Let's Get Skase

I sat down to see this movie that was going to portray the infamous Christopher Skase in a elaborate kidnapping plan. It is not entirely in bad taste and has some very funny moments especially at the end (not wanting to give anything away of coarse), but to me and everyone I know the fact that Skase is already (allegedly) dead had absolutely no impact on the movie, for people seeing this movie I cannot stress enough that it is a COMEDY, it is not based seriously on anything, thats what a comedy is. If your looking for a documentary on Skase don't look here, if your looking for a laugh about Skasey look no futher.

OK, the film is based on real life, and real life is complex. However, it does not pretend to be a faithful re-enactment, so WHY include a whole lot of unnecessary characters and plot developments? Nothing much happened in this film until the last half hour, and that was pretty silly. If it wasn't for Alex Dimitriades looking as cute as he gets, this film would be terrible.

In the last 10 years the only Australian comedy which really appears to have hit the mark is The Castle. Let's Get Skase attempts to tap into the Working Dog humour that has made the former D-Gen/ Late Show creators so successful - but fails dismally.

Australian comedy, once the backbone of our movie industry, appears to be plumbing a dry well at the moment. Let's Get Skase joins The Wog Boy and the disastrous Reckless Kelly among recent Oz films that provide you with one laugh for every half hour that it lasts. The problem is probably further reflected by the dearth of quality sitcoms on Australian telly at the moment. Sadly the best Oz sitcom of recent times is Hey Dad, a show that has been off the air for around seven years now and wasn't even all that funny. Greed was good in the 1980s and Christopher Skase lived by Gordon Gecko's creed, accruing wealth through his company Qintrex and then deserting the investors when the going got tough, heading to Spain.

This film focuses on the Australian public's outrage at his low act and the doomed attempts by the Australian public to bring him back.

Failing restauranteur Peter Dellasandro (co-writer Lachy Hulme) stars as the man destined to free hundreds of mum and dad investors from the debt yoke of Qintrex by bringing Our Man in Majorca back to face the music. Strangely the creditors are happy to ask a con man to retrieve a con man. Hulme's dress sense and facial hair should be condemned - he looks like Don Johnson in Miami Vice. The usually commendable Alex Dimitriadis also features, suffering at the hand of a dud script, while his co-stars (a cast of nobodies), to be very basic, suck. Let's Get Skase is like a beginner's archery class with most of the jokes missing the target. In the end Christopher Skase has the last laugh. He died several months before this audio visual obscenity was released, plunging Let's Get Skase into further mediocrity. For me, the best part of the film was the footage of Malcolm Blight booting that long distance goal to steal victory for North Melbourne in a football match in the late 1970s. The moment acts as inspiration for our head Skase chaser but makes the rest of us wish we were watching something near as exciting. Weekly recommended rental: The Castle (1997). Starring Bill Caton, Stephen Curry, Anne Tenney, Eric Bana, 'Bud' Tingwell and Sophie Lee. Just to remind you that Australian movies can be funny.

Getting Christopher Skase was really a big deal in Australia back in the 1990's. This film brought back quite a few memories of the public's outrage at Skase's escape from the Australians who wanted his blood. The file footage, especially the 'Denton' stuff (what a great show that was) gives "Let's Get Skase" a very solid base to start this box office under performer.

After the file footage "Let's Get Skase" goes about in a fairly predictable manner for those who have seen a few Oz comedies since "The Castle". Lots of oddball "loser" types fighting against a mightier and arrogant power. Thankfully as the film goes on one can't help but enjoy watching the determined Aussies, led by bulls@@t artist Peter Dellasandro (Lachy Hulme) and angry Danny D'Amato (Alex Dimitriades), trying to get their hands around the neck of the Oz holy grail, (that being Christopher Skase).

The acting is pretty hammy at times but suitable for the film. I loved the appearance of the slimy character Beneheim Bencini (George Shevtsov). For my money he is the creepiest looking and sounding actor in Australia (and a good one too, check out "Love Serenade").

The timing of the film's release in relation to Skase's death, as mentioned in other sources, meant that you would be seen as an out and out weirdo to see it at the time. However, at a time when funny Oz films seem to be as rare as a sweet smelling fart, it is a film definitely worth checking out.

Inspired by a late-show's segment where they raised money to pay for a bounty hunter to return an infamous con-artist of the grandest scale, this film is full of that bizarre Australian humour that just can't be done anywhere else in the world. It wasn't quite what I expected and as such I possibly enjoyed it less than if I had no expectations, but it was on the whole an enjoyable film.

The movie has a good mix of real and fictional events. It reflects much of the sentiment here in Australia about Skase, who fled to Spain with millions of dollars of other people's money. It's also quite prophetic, off-handedly predicting that Skase would fake his own death, which I believe to have happened.

For me, icing on the cake is that the majority of the external shots were filmed in my home city -- a rare event.

How this will be received outside of Australia is anyone's guess. Unless you've been following the real chase for Skase a little more closely than just water-cooler talk, you're unlikely to appreciate some of the movie. Subtle integration of minor fictional and real events may be lost on you unless you're familiar with the actual real players and real events.

This is a movie I went to, to support the local film industry. Also because I wanted to see some people kick the crap out of Skase, even if it was only fiction. I enjoyed it. I would imagine that many people who were adversely affected by Skase would also enjoy the majority of it. Your mileage may vary.