Rough Stuff

Where did this movie come from.

I saw this in early 2018 and had nothing to go on besides a great trailer that seemed fun. This movie was incredible and truly a hidden gem that deserved more buzz.

The film has different plots that intersects. It's an adventure film, with some action and some chase scenes and really good acting. Characters who are brave and conflicted play the parts well. Characters with morality, show their chink in the armour. It is just a fun overall movie and solid action adventure comedy.

It's a film that makes fun of tree huggers, and takes some twists and turns along the way. You end up liking the main characters for as the story makes you pull for the macho men and the lost tree huggers. There is a really good chase scene involving 4x4's; just an awesome scene.

This movie is fun, macho and unappologetic for it.

If you like fun movies, that has action adventure, this is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED viewing.

9.5 out of 10.

Driving into local cinemas in March, Australian grown independent film (and labour of love) Rough Stuff offers up a rollicking adventure through the bushy wildlands of New South Wales and becomes one of the more exciting locally made adventures for quite some time in the process.

Debut writer/director Jonathan Adams has tapped into Australia's long time love for 4×4 driving, the thrill of getting off the main road and seeing where that may take you, and combined that with a quest for treasure, a fight for survival against a maniacal bush ranger and an environmental activist group trying to stop the big, bad corporation from destroying our natural beauty, and it all works together to combine and give Rough Stuff an unpredictable and often exhilarating narrative push.

Sure to appeal to car lovers and thrill-seekers, Adams hasn't neglected the core ingredients of a good feature film, with Rough Stuff providing a constant stream of laughs to compliment the off-road exploring, that gives us ample dirt-track car chases and some fairly hairy stunt work. Add in a bunch of characters that create a rag-tag group of heroes, anti-heroes and villains and you'll be glad you came along for the ride.

Led by Gareth Rickards as the rough and ready rover Buzz, Rough Stuff offers one of most likeable casts of misfits and miscreants we've seen in a local production for some time.

With able support from Vincent Andriano and Sam Glissan as Buzz's off-road loving sidekicks Abe and Scraps, and memorable supporting turns from Hayley Sullivan and Jamie Kristian as members of the vegan eco-group that have teamed themselves up with Buzz and his crew to bash and crash their way through the thick bushlands of the Australian landscape, Rough Stuff has somebody and something for everyone while Adams and his team behind the camera have worked hard to capture some truly stunning action and shots of the Australian vistas, that will likely have overseas watchers jumping on the nearest plane to come and explore the great outdoors that lay at our doorstep.

When Rough Stuff clicks into gear, it provides an exciting, visually spectacular thrill ride that offers up something unique and different to what we've seen in local productions before.

While its "rough" around the edges in some areas, Rough Stuff is set to be a favourite amongst the many outdoor 4×4 explorers that inhabit our fair shores, and this fun and likeable adventure is one of those rare local productions that has a broad enough appeal to become an overseas favourite as well as one of the most easily accessible films from the growing list of quality, locally made features.

3 ½ shovels out of 5

An Australian adventure; A story about a group of treasure hunters who travel into the Australian bush in search of a legendary stash of gold. Soon they face danger, lies and betrayal. This film is about 20mins too long and suffers from poor editing and poor storyboarding. While there is a good soundtrack and a fun sense of adventure as it rolls, the dialogue misfires. It has a shifting tone - it can't decide whether to be an action-comedy or a straight adventure film. We enjoy a mystery villain for a while which keeps up the tension but it drains away by the third act. A very big explosion was probably needed at the end of the convoluted plot to justify the investment in the main character. Instead we get a romance bolted on and a stub of an ending.

I saw this for the first time as an overnight rental from my local video store.

If you're looking for a Fast and Furious style Aussie movie with a strong storyline, you will be disappointed (face it, you didn't watch fast and furious for the storylines, it was always about "cars and girls, cars and girls" ref: directors commentary of 2 Fast 2 Furious). If you're looking for movie where you get to see the Australian outback, some four wheel driving... and somewhat of a story line in the background similar to Fools Gold, throw in some Aussie slang and a couple of Americans who are confused by every bit of slang used, then this is for you.

Bad acting.... bad practical effect but it was a good laugh, the very much not impressive soundtrack didn't help hyp you up and didn't do anything good for the film..... The only thing this movie could provide was confusion.... It only left me thinking, how did they not see that, how could they miss that, how the f.... what happened there, are they for real?

The fighting scenes were not something to get excited over as well, being hard to follow what happened in the moment and not seeing the logic in what and why they chose to make it like that. Morten Korch fighting scenes are gold compared to this, and they were made 60-80 years ago....