Horseplay

Why do all contemporary Australian moviemakers suddenly want to make the next Pulp Fiction? Here's another example that brings to mind You Can't Stop The Murders from a few months back. It had a great premise (all the characters from the Village People - Indian, cowboy, bike rider etc. getting bumped off with the policeman next unless he solves the case) but the script and direction were, well, appalling. Here the direction is better, but the script is still heavy-handed, plodding and instead of being zappy is just plain dumb. The premise - a loser who wants to prove he's somebody by throwing the Melbourne Cup horse race - had potential. The acting isn't too bad either. But once again there's all this unnecessary nasty violence (it's cool! it's now! it's groovy kids!) and teen girls with wigs and guns (how very Tarantino) mashed in and the film just stalls at the gate. It's hard to imagine who this will appeal to, but one thing is for sure - there's unlikely to be a sequel.

This movie has the makings of what could be a good movie but is misses trying to juggle too many balls in the air. This is shown by the way they needed 10 minutes of Hugo Weaving's great voice-over work just to try and set the scene. Way too complicated for what is a farce. Jason Donovan is the best thing in it.

I absolutley loved this flick! Fast paced, good script, great actors, good looking girls- what more could u want?! The setting for this film is great, the colourful world of the race track definitely provides a lot of scope to be explored and Kazanzidis definitely did this! From the sleazy old guys to the young, bitchy but beautiful girls, all characters that could be covered were! Thoroughly entertaining!

I was lucky enough to score a freebie to this. Not lucky because I got to see a great film. I didn't. Lucky because I didn't waste my money. I try to support Australian films because when they're good, they're great. When a new comedy appears. I always hold out a faint hope that it might just be another Strictly Ballroom or Muriel's Wedding. Horseplay was far from it. The story is mostly watchable, but the characters are unlikeable, and often annoying. There is too much hysterical screaming. There's a suspect touch of misogyny in the portrayal of the female characters. The most interesting role is Jason Donovan's - a selfish airhead. Probably his best performance ever. Who would have thought?