davitavdvelde
Joined Feb 2016
Badges7
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Reviews2
davitavdvelde's rating
Let me start by saying I really admire the makers of this film for independently raising a whopping 9mil for this movie.
That being said, what a huge disappointment is what they decided to do with it.
They state this movie is based on real diaries, and I wonder if those diaries are all they read about WW1. In an interview somewhere Jordon Prince-Wright says he doesn't have the patience to spend the usual amount of time on making a movie, and man does it show. If you know you don't have the patience to spend the necessary amount of time, why choose to make a film about something as complex as WW1? The amount of inaccuracies is so huge, it's an insult to anyone who has ever fought in and died or came back from any war. There is a character that holds a rat as a pet in the trenches - you mean that same rat that was just in no man's land nibbling on your dead mate's rotting corpse, while carrying a ton of diseases that are probably going to kill you and several of your other mates next?
Aside from the inaccuracies, the writing is so unnecessarily amateur. In one scene we see a character getting shot by a single, intentional bullet. In the next scene they talk about the event we just saw, but then are told the guy got shot by a machine gun. And in the very next scene, the characters are talking about it again, only this time it was a stray bullet..!? What a waste of time, and how is it possible that the very same writer contradicts himself so clumsily, in 3 consecutive scenes? Did no one check this script?
The acting is very average with a few good moments that stand out, though most often it's predictable, superficial and at times very strange acting choices by the actors. Someone way more mature should've been cast as the lead, the main dude's lack of depth is just insufferable. He just frowns and purses his lips constantly, with either a vaguely anguished or completely blank look in his eyes.
What a waste, what a shame. I get that people are proud that this was made locally, but far out... do the standards really have to be this low?
That being said, what a huge disappointment is what they decided to do with it.
They state this movie is based on real diaries, and I wonder if those diaries are all they read about WW1. In an interview somewhere Jordon Prince-Wright says he doesn't have the patience to spend the usual amount of time on making a movie, and man does it show. If you know you don't have the patience to spend the necessary amount of time, why choose to make a film about something as complex as WW1? The amount of inaccuracies is so huge, it's an insult to anyone who has ever fought in and died or came back from any war. There is a character that holds a rat as a pet in the trenches - you mean that same rat that was just in no man's land nibbling on your dead mate's rotting corpse, while carrying a ton of diseases that are probably going to kill you and several of your other mates next?
Aside from the inaccuracies, the writing is so unnecessarily amateur. In one scene we see a character getting shot by a single, intentional bullet. In the next scene they talk about the event we just saw, but then are told the guy got shot by a machine gun. And in the very next scene, the characters are talking about it again, only this time it was a stray bullet..!? What a waste of time, and how is it possible that the very same writer contradicts himself so clumsily, in 3 consecutive scenes? Did no one check this script?
The acting is very average with a few good moments that stand out, though most often it's predictable, superficial and at times very strange acting choices by the actors. Someone way more mature should've been cast as the lead, the main dude's lack of depth is just insufferable. He just frowns and purses his lips constantly, with either a vaguely anguished or completely blank look in his eyes.
What a waste, what a shame. I get that people are proud that this was made locally, but far out... do the standards really have to be this low?
This show is everything that is wrong with modern day filmmaking. It wants to be Australian yet appeal to a broad (read: American) market, and in doing so loses everything that is quintessentially Australian. The most laid back people on earth are here depicted as constantly moody, broody, quick to punch up, pull guns on each other (like, what..?) and at no point at all is there the easy going, how ya going, she'll be right attitude of Aussie country life. Country life is tough, yes, but in learning to deal with it, Aussies have developed a positive, hardy, can-do attitude. But this show is just long, dramatic, frowned stares into space.
Almost none of the characters look like they know what they're doing. Only Michael Dorman and Robert Taylor look natural in the saddle. The amount of motorbikes and other noisy vehicles is enough to drive any cow mad, and where are the dogs? No dogs in a show depicting outback life on a cattle station..?
The writing is just plain dumb and lazy.
This is what you get when you are too concerned with being politically correct and forget about properly immersing yourself in the stuff you're trying to write about. All the women are portrayed as girl bosses, get unearned credit & influence and end up looking weak and useless instead. We get bashed over the head with all the usual ideological tropes, climate, social justice, and because this show is trying so hard to say all the "right" things, it ends up unintentionally saying a lot of wrong things, and eventually doesn't know what it's trying to say at all. The entire storyline is just inexplicably cruel people doing dumb things.
It's heavily overproduced. Crazy intense music constantly. There is literally not a quiet moment in a show depicting one of the most remote places on earth. And the "Bull Bar" constantly bustling with beautiful young people in the middle of the day like we're in the inner-city and nobody's working... it's just.. so many things are just laughable.
The one and only character that stood out to me was Sam Delich's Richie. He still had to deal with clunky writing which made his character fluctuate along the way, though nowhere near as all over the place as most of the other characters, and he was just fantastic in the last episode. The only character that really drew me in. Clarence Ryan's Nolan was intriguing at first, but then his character of course had to down-dog to unclear and undeserved girl boss female counterpart, and then the script just kind of forgot about him half way through. Such a shame, because like Richie, there was actual depth the actor managed to bring to the character there. The 3 stars are for them.
Almost none of the characters look like they know what they're doing. Only Michael Dorman and Robert Taylor look natural in the saddle. The amount of motorbikes and other noisy vehicles is enough to drive any cow mad, and where are the dogs? No dogs in a show depicting outback life on a cattle station..?
The writing is just plain dumb and lazy.
This is what you get when you are too concerned with being politically correct and forget about properly immersing yourself in the stuff you're trying to write about. All the women are portrayed as girl bosses, get unearned credit & influence and end up looking weak and useless instead. We get bashed over the head with all the usual ideological tropes, climate, social justice, and because this show is trying so hard to say all the "right" things, it ends up unintentionally saying a lot of wrong things, and eventually doesn't know what it's trying to say at all. The entire storyline is just inexplicably cruel people doing dumb things.
It's heavily overproduced. Crazy intense music constantly. There is literally not a quiet moment in a show depicting one of the most remote places on earth. And the "Bull Bar" constantly bustling with beautiful young people in the middle of the day like we're in the inner-city and nobody's working... it's just.. so many things are just laughable.
The one and only character that stood out to me was Sam Delich's Richie. He still had to deal with clunky writing which made his character fluctuate along the way, though nowhere near as all over the place as most of the other characters, and he was just fantastic in the last episode. The only character that really drew me in. Clarence Ryan's Nolan was intriguing at first, but then his character of course had to down-dog to unclear and undeserved girl boss female counterpart, and then the script just kind of forgot about him half way through. Such a shame, because like Richie, there was actual depth the actor managed to bring to the character there. The 3 stars are for them.