Welcome to Woop Woop

Director Stephan Elliott had a big hit with "Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" back in 1994. This is his 1997 followup which was a huge bomb. I like it, but it's easy to see why it failed.

A con man (Jonathan Schaech) travels to Australia to kidnap some rare exotic birds (don't ask). He is unexpectedly sexually attacked by a VERY aggressive young woman, and she knocks him out, drugs him and takes him to her hometown, Woop Woop, and proclaims he's her husband. Woop Woop is in the middle of nowhere, has a population of 50 and is definetely a strange place--Rodgers + Hammerstein songs are blasting from speakers all day (!!!), they kill kangaroos and make them into dog food and no one is ever allowed to leave the town. Schaech wants out...but can he make it?

To say this movie is bizarre is an understatement--it's VERY weird! Everyone overacts to the extreme (especially Schaech) and wear very weird, colorful costumes (I mean that in a good way). The script goes rambling all over the place, most lines make no sense and then there's the non-stop R&H songs! Still, it is very funny (if a little sick at times) and you can't take your eyes away from it.

The acting is, as I said, over the top but great. Schaech gets right in the mood of things from the beginning--he's very lighthearted, grinning continuously and gives his all to his lines. He's also handsome and hunky and has a few nude scenes. Also Rod Taylor chews the scenery again, and again, and again, and AGAIN as Daddy-O--the leader of the town.

It does lag a little at the end and it's definetely not for all tastes but totally off-beat and fun--particularly the opening in NYC and the last scene with...well, you'll know! A must-see for R&H fans.

I am quite amused that Australians have some sort of issue with how "this portrays them," which makes no sense to me whatsoever. You don't hear Americans complaining when a film like Deliverance is made. Give the rest of the world some credit. Its as if every export must be somehow ennobling to the country of origin. This is ridiculous. I suppose a case could be made for this insofar as apparently Australian tax dollars went to support this film (why any country, which no doubt has problems with poverty and so forth as all countries do, would spend precious tax dollars on movies, is another issue altogether). But come on folks. Its not as if every Australian is some kind of brilliant, witty intellectual any more than that is true of any other country. I wonder if people whined about the portrayal of rural Scots when The Wicker Man was released. Having the idea that somehow characters in film must be idealized ethnic, racial, or national archetypes dooms any movie to being insufferably boring. No doubt Australia, just like the United States, has its own home-grown version of rednecks. And if not, so what. Does anyone really think that this is going to set some expectations of what Australians are like abroad?

Welcome to Woop Woop is not a brilliant film, but I found it entertaining and offbeat enough. From the beginning it is clear that the film doesn't take itself very seriously. I enjoyed the performances in this film, and the ending with the giant kangaroo actually made me chuckle a bit because I never thought they would attempt to use something that silly. I guess some people who were for some reason desiring realism or plausibility in this farce, were upset by this. I, on the other hand, applaud the use of nonsense like this. Were the rest of the film some kind of serious drama, this would have been idiotic, but given the film's tone, I thought it was an appropriate device.

There's a time for serious fare and a time for silly movies, and this one is extremely silly, but good-naturedly so. It is beyond my comprehension how someone could get angry over something so harmless.

Having never watched any other films by this director, I had nothing to bias my opinion of this film. It was very original, which is a must because I hate typical Hollywood movies, it was also outrageous. I might even classify it as black (or dark) comedy. The story was so unbelievable that it almost became believable, for example: using road-kill kangaroos for dog food (Woof Woof). The story lacks a little luster after it's 'outrageousness' is played out but I believe this movie deserves an above average rating based purely on it's attempt to be totally original, totally unbelievable and totally corny.

If you like your movies original, and slightly 'off' this movie is for you.

I can understand how non-Australians might not get "Welcome to Woop Woop". As an Aussie, I don't get it either.

Australian cinema has produced some off-the-wall comedies over the years, but this one is in a league of its own.

Teddy (Johnathon Schaech), an American rare bird smuggler on the run ends up in the Australian outback. He meets Angie (Susie Porter), a sexually veracious girl who drugs him and takes him to her community in the ex-asbestos mining town of Woop Woop run by her father Daddy-O (Rod Taylor).

Teddy wakes up to find he is married to Angie. He gets caught up in the weird lifestyle of the isolated community whose only source of entertainment and connection to culture is old videos of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals - a little like "Galaxy Quest" where the alien Thermians only understand human behaviour through the signals they have received of old television shows.

Along with the most strident of Australian accents, the changes of mood in the film are bewildering - singing, dancing and fornicating one minute and shooting dogs the next. This slice of Australiana makes the characters in "Wake in Fright" seem like Oxford dons.

I only saw "Woop Woop" recently (2015) when it appeared on "World Movies" about the same time as a documentary called "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!" Apparently Quentin Tarantino championed the documentary and I must admit it was more entertaining than most of the films it featured, including "Welcome to Woop Woop"

The cast gave it everything they had, and seemed to be in on the joke. Rod Taylor has one great scene where he does an electric tap dance to "Shall We Dance" on the bar with leads on his shoes connected to a battery. But as far as I'm concerned these were the only sparks generated in the film.

Stephen Elliott had made "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" the year before. "Priscilla" was outrageous with souvenirs of ABBA, ping-pong balls etc. - but it was funny. "Welcome to Woop Woop" is outrageous and tedious.

Would I recommend the film? Well that all depends on what you like. Some people relish a good bad movie. By bad, I don't mean poor editing or shoddy sound, far from it, "Woop Woop" is polished as far as production values are concerned - I mean bad in concept. It has a certain cult following, but that's one cult I managed to escape.

Well, I've read the responses to this little Aussie accident, and so far everyone's been slagging it off as a drivel, as offensive, as failing in its goal to be politically incorrect...etc etc etc. I have to admit that Aussie humour is an acquired taste (even though I am now a more complete man for knowing the phrase, "Part me beef-curtains!")but all I have to say is this: why are we getting hot under the collar about something called "Welcome to Woop Woop"? As I suspect Big Daddy would say, "If it don't make yer crack a fat, then it don't. Crack open a frosty and wait for the next picture. It's "South Pacific" tonight, ain't it?"