Heath Ledger's legacy with "Ned Kelly" is safe, even with the sidetracking romantic sub-plot that threatened to derail that film.

Bottom Line: If you like the now ended "Neighbours" and the endless "Home & Away" melodramatic TV shows, and the level of so-called 'acting' involved, you'll feel right at home. Everyone else will turn this tripe off after ten minutes, or like me will follow through to the end just for the story, ultimately feeling empty and desiring of a real bushranger film.

Terrible make-up and hair.

Very good cinematography, never put to the good use encompassing Australian flora and high angle shots it should have.

Noteworthy dreadful acting: "Happy" Jack and Ben Hall. Guys, a bit of advice. Pay for some serious acting courses if this is what you want to do, or just go back to waiting tables.

Overly long and tries to make the bushrangers likeable. These guys had no compunction about robbing or shooting anyone. They took part in over a 100 robberies. Gilbert was a Canadian psycho who was always looking for a fight.. He is easily the least likeable charactor. The movie is far too long and would have probably been better as a mini series. The acting is pretty woeful and, at times, all over the place. The redeeming feature is the Australian Bush settings. It's gorgeous. The flow of the movie is jerky and the continuity a bit dodgy at times. I recognize many of the place names where the real gang roamed as it's near my hometown.

From knowing nothing of Ben hall to feeling like I know him and his gang personally. The legend it's self has sparked an interest in truly wanting to discover all about Australian history and the authenticity of this brilliant Aussie film is to be thanked. The director, Matthew Holmes, has thoroughly considered all aspects of history and has chosen the most breathtaking locations. The cinematography was absolutely wonderful and is perfectly matched with a heart wrenching score. The character biography's of all 3 leads is so interesting and is portrayed in such a personal way, that it makes one think about the helpless lifestyles our ancestors have had to endure. You can empathise with the young John Dunn and feel his inner urge to impress his cronies. William Lee's jaw dropping performance allows you to relate and find that place that we all hide in our inner Psyche, where we just wish we were a little bit older, wiser and tougher. The character portrayal of Jack (John) Gilbert makes you just see how common narcissistic tendencies can be seen in every day society. He shows how a demonic personality can entertain and thrill all at the same time. We all know someone just like him and Jamie Coffa portrays that scary class clown like a true star. Ben Hall is the vision of all our worst night mare coming true. Situational desperation which is captured by the lead actor Jack Martin, like it is a real life experience. It is a true Aussie treasure and anyone claiming to be an Australian owes it to them self to learn our history and there is no better way to explore the truth then to watch this breathtakingly awe inspiring film.

"The Legend of Ben Hall" is an absolute disaster of a film that should be avoided at all costs. Not only does it suffer from a myriad of issues, but it also features one of the most unconvincing and lackluster performances by the lead actor, making it a truly unbearable cinematic experience.

Let's dive into the film's biggest flaw-the actor portraying Ben Hall. His portrayal is nothing short of cringe-inducing, lacking any semblance of talent or skill. From the very first scene, it becomes painfully apparent that this actor is ill-equipped to bring the legendary bushranger to life. His performance is devoid of depth, emotion, and any sense of authenticity. The lack of charisma and inability to connect with the character makes it impossible to invest in the story or care about the outcome.

Moving on to the film itself, the narrative is an absolute mess. It stumbles through a disjointed series of events without a coherent thread to tie them together. The pacing is haphazard, with scenes that abruptly jump from one to another, leaving the audience disoriented and unengaged. There is a complete absence of tension or suspense, as the story fails to build any meaningful stakes or captivate the viewer.

Furthermore, the technical aspects of the movie are equally disappointing. The cinematography is uninspired, with dull and unimaginative shots that fail to capture the beauty of the Australian landscape. The production design lacks attention to detail, resulting in a visually unimpressive and forgettable experience. Even the action sequences are lackluster, devoid of excitement or any sense of choreography.

It's particularly disheartening to witness the wasted potential of "The Legend of Ben Hall." The story of a legendary bushranger should have been gripping and enthralling, but instead, it falls flat on its face. The film's inability to deliver a compelling narrative or memorable characters is a true disservice to the historical figure it seeks to portray.

In conclusion, "The Legend of Ben Hall" is an utter disappointment. From the atrocious performance by the lead actor to the incoherent storytelling and lackluster technical execution, it fails to leave any positive impression. This movie does a disservice to both the legacy of Ben Hall and the audience's expectations. Save yourself the agony of watching this film and explore other, more worthwhile options instead.