The Backpacker

It's always a funny thing going to see low budget (I'm talking micro micro) films, you're never sure what you're going to get. I was in Canberra last week and my mate and I were approached by 2 sexy girls in red shirts giving out fliers for The Backpacker, a film I'd never heard of.

The film's a thriller, set in the Aussie bush and I was blown away by how great the story was. Having been out of the country for a while it was refreshing to see a home grown flick made for next to nothing that satisfied both of us. The story wound out nicely and I could never tell what was going to happen next.,

The music blew the film along and the guy who played the psycho Malek was awesome. There's a few bits and pieces that could have been tighter but overall we came feeling like we'd be on a pretty cool ride. Good one guys.

If you like nice American landscapes, maybe you will like this s... Every word to discribe this amateur work would be wasted time.

For an Aussie film this is pretty cheesy, BUT not half bad for the low budget. A cat and mouse game between a serial killer and army vet. Supposedly set in the bush but had my doubts of where it was filmed. It was entertaining with the scenery and the chase. Not great BY any means but workth a 4 out of 10.

If you can get past the opening scene with the locals then you can get through the rest. The locals playing pool top the ham awards for me. The movie was watchable but only just. When you shoot a movie in rural Australia you have nothing to rely on but the script and the actors. The scenery was okay but you have to question why these people are there to start with, especially an educated ex vet who can't even organise transport to their destination. I don't think it would have taken the actors long to learn their lines because there wasn't that many of them with the scenes drawn out a little bit long without conversation. The script was there but it was hard to swallow. A decent director could have made it better.

Not bad for a man hunt movie... but not really good either. It was a bit too drawn out and the acting was weak although not abysmal. But the protagonist had a motivation other than just surviving because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and although at times he was kind of stupid he was not just a clueless twit like so many 'victims' are in such movies. The "bad guy" was fairly well played, and at one point when he is injured, he plays it consistently which is nice. There is also one of the neatest little minor characters about half way through which i enjoyed. If you watch the movie you will know what I mean. In fact I didn't see any completely unforgivable incongruities, so all in all I say give it a watch if you have the time and nothing better to do.