The Postcard Bandit

Ignore Producer's anti-votes for this comment, the Ridiculous miscasting of tall thin Tom Long as chunky nugget career criminal Brenden Abbott is as visually foolish as Mick Jagger playing Ned Kelly. Excellent and appropriate TV actor Peter Phelps was perfect for this role and the producer of this mis informed tele trash was even encouraged to at least get Phelps into the role. Along with a very dubious tabloid book as the only chosen research THE POSTCARD BANDIT was a misconceived and mishandled misfire at which even Brenden Abbott would have been appalled. How do I know? Here's how: I am friends with the family of his 12 year old son son who lives quietly and secretly in the suburbs.... We approached the producer and director and pleaded not to make this a crap TV movie and include our input. We were also very sensitive to how they were going to portray the real family members affected by Abbott's life of crime and also how this sensitive boy would be affected after this film played on TV and he would have a tough time of it at school. They did not want genuine input and did not want the truth. They just wanted to make their tele movie and use up their allocated budget... and pay themselves their fees. We were shown the door and they proceeded with inventing ludicrous scenes and mis matching casting. Naturally we were appalled and very upset. The only reason these rude and belligerent people made this film is because a lame TV cop- crime series called THE YOUNG LIONS was canned. Tom Long was the star of that. Given they had budget money left over it was decided to make a cheap TWO HANDS knock off and THE POSTCARD BANDIT was chosen. and Tom long had to be used up. So were real and innocent people and the crime committed against this family by the TV producers of this stupid and mis managed TV movie is equally as offensive as anything Abbott committed himself against the public. Two wrongs do not make a right. Everyone associated with this clapped together rude disaster should financially chip in and assist payments for the troubled boy's psychiatrist sessions as a result of this foolish horror exposure. The most galling offence to the public is that the producer was the same man who made the 1977 masterpiece children's film STORM BOY, a sensitive and accurate portrayal of how events in a child's life stay with them forever. What an ignominious hole in a once respected career is this ridiculous and cruel TV junk called THE POSTCARD BANDIT. Shame upon shame.

Not even the slightest bit of anything resembling effort went into this film. The characters are one dimensional, the effects are shoddy and the acting is so awful that at times I thought I was watching a year 12 production of "dags" - the acting quality is much superior in that! While some of the events might be factual, that does not make them actually interesting, and this whole movie is more boring than watching paint dry! Even if the budget was bigger I have a sneaky suspicion that the movie would have been crap anyway, because it would not have changed the awful writing and poor performances! What a waste of all the effort involved!

This movie was pretty good. I wasn't expecting a block buster so having low expectations probably made it better than what the comments have been.

Its worth watching and i would recommend it to anyone who likes an Aussie flick. I disagree that Peter Phelps would have been a better person to play Brenden Abbott. If you read up on the Postcard Bandit you would agree that Tom Long did a superb job.

It obviously didn't have a massive Hollywood budget but you shouldn't be disappointed if view it. It was on TV here in Australia very late and i thought I'd just watch the start but i ended up watching the entire movie through to 2am.

I read an article in the paper after this came out and the police officer who tracked down Abbott said it was a very accurate comparison to what it was like chasing down the Postcard Bandit. He said there had only been a few minor changes in the movie.

Judge for yourself.

The 2003 movie, The Postcard Bandit, based on journalist Derek Pedley's book about the life and crimes of bank robber Brenden Abbott, has finally been released in the video shops.

Considering the rather unique criminal mastermind of Abbott, it is a disappointing script and screenplay with little vision or understanding of the genre and the casting of Tom Long as the lead may well have heralded the death knell on this ambitious project.

Whilst Long has performed impressively in comedies such as The Dish, to cast him as the hard-as-nails and stocky built Abbott really detracted from the credibility of his character.

Long was seemingly a fish out of water covering this material and his accent and delivery were laboured and he was well and truly shown up by, Glen Stiller, who played Abbott's younger brother, Glenn Salmon.

Stiller's eerie likeness and off-the-cuff depiction of Salmon was one of the film's saving graces along with the performances of Helen Dallimore and Tasma Walton as Abbott's romantic interests, Gina and Frankie.

In an era where actors are struggling to find work it is difficult to understand how the casting could have gone so wrong, particularly with so many locals on the crew and the real characters available for research and colour to the script.

Overall it was a fairly mind-numbing revival that in no way did justice to the myth built up by the Australian media and the police Abbott eluded for so long.

Straight up, The Postcard Bandit is brilliant, directed n' shot so well and acting is top form. Only thing with true story's is that i wish they would keep it real as much as they could for legend sake, they don't go off the rails to much here but as other reviewers have noted, the truth is a little stretched.

Putting that aside, this movie is classic, a true Aussie flick that should have gotton more than just a TV airing, but if you like the slick stubby wearin' yobbo laugh's then this is it. The score contains mainly of Australian singer/songwriter James Rayne and flows this film very smoothly as we travel with Abbot and crew across our red land on his mission robbin' banks. Australia needs more movies like this, n' one thing we do love is our outlaws. Tasma Walton by the way is another good reason to check this one out!!! She rocks!!

Right up there with Chopper Two Hands and, Dirty Deeds.