Robin Hood Junior

For surreal Australian silliness you can beat Yahoo Serious' recent film Reckless Kelly (1992). From the opening shot, a high speed helicopter shot heading over the ocean towards the land (a classic film cliché, made interesting by being shot upside down--cause this is the Australian coast, mate!), you know you're in for some inspired silliness. Yahoo plays the grandson of legendary bank robber Ned Kelly (played by Mick Jagger in an earlier film). He lives on an island paradise--a rundown pub in the middle of a national park--with his extended family, and still dabbles in the redistribution of wealth. When a villainous bank president threatens to sell his island to the Japanese, Ned must travel to America to raise the money to pay off the mortgage, and in the process become a low budget film star. With Alexi Sayle (The Young Ones) as Major Wibb and an assortment of Australian character actors and other marsupials doing their own accents.

Serious humour may well be a bit of an acquired taste, it's cheesy and juvenile (not in a Farrelly brothers sick kind of way, more just silly really, with lots of rock'n'roll'n'motorbikes thrown in) but I laugh like a crazy man every time I see this. It is a bit disjointed in parts but overall is a worthy successor to the great Young Einstein, particularly the visuals which in parts are quite stunning, I'd love to see this in a cinema or at least in widescreen on a really massive TV, it's quite beautiful really. Serious again plays a lead who aims at supercool but comes over more as cute, in a cute-little-puppy kind of way, Alexei Sayle and Hugo Weaving (of Matrix fame) make good villains and our hero's trip to Hollywood is magnificently over-the-top. A real treat for the initiated, others should give it a go, you might just end up loving it.

I thought this was and still is a cool film, I feel it just hangs together so well. You are just carried along on a swift stupid ride through the adventures of an outlaw trying to save his home from an evil corporate banker. The gags are hilarious and Yahoo is just as good as in Young Einstein. My favourite part has to be the bank get away scene, it's just so stylish! I recommend this to anyone who just wants a fun eighty minutes of senseless fun. Great cast, great gags, great film. The only thing I would wish is that they release this on DVD in its original widescreen format with both cuts of the film on it and possibly a directors commentary and music only sound track. That would just make my day I give this 9 out of 10 cause it's just so easy to watch and so much fun.

We still got some laffs outa it but not as much as EINSTEIN. We rated it a 7 versus a 9 for the other. Still, Yahoo, is always interesting to watch. He tries some original stuff - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I turned over to find this showing during the small hours, and started watching it out of curiosity. Young Einstein had a certain amount of wacky charm, whereas Reckless Kelly merely attempts to be wacky and ends up being self-indulgent and painfully dire.

If this was supposed to be a satire on Hollywood and how we should all 'save the animals', Yahoo Serious is about as subtle as a kick in the groin. But that's what you get from a man called Yahoo Serious.

Okay, so the bank shootout was actually quite good fun, but it's all downhill from there. Watch out for Agent Smith himself (Hugo Weaving), starring in yet another awful Aussie film before the Wachowskis gave him the 'Travolta' (read: career resurrection).