A lot of fuss was made about the new Australian movie Crackerjack', with many people saying that it was great. If it was going to be as good as Australian movies before it, such as the castle', the dish' and the nugget', I was sure to be in for a good time. However by the end of this movie, I could not have been more wrong, as I found, the characters, the story and the direction of Crackerjack' to be disgraceful. This movie does nothing for the game of bowls or the Australian film making industry.
Meet Jack Simpson - office-worker, drifter and total scammer. When he joins the local bowling club just to score free inner-city parking, little does he know he may become the key to the future of the club! With the Cityside Club in financial straits and shady developer Bernie Fowler breathing down its neck, the club is forced to enter a cash prize tournament. But with aging and ailing members, the team numbers are down. When they discover the enigmatic Jack on their books, they threaten to withdraw his membership and his car-park, if he doesn't play! With the battle lines drawn for a do or die match, the club's very existence now rests in Jack's hands.
The main problem I have with this movie has to be in its story. Perhaps I have a different sense of humour to writers Mick and Richard Molloy, because there scripting writing was for one of a better word terrible. I found some of the characters created for the film to be empty', the love element of the film just thrown in for good measure (while us as the audience could not see how they came to be that way). Then there was the stupid element of the flipper', the magical bowling move by Jack. By the end of the film I was totally sick of it, and speaking of the ending, it would have to be one of the worst and most predictable I have ever scene, as if it was trying to make the movie bigger than it actually was. I especially hated the final voiceovers by Jack, as they were totally ridiculous. However the story did have some good aspects, like what the powers behind a bowls club are really like, and what is like to be inside such a club, as a member or a fly on the wall.
There was also some bad acting in this movie. Mick Molloy does nothing for me as an actor. I believe that he should stick to his comedy stuff, as his performance in this was below par. His character of Jack Simpson was annoying me by the end of the movie, being a loser in so many ways, and having an annoying nature as well. Dave Jackson (Samuel Johnson) is Jack's flatmate, who is another crazy character. The pair do share joints from time, which suits their metal state of mind. Jack gets involved with local journalist Nancy Brown (the strange and wacky Judith Lucy). Her introduction I have to admit was funny, when Jack says `Nice pins', with Nancy's reply of `F#&k off' between two older bowling patrons, classical. Jack then says the funny reply `I wasn't talking to you!' Yet as I have said, Jack and Nancy's romance was not that romantic, and did nothing to help make the story that great from where I viewed it.
There were some characters I did like. The evil Bernie Fowler (John Clarke) was an interesting bad guy. Clarke was the one comedian that I believe could act after watching this film. His character really brought out those ideas of powers behind such an organisation as a bowling club extremely well. Then all the actors playing the various roles of the bowling club member were pretty good. I especially liked Stan Coomb's (Bill Hunter), who had added a very Australian flavour to the movie. His character loved a beer and his bowls.
The locations used in Crackerjack' are another positive for it. In particular, I like the way that the movie took advantage of one of the world's biggest bowling green in the southern hemisphere, that of Corowa bowling club', near Albury on the Vic/NSW border, Australia. Crackerjack was badly directed by Paul Moloney, famous for directing many Australian TV shows, such as Neighbours', The Henderson Kids', Blue Heelers' and Sea Change'. Now considering what he had to work with here, both in script and acting talent, the movie was very hard to like from the directing point of view.
Now usually I am a fan of Australian movies, as I want our film industry in this country to keep getting stronger and stronger. However I am not a fan of Crackerjack'. I kept asking through my viewing of the movie I wonder what the inspiration for this film was?' I still ask it, and have no satisfactory answer. The reason I have for asking it, is because of the film's before Crackerjack (like the castle' and the dish') that have really well defined stories, which are easy to understand why they were brought to the big screen. Yet with this movie's story, I still struggle to understand why the writing was done or the production ever started for it. Perhaps if the Working Dog' team had helped on this film, it might have helped make it a better film than I think it is. That being said, if you have not realised before now, I hated this movie, I hated it a lot.
CMRS gives Crackerjack': 1 (Bad Film)
