Australiens

This film apparently cost $15,000 to make. The money was raised via crowd funding. I hope that neither financial contributors, nor viewers, are disappointed. It's supposed be a cheap laugh and I guess it hits that mark though I found some aspects hard work.

Aliens attack Earth, well Australia, Brisbane specifically, drawn to the Land Down Under by the 'special powers' possessed by Andi played by Rita Artmann, a young Australian woman. She is supported by family and friends in repelling the invasion.

Special effects, key in invasion movies, are quite solid given the budget. The aliens are either green skinned or rubber masked actors. The acting is, overall, quite good. Rita Artmann is strong in the lead, over the top, but strong. Dennis Gibson, as Dad, by contrast, is uniformly dead pan.

Slapstick and irony dominate so if you struggle with these you are going to struggle for the entire 112 minutes. Every scene is crammed with these forms of humour. After a while I don't find silly walks and in fact general silliness, funny. Not unless John Cleese is involved, of course.

The Australiana is thick on the ground. Heavy metal versions of Waltzing Matilda, humorous references to locations probably best known to Australians and personal names that are almost cliched in Australia. It seems the production company, founded by husband and wife, Joe Bauer, who plays John in the movie, and Rita Artmann had no aspirations for an overseas release.

Their company Artspear, appears to specialise in this type of movie Killage, another of their productions, is a horror comedy in some ways not dissimilar to Australiens.

Look, I might be too old for this sort of experience, but it is fast paced, unrelenting really, funny in an unsophisticated way and is probably best appreciated with friends after a couple of drinks.

Most reviews of 'Australiens' seem to mention 'Shaun of the Dead.' So I thought I'd get the similarities out of the way straight away. In 'Shaun' you have a group of losers fighting zombies. 'Australiens' is effectively a group of losers fighting Aliens (wait... wasn't that the plot of 'The World's End?'). And it's set in Australia - in case the title didn't tip you off.

I love a good B-movie. If I'm in the mood for something silly and cheesy I really don't care about special effects, great acting or reinventing the (movie) wheel. However, after the opening 5-10 minutes of 'Australiens' I was actually on the brink of turning it off. You see... the beginning focuses on the child incarnations of our (soon to be) heroes. And the kids are super-annoying. I don't like to be mean to children, but the three of them can't act. And it's quite painful to watch.

Fortunately, this only takes up the first 5-10 minutes of the film and we're soon thrust into the present day where adults take over acting duties. And, as I mentioned, an alien attack focuses on Australia and our bunch of drop-outs have to sort it out. It was at this point where the film picks up.

The first thing I noticed was that I was starting to laugh. Not all the time, but here and there. Obviously, this film never takes itself seriously and a big part of it is humour. However, in most 'comedy' films I watch the humour seems to be consistent - and when I say 'consistent' I mean all the gags are in turn with each other. However, here it's like there are about five or six different senses of humour on display here (like having five writers all taking it in turns to write a joke, then handing laugh-duties over to the next one). Therefore, the humour on display is kind of random and I can only liken it to 'Family Guy' style.

The acting is bad. Now, I don't know any of the actors in the lead roles, but I'm guessing they were told to 'ham it up.' Normally bad acting is a negative, but somehow here it actually works. As do the special effects. Which aren't that special. Don't expect anything amazing here. They really are pretty cheap-looking which gives it a real 'made-for-TV' feel to it.

Yes, it's a B-movie, but it knows it is. If you're expecting something truly epic and ground-breaking then you won't find it here. However, if you like total silliness and are particularly forgiving then give this one a go. Just sit back, don't think too much and let its totally random humour take you. 'Shaun of the Dead' it isn't, but it isn't bad either.

Without even having heard of this movie prior to finding it, I decided to give "Australiens" a chance after I happened to find it by sheer, random luck. I read the synopsis, and it did sound like it could be a fun movie, sort of the likes such as "Black Sheep", "Shaun of the Dead" or "Undead".

Sure, there were great elements and funny moments to "Australiens", but it didn't have that great quality like other movies of the same genre had, and as such then it wasn't an outstanding movie. It was a watchable and hilarious enough movie, but it just wasn't a movie that left a memorable impression.

The story is about a group of fairly odd people living their ordinary, routine lives in Australia, when aliens happen to come to Earth to take over the planet. The group of unlikely heroes take up arms and make a stand against the alien invaders.

This was a low budget movie, there was no doubt about it. Even a blind man could tell that from a mile away. But even as such, then they managed to get it all to work here in the movie. Even though it was low budget and questionable props and worse CGI, then it was just all comical enough to actually work in favor of the movie.

The acting in "Australiens" was good. You know what you are getting yourself into essentially when you sit down to watch a movie such as this. But I will say that people were doing good jobs all around, and it was clearly visible that the acting talents were having a blast making this movie.

As for the CGI effects and special effects. Let's just give them a thumbs up for trying. But getting down to business, then the CGI were laughable and very, very fake. The practical effects in the movie were adequate, albeit not the best of practical effects. But again, taking the movie and its budget into consideration, then what was to be expected in terms of effects here?

"Australiens" is the type of movie that will appeal primarily to a specific target audience, and you must be a fan of low budget Sci-Fi movies and comedies in order to get some kind of enjoyment from "Australiens". I was adequately entertained by the movie, although my final rating settles on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Ok, I have to say it, this movie has got one of the dumbest strangest weirdest flicks out there. That said it's also a lot of fun. The effects are as cheesy as it gets, but they fit the movie perfectly. Everything is totally over the top. It's really good at being a bad movie, or is it really bad at being a good movie? I'm not sure...........

I'm from Northern Ireland, what hooked me straight away was a dig at us. "Don't be talking about little green men, unless they're Irish".

I had to pause it because of the laughing. Well done Australiens!

I recommend this to people who do enjoy B-movies and are open to the idea that movies with low budgets are worth watching.

Don't be swayed by those who are critical of it, give it a chance. I remember "Evil Dead" getting similar comments but boy was that movie great.

The sound affects and camera angles are good, the acting? So what, they made a very good go of it and I'm glad they did.

I highly recommend this film for those who understand the concept of "cult movie".

I'm updating this review, seriously, watch it in its context. The acting is flawless in its context, well done! I have watched it three times now, what a beauty of a movie.