BoyTown

I waited a long time to watch this film. I did sit though it in one go without losing interest, but it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped. Here in the UK I've have been hearing Molloy, Robbins & co on streamed radio for years. They are grossly funny, but this film didn't match up to that level. The funniest part was Molloy's real-life banter with his young 'double' in the extras. And what a waste of Tony Martin. On the other hand, the songs were clever and memorable, Sally Phillips is always super, and I was impressed with Mick's penduluming.

Caught this movie in Hobart's premier theatre- Eastlands, The Bogan Capital of the world.

After taking three minutes to eat popcorn, we proceeded to watch the 88 minutes (apparently) of Mick molloys brainchild, Boytown.

Being a reasonable fan of molloy and a cream-your-jeans fan of Wayne hope, me and my super best friends were looking forward to a quiet stroll along the generic, choreographed, lip-synced lane of boy-bands. A lane filled with a mix of treacherous storyline ravines, puddles of genius and a lot of bumpy plot twists in the road.

The idea is great. Boyband. Sure, its been done to death, but taking a fresh angle of mature boy-bands is quite a hilarious concept. The beginning of the movie dragged a lot and could have been saved with some witty dialogue, however most of the jokes were fairly predictable and lacked actually being funny. There were some good ideas, but were very poorly executed.

As the movie went on, it started to get better. Lachy Hulme was very good as the record company owner, unlike Glenn Robbins at least his character had dimension. Glenn definitely didn't suit this role, as an audience member, it was difficult to get emotionally attached to him. He is way better acting as a character. (Kath & Kim, Uncle Arthur, Russel Coight, Donkey Kong)

There were some very funny moments within around the middle of the movie. The Rio de Janeiro sexy cabaret singer part was easily the funniest part in the movie. Great cameo from Akmal. The songs sung throughout were well done. The crying song was easily the best sounding song, I'd purchase that faster than a fox on crack. The funniest song was definitely about that "special" time of the month. Very clever indeed. I don't know if Molloy wrote all those, if so, kudos.

The end, well I won't ruin it...

Yes I will.

Everyone becomes possessed by ghosts of robots from the future.

Seem ridiculous? It actually would have been a better ending than in the movie. I love those type of endings in the movie, but this one was done poorly. Gary Eck did absolutely nothing for me in the film, and was responsible for some of the worst lines in the movie. Rod Laver scene with Gary = Worst line I have ever heard in a movie, ever.

This is the best one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdK-aLGxV0Y

Anyways, all in all a fairly average type of comedy. The songs are great, the dialogue not so, story lines are very weak, needed more Wayne hope and tony martin. Bob Franklin could have had a bigger role too, not sure what happened to his little story in the middle either.

But, if you are a fan of molloys, you will like it. In the meantime if you want some awesome Australian comedy, anything by Shaun Micallef will whip this movie like a jockey on a horses ass.

I've got mixed feelings about this film. Like many other reviewers, I had high expectations, especially after seeing the brilliant clip for "I Cry" and listening to the Boytown podcasts. The cast of this movie are extremely funny guys, but the story and scripting left a lot to be desired.

Good points:

Amazing cast, top Australian comics

I loved the songs and I just can't stop singing them! I just may buy the CD...

Excellent dancing (and even funnier watching rehearsals behind-the-scenes on the DVD)

Some great laughs sprinkled throughout

Bad points:

Amazing cast wasted (Bob Franklin especially, massively under-utilised)

The ridiculousness of the song lyrics (especially after changing to cater for mature-aged audience) clashed with the comparatively straight storyline

Story jumped from scene to scene with the bare minimum of character and story development, like a sketch show with joiners

The documentary within a film was completely unnecessary

Attempts at a serious sub-plot towards the end fell flat

The ending totally destroyed many of my (up until then) good impressions of the movie. One of the worst I've ever seen (I would have bought the DVD for the songs alone if it weren't for the catastrophe of an ending ruining it all)

This movie is probably too subtle for its own good. Firstly it satirises boy-band/pop music, which is a fairly easy target, but it also satirises the very genre of 'getting the band back together' type films. Because it plays the cliches it satirises completely straight, at times it appears exactly like the bad movies it parodies. The performances are generally good and, given so earnestly in the face of deliberately cringeworthy dialogue and songs, are a subtle highlight. The predictable and extremely fantastic course the film takes sat somewhere between brilliant satire and mediocre plot development. Still, an enjoyable film with a little more going on than first appears.

I'm not going to say anything much about plot and content - You should see it and I don't want to spoil a minute of it for you.

It's not often you see a movie you can't fault, but "Boytown" is one of them. Great premise, top writing and directing, well acted with the perfect comedy timing you'd expect from this group of Australian (OK, and British ex-pat) veterans. The songs for women of "their generation" had my wife and I rolling in the aisles.

It's a masterpiece of stereotype satire, and an interesting comment on what happens to rockers when they're closer to the rocking chair than the rocking cradle.

The ending was a surprise (although I had been warned by my son), but somehow it seemed like the best way to end and it neatly eliminated any prospect of the pathetic sequel so many American films seem to spawn. Go and see it, and don't listen to the negative reviews - they must have been watching some other movie of the same name.