Under the Radar

Review by Clint Morris

It hasn’t been a good couple of years for Australian comedies – nearly every one of the countless efforts (Takeaway, The Night we Called it a Day, Danny Deckchair, The Wannabes for example) has flopped faster than a roof bound pancake.

Many say they’ve been unsuccessful because they’re all the same type of movie.

Well if that’s the case then Under the Radar is destined to be one of 2004’s highest grossing films.

A morsel of Tarantino mixed with the slacker elements of Gregor Jordan’s Two Hands, Evan Clarry’s film is as black as Australian comedy has got lately, excising civilizing chortle for gunfire, and goofiness for tension.

Question is: Might we have appreciated another in the 'same-old same-old' variety than something so odd it’s tagged novel?

Surfer-Boy Brandon [Nathan Phillips] is slapped with a good-behaviour bond as a result of an inadvertent run-in with a mentally disabled man. He’s forced to help out at home for the mentally ill – and it’s there that he meets Trevor [Steady Eddy] and the mouse-ish Adrian [Clayton Watson].

Both see Brandon as their ticket out of the home, and that’s exactly what they get when Brandon manages to convince the house manager that they guys deserve a day at the beach.

Things take a sudden turn for the worse though, when on the way to their destination, they – along with hitchhiker, Jo (model-cum-actress Chloe Maxwell - click here for the interview), take a wrong turn and end up in the firing line of some wily gangsters.

As good as the leads are – especially the always dependable Watson, Phillips, and stand-up great turned film-star Steady Eddy – there’s just nothing here for an audience.

Sure, it starts to kick in about three quarters of the way through, but by then, most will have their reads firmly titled back on their cushy chairs counting jumping sheep.

And while we appreciate the fact than an Australian filmmaker has done something different from the norm, it seems to be all about such a set-up and not so much storyline or detail. Frankly, director Clarry’s last film, the rousing schoolies week pleasantry Blurred was appreciably more entertaining.

Under the Radar isn’t a terrible movie, it actually has a couple of good laughs; it’s just not the kind of shining steed we need to put local comedies back in the race.

2 out of 5

Under the Radar
Australian release: Thursday July 29th
Cast: Nathan Phillips, Clayton Watson, Steady Eddy, Chloe Maxwell, Robert Menzies, Gyton Grantley, Syd Brisbane, Rory Williamson.
Director: Evan Clarry.
Interview: Chloe Maxwell
Website: Click here.

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