Swinging Safari

Energy abounds in this Aussie flick with lots of great set design and costumes to match and that's as far as it got for me. The rest was a bit of a dissapointment. Yes, I did expect a certain vulgarity to be present but some aspects of the narrative I just found just silly and at times plain stupid. Several minutes of voice over and fast cutting I found overwhelming at the start. There were some set pieces I found funny and was laughing along with the rest of the audience who were at times laughing more than I did, however it was these ridiculous parts of storyline that killed it for me. They kinda were absurd but the execution was where the word silly and stupid came in. Guy Pearce is always great but overall the cast's characters were not developed enough. Kylie Minogue and Jack Thompson's characters in particular were strangulated by the lack of thought given to them in the script. Mr Thompson's character just didn't go anywhere or vary. Not to blame him at all.....there was little heart in the characters overall. The sound mix however was well executed.

Firstly the positives - it looks great and the cast is fun. Set in an idyllic beach suburb street, with colourful 70's designs, and a big cast (everyone's good in this, both parents and kids), most Australians of a certain age will find something to like about this. But it's humorous without being hilarious or much of a good time. The script and editing have made it a bit of a muddle. The two main kids are very sweet, but their storyline has no climax - do they actually go to Melbourne? The behaviour of he parents is a mystery - for a while they're all friends and up for kinky fun, then after a key party they're all enemies for no apparent reason. The gross humour of the final whale scene is a spectacular but emotionally empty note to end on. And one 70's aspect that is completely wrong is the language - it's crude and un-PC (which is accurate for 70's Australia but gets annoying after a while), but leaves out the brilliant Aussie slang of the time. See Puberty Blues for an example of it done right. That language is truly funny and endearing and would have lightened the film.

Surreal and hyper realistic, fast paced, challenging, wonderfully entertaining with a big BIG heart, irreverent without being malicious. I've watched Swinging Safari 3 times already and can't get enough of it. Films like this keeps bringing back to the movies.

This film, like most Australian movies has a great potential for laughs and to some extent delivered in the first forty so minutes however once the swinging 'started' the laughs and to some degree, the films direction stopped. The costumes, vehicles and the whole style of the 70's was captured extremely well which makes it even more disappointing that the laughs just weren't delivered. It certainly isn't a Castle.

This is so hilarious...it's like a documentary of my childhood in suburban Australia in the late 70's / early 80's. So scarily accurate. The clothing, the styling, the music, the parents, the language, the houses ...everything. Absolute Gold. Could not stop laughing. You have to be an Aussie to really 'get' this movie, I think.

So far the most disappointing film of the year. Yes it's enjoyable and there are plenty of cheap laughs plus a few shocking moments. The plot was all over the place which made some cuts a little confusing. Guy Pearce was the star of the adult based actors while Kylie Minogue was a massive let down (Seemed just a massive profile face to bring more people to watch the movie) no doubt people who lived through the 70's might see this differently to what someone who grew up in the 90's but for me I'd recommend people to wait until this hits 7Mate one Saturday night during summer. Score: 3.5/10

Run, don't walk. This is a mystery. Easily the worst Australian movie of all time. This has no redeeming features whatsoever. I can't, for the life of me, even speculate why Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue etc agreed to be involved with this steaming pile of utter nonsense. I'm shattered. I could go on but ... there's that much wrong it's just not worth it. STAY AWAY