Siam Sunset

I really enjoyed this movie, as did the two others who attended with me. The humour is quirky and often unexpected. The message of the movie is, in my view, make the best of what life throws at you -- and for the main character, life throws quite a bit!!

This movie had me laughing from start to finish. I saw it at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and I can't believe it wasn't their closing night feature. It was far more enjoyable than the other films I saw there. Great comedic performances and a very funny script make this a film not to be missed.

Maybe if you are uptight and too serious you will not like this black comedy, but the four of us loved it! "We" were from 23 yrs to 53 yrs, including Japanese, New Zealand, and American nationalities. I often steer clear of black humour because it can be too weird and cruel, but the Aussies did their normal brilliant work on this film and I do recommend it.

There are so many small and big things in this movie that are hugely LAUGH-OUT-LOUD, that we thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, grab a drink, put up your feet, forget about being being conventional, expect the unusual... and prepare for a FUN time (with some serious messages under all of it as well!).

The storyline starts with an British industrial chemist whose wife dies in unusual circumstances and then finds his life surrounded by strange disasters. The strangest is winning a ticket to Australia on a el cheapo bus tour through the outback with pack of 70's style Ocker stereotypes and token Asian.

As an Australian watching this film, my skin crawled all the way through as an archetypal English gent (Linus Roache) – reserved, emotionally constipated and good looking in the Hugh Grant style learns how to let go and release the creative spirit with the help of Grace(Danielle Cormack), an independent woman on the run from her partner, a drug dealing doctor.

With plenty of pacey set pieces you could be fooled into thinking that something is happening – it isn't, and the characters go nowhere in particular. A little like the aborted bus trip that drives(pun intended) the short storyline.

John Polson, noted for his remarkable performances as an actor in films such as `The Boys' and `Idiot Box' does a flip turn directing this embarrassing, tepid affair that will soon forgotten. The comedy was cheap and nasty and was worsened by the suspect use of Choung Dao as the `silent Asian' to shore up a flimsy script suffering from a drought of intellect and humour.

Score:

Puke factor: 4/5

Comedy factor: 1/5 (if you're over 55)

Value: 0/5

It's been over a decade since I first caught this film and I've got to say that in spite of playing with stereotypes, it still has a rare quality; something quintessentially Australian entirely devoid of our renowned cringe factor. Linus Roache, Danielle Cormack and Ian Bliss bring each of their characters to life with great craft and humour. Two Hands is the Sydney experience, Animal Kingdom is the Melbourne experience but Siam Sunset is the completely Oz experience. John Polson and the writers Max Dann and Andrew Knight did a wonderful job in highlighting many of our quirks and mores (for better or for worse) in a thoughtful and funny as hell way as we follow Perry (Roache) - the hapless disaster magnet from England through the shockingly funny death of his wife, his suburban London life crippled by the memories, and on to the tourist trip from hell as he sets off from Adelaide into the red heart of Australia. Grace (Cormack) and Martin (Bliss) are two of the most original cinema characters I've seen in years. In fact, these two characters remind me of many people I've known over the years, so in spite of comments of this movie playing to populism or stereotypes, I can't help but watch it and see the opposite. Alan Borough shines as Stuart - the Stratocaster-mangling singer songwriter and Bill Leach (Roy Billing) who still sticks in my mind not so much as the bus driver from hell, but rather as a ubiquitous bureaucrat of the worst order. Overall a surrealist but highly accurate and well observed ninety minute odyssey that will keep you laughing years after you've experienced it.