Under the Radar

Well- let me just start off by saying that this film doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a drama, a thriller, a comedy, an action flick!? And if it is meant to be a melding of all those genres- it didn't pull it off at all! This film was a rip-off of so many other films just thrown into one... and then spewed out!

The only thing that saved this film were the performances of most actors, particularly Steady Eddy, Clayton Watson and Nathan Phillips... They all did a good job with the plastic dialogue. The most intriguing character was Clayton Watson as Adrian. The film could have been a straight thriller and it would have been more appealing...

A lot of people have classified this film as "Popcorn" and "Candy"- just a light entertainment piece that audiences will enjoy with their popcorn and coke... Hmmmmmmmmm. Well, let me tell you- no amount of popcorn in the world could change my mind about this film! I can't believe people/companies/funding bodies invested $4.5 million in this film! It's beyond me...!

Bad direction... bad script... bad cinematography... Even on a "comic/popcorn" level this film was uninspiring. Couldn't they see this when reading the script?! No character development! And a predictable/dull plot! I walked out of "Legally Blonde" more inspired! No wonder Australian film is floundering!

But credit MUST be given to most of the actors, who really did do their best with the weak material.

Can we please invest MORE money into interesting and original films like "Lantana" and "Sommersault", and LESS on to these supposed 'new wave' popcorn flicks...!

Rating: 4/10

I watch about 100 to 200 films a year.

Some are just crap. This one was NOT.

I really enjoyed this Aussie Film. I liked each and every character in this film. So many genre twists I couldn't work out what was going to happen next. Which usually turned out surprising and funny. So funny and so entertaining. I watched it three days ago and I'm still smiling and laughing about it.

And yes the ending surprised even me. Brilliant! This was just a fun film for me.

Thanks to all in the Australian film industry who had anything to do with this film.

There are countless films with the same plots or they have riped off stuff from other films and they still suck. Yes this film may have taken ideas from other movies like Momento and Tarentino films but at least it is entertaining. It has a good story, interesting characters and is very funny in spots. Steady Eddie comes up with some classic lines. It does have that amateur feeling about it that you get with many Aussie films but it's achieves what I consider the most important thing a movie should do and that is entertain you. I've given it a 6/10 but it probably deserves a 6.5/10. It's worth watching if you don't want to watch something too serious.

I too watch 100 films a year.

Under the Radar was a great disappointment. It is films such as this that give Australia a very bad name in the film industry.

Fundamentally the script was uninspiring, with predictable characters and stilted dialogue. Who would fund something like this...

I wouldn't use the writer again.

The script let this film down and was carried by the director and the actors. The characters were hollow and seemed to reflect the writer's poor understanding of people.

I

It's a shame when Film Makers have to rip off other movies. Especially when the idea for their's is good enough, yes it's always going to be done, but most can pull it off without making it obvious... This film was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but with the Tarentino like soundtrack, to go with the pulp fiction style development of the plot, it just pi#%ed me off! If they had just re-scored the tracks it would have made all the difference. They also had a bit of bad luck with using the same amnesia problem that Drew Barrymore suffered from in '50 First Dates'. As that was released only months before, but it was just another factor grating at the unoriginality for the films overall structure. Other than that it was very entertaining & I do recommend you check it out. There are many great moments and I'm proud to admit it's an Australian made film.

Without a doubt a positive step forward for the Australian Film Industry.