You Can't Stop the Murders

When I first read the name of this film and saw the poster I fully expected this to be utter crap.

What a revelation.

I don't rate the premise of this film at all highly. It's just a simple device to stage the most well realised, inspired and observed human comedy seen on film in a good while.

It also captures small town Australia beautifully. So much comedy in the mundanities of life. Director, Mir, an accomplished stand-up comedian exhibits just the right comedy timing on film too.

The Village People are so bad they're..... bad. 15 years ago the slight premise of this film might have seemed funny. I doubt people will rush to see that now... BUT RUSH THEY SHOULD!

I urge you to see this film and I'm bewildered by some of the other responses on this site. I'm reminded of how poorly received the first Austen Powers movie was (slowly building an audience on video, after a pretty dismal cinema run, that ensured the success of the sequels).

With new styles of film comedy, the bandwagon comes later. Check it out now - I want to see more films from these guys!

This film is okay - not amazing funny but has some nice touches.

For a low budget film it has a very polished look and all in all I think it is far better than most of the comedies currently rushing into production in Australia.

What is also nice about this one is that it is so obviously a labour of love by the three stars who are also the main creative team (director and writers)

It's a nice little film which will perfectly suit a video night with some friends.

When going to their movies, I used to actively search out the Aussie films. These were often low budget wonders with iconoclastic/individualistic qualities. They often had a single uitlander(non Australian) somewhere in the cast ( e.g. MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER with Kirk Douglas, PRISCILLA etc with Terence Stamp) with the up and coming burgeoning talents like Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and Toni Collette amongst others.) And you were pretty much guaranteed an interesting time.

And then they discovered that they weren't actually making bad little movies. And got vain. And instead of careful nurturing we get more randomly thrown together product. Product as opposed to craft. And it ends up looking like this.

This started with a cute little idea; It's set in a small town, West Village( a play on Go west and Greenwich Village) somewhere in Oz where the most exciting thing that usually happens is a dog runs away). And then people start being murdered in a style reminiscent of the Village People. Could've been great.

And is unremittingly awful. Written by three alleged comedians from somewhere in the comedic basements of Australia, it doesn't know what the hell it is. There's a bit of a Miami Vice pastiche, some line dancing and omni present confusion. Great direction makes you want to know about the characters and where they are going within the story arc. Poor direction makes you wonder why you're there. Thank god popcorn doesn't fly otherwise screens around the country would be saturated.

The problem occurs when you get stand-up comedians trying to up their exposure outside of their usual 15 minute routine. It is populated with friends of friends and relatives instead of talent. According to the director, Anthony Mir (not short for Mirth) the original story started as a two minute sketch for TV. Why in god's name did they let it get longer? Should've been stopped at birth.

When I first saw the trailer I though to myself 'hey...nice idea'. However i was sadly disappointed with the overall product. Gary Eck, one of the writers and main character, wrote a winning 'Tropfest' entry in 2002 ('Tragic Love'), and in comparison to this short, 'You Can't Stop The Murders' just becomes a parody of itself. 'Tragic Love' was amusing and enjoyable because although the overall idea was absurd, it was played out in complete seriousness. If the same could be said for Y.C.S.T.M then I'm sure it would have made it a much more enjoyable film. However, with that all said and done. I'm sorry to use Gary as an example, and I'll continue the review.

The film overall is quite well make for Australian standards, especially on what I would assume was a small budget. The acting is an interesting mix characters and performers bound together through this interesting variation of the murder genre.

The 99 minute running time perfect for the story to progress. And the cinematography was an altogether different and refreshing view at yet another bland Australian landscape.

I first saw this movie on DSTV in South Africa in about 2008. The next time it was on I made sure to press the record button, and once I had it recorded I must have watched it almost every weekend I came home from boarding school.

I decided to Google it and noticed it was free to watch on YouTube, and watching it now I cannot help but smile and giggle the entire way through, only stopping to gafaw, pause the movie to Google what the director is currently making, and repeatedly ask myself how it's possible to make a film this good. I genuinely want the ability to make films that are this good.

It's brilliant on many levels and I don't think there is any nook or cranny of the human condition that this film does not explore.