This entry into the movie-length "Underbelly Files" series, based on the "Underbelly" TV show, works mostly because of the performances of Toby Schmitz as the titular man (drug-smuggler David McMillan), and Brendan Cowell, who commits to his performance as a criminal scumbag so thoroughly you forget that it's him you're watching.
The Underbelly franchise started with one unwatchably terrible season, and then improved markedly. It was never particularly good, don't get me wrong. It was just so ridiculously, terribly bad in that first season - listing every mistake made on camera would require a document longer than the whole series script - that it could only really go up, and up it did.
The franchise has had two saving graces: one, featuring beloved Aussie actors we may not have seen in a while, and have missed, and two, featuring the breasts of beautiful young Australian girls.
Of course, the show got caught up in the pseudo-feminist girl power nonsense that has been ruining mainstream entertainment for more than twenty years, but with all the "actresses" on screen basically only to bare their breasts, that nonsense was entertainingly offset.
"The Man Who Got Away" has the actors, but not enough breasts. It also misspells the word "harebrained" in a title card, so I guess the producers of Underbelly related media aren't that much smarter than they were when they didn't notice Martin Sacks had dropped his Italian accent in the first series.
I've just watched the movie, and then I read on IMDB that the main character was on the Interpol top ten most wanted persons list. I didn't know that. The makers of "Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away" either didn't tell us, or didn't make the point strongly enough. He seemed small time throughout the whole thing.
It's still entertaining enough.
The Underbelly franchise started with one unwatchably terrible season, and then improved markedly. It was never particularly good, don't get me wrong. It was just so ridiculously, terribly bad in that first season - listing every mistake made on camera would require a document longer than the whole series script - that it could only really go up, and up it did.
The franchise has had two saving graces: one, featuring beloved Aussie actors we may not have seen in a while, and have missed, and two, featuring the breasts of beautiful young Australian girls.
Of course, the show got caught up in the pseudo-feminist girl power nonsense that has been ruining mainstream entertainment for more than twenty years, but with all the "actresses" on screen basically only to bare their breasts, that nonsense was entertainingly offset.
"The Man Who Got Away" has the actors, but not enough breasts. It also misspells the word "harebrained" in a title card, so I guess the producers of Underbelly related media aren't that much smarter than they were when they didn't notice Martin Sacks had dropped his Italian accent in the first series.
I've just watched the movie, and then I read on IMDB that the main character was on the Interpol top ten most wanted persons list. I didn't know that. The makers of "Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away" either didn't tell us, or didn't make the point strongly enough. He seemed small time throughout the whole thing.
It's still entertaining enough.
