By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
... or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barbies. Aussie writer/ director David Caesar picks up Guy Ritchie's style when he goes back to Sydney in the late 60s for this crime caper.
Barry Ryan (Bryan Brown) is making big bucks out of
the new craze in Sydney, one-armed bandits. His nephew, Darcy (Sam Worthington), is looking forward to the idea of not really working for a good living. Until Tony (John Goodman) and Sal (Felix Williamson) arrive in town, a couple of down-table Mafia lads who think they can take over the action in a hick colonial outpost.
She might be all on in the Vietnam War but Barry is not keen on US involvement in his hometown, or his business. For most of the film he'll try to play off the new kids in town and a gang war among the locals.
It's quite fun. Toni Collette comes home and is allowed to work up that rusty Aussie accent as Barry's wife, while our Sam Neill is a bit of a hoot as a typically laconic Seednee cop who moonlights as Barry's minder.
The real scene-stealer is Goodman, after his Bible-spouting turn in O Brother, as Tony Soprano with a heart, a Mafia troubleshooter who's a bit of a softie and would rather talk things over than wake up in the morning and get himself a gun.
For all that, it's really little more than a period piece. Caesar seems more interested in re-creating the Sydney of 40 years ago, complete with the Aussie accents and way with words, rather than sharpening his movie into a real thriller.
DVD features: no details available.
