The Honourable Wally Norman

The promotional trailer had been promising, but unfortunately all of the amusing bits of the film were in that trailer.

Consequently all I got out of the rest of Wally Norman was one snicker and a smirk (and I had to wait 30 minutes for the snicker).

The film is incredibly bland, and for a comedy that's pretty disastrous. There was a good sized crowd in our session, but very little real laughter - and several people, like myself, were clearly unimpressed.

It's got a fairly crappy script, old jokes, nothing more than predictability in its plot and some pretty shabby editing.

I would have walked out after 30 minutes, but there was a slight suggestion that Wally Norman's son might be gay, so I stayed on to see where they went with that. The son smiles whimsically on two occasions when he's looking at another young male character. The smile was obviously taken by some of the audience (who guffawed briefly) as meaning that Wally's son had as much interest in this man as did his daughter. However the son's sexuality is never even alluded to in the rest of the film, and the son doesn't look sideways at the other character again - proving that this was merely a directorial blunder.

It'll be interesting to see what the "Kath & Kim" devotees make of it (that's a popular current Australian TV series by the same director) - perhaps you require a special bent to see this film as being truly funny, rather than merely pleasant.

This is one of the biggest laughs I had at the movies last year. Like one of the other comments, I can't believe the low score. It's a classic Aussie comedy, with one scene in particular (the Shaun Micallef and Prime Minister ad) that's got to be one of the funniest things in any Australian movie.

Performances are all great, especially Micallef, Kevin Harrington as Wally, HG Nelson, and Tom Budge as Wally's son Normie.

For readers in Australia, the commentary on the DVD is a must: hilarious comments from the director, as well as Micallef, Kevin Harrington and the writers.

See it, and you won't be disappointed.

Glad to see this very witty political satire finally beginning to improve its scores on this site. It's overall shape is definitely familiar, but to see it as just another 'Castle' knockoff totally underestimates it. It's by far the cleverest of all the recent 'Aussie battler' comedies, as a few critics pointed out, and it's by far the best performed, with a great appearance by Kevin Harrington (who I see scored an AFI nomination for Best Actor for this, which is pretty unusual for an Aussie comedy), and Shaun Micallef (who should have won an AFI for his performance). 'The Castle' is funnier overall, but the Micallef political ad is by far the funniest thing in any Australian comedy I can think of. Also, this is the most honestly touching of any Australian comedy I can think of, except perhaps 'The Big Steal' or 'Malcolm', and the scenes between Harrington and his wife, played by Ros Hammond, are lovely. In time, this will be regarded as an Australian classic. It's a bit slow moving in parts, and it could have been funnier, but corrupt Aussie politics has never been taken apart better by an Australian movie, and this is a movie I can watch again and again, just for the great one liners and moments.

Something about this apparently "too good to be true, victory for the battlers" made me realize how much I hate the cynical reviewer who might deny us its brilliance and good humored trip to the public bar. Its not "the Castle" but its deeper and more deadly in its comedic twists .Our 18 YO loved it. Comments from the participants (on the DVD) tell it all- an opportunity to say a lot of things and say them well .Its a classic in the funny serious Aussie tradition of great films. Sure the elements are understated( and the frame a bit small) but this is us ; If it doesn't bring us all back to where we found home,anyone of three fair go blokes show us how it can happen. Can't recommend it highly enough. Mate ship is not only in the script, its in the actors and the stage atmosphere as they work to make this more than the many trite "shy bloke does good " stories we have seen .Its almost like some of these people are playing themselves . Kevin Harrington is brilliant and Ted Emery's flair adds spades to a great rural story (That deserves wide appeal) our 1

I've seen some less than flattering reviews of this film. I have to say that anyone with an understanding and/or experience of politics in Australia will appreciate the intelligent humour and satire. I've also seen other comments that say there is nothing funny about this film. That's complete garbage. The Ken Oats political advertisement is the wittiest and sharpest piece of satire that has appeared in an Australian film in a long time. I give this five out of five.