User Reviews

Private investigator Rick Shaw must track down the evil Fu Manchu, who is doing something bad to the movie industry (though I couldn't exactly work out what ....)

It's as if the Somers Carroll production company was unexpectedly allocated time at Movie World & they thought - gosh, we'll just throw a script together using any random ideas we have had over the last 30 years, fly the cast & friends of Hey Hey up to Queensland, and whacko, we'll have an instant 40 minute movie (okay technically it's a 6 part serial).

There's a lot of strangeness in the storytelling technique; seems the director doesn't know that pantomime characters don't translate well to movies (well he knows NOW !)

Perhaps the first draft of the script was the only draft. Why is there a time machine ? There are many funny bits.

It's worth watching once, but you won't watch it twice.

If Terry Gilliam were given a $100 budget and 1 day, it's the kind of fun nonsense he might come up with.

The Warner Brothers Movie World themepark and studios opened up as "Hollywood on the Gold Coast" in Australia In June of 1991. The Hey, Hey crew helped gain attention and tourism for the park in its opening days by broadcasting two shows from the recently opened theme park. The crew spent just over a week on location, and while there, they figured, Why not make a silly little movie while we're here?

The short 45minute film was made within a week and took another week to edit and finalise before being broadcast on television on the 20th of June nationally across Australia.

The movie stars the days Hey, Hey crew, with host Darryl Somers playing a character named Rick Shaw, aprivate eye who becomes hired by a mysterious lady in black to find out who the evil forces of the world are trying to destroy the movie industry. With his sidekick Artie Fax (Russel Gilbert) they discover the evil villian Fu Man Chu (Ossy Oastrich/Carols) and his henchmen played by Red Simons and Wilbur Wilde are behind the caper, Rick investigates around town looking for clues to find Fu and stop him and his evil Fu-Men from destroying the film industry all together.

The film spoofs both modern day films and classics, however some of the parodies may be lost to today's younger audiences who weren't around when such things like Strongbow had an ad campain about people whistling and breaking glasses when ordering the alchoholic beveridges. With that, the film still has many spoofs that still hold up today, based on Cassablanca, Batman, Old P.I flicks, Police Academy, Bonny & Clyde, The Time Machine, Jaws and many commercials and Australian TV shows. They even incorporate a couple of scenes from other movies and blend them in with this one.

Overall, for a goofy little made-on-the-fly in a week movie that doesn't take itself seriosly, it's a pretty good little spoof movie. After almost 30 years, Hey Hey finally released it on Facebook to be viewed for free.

Not everything still holds up today, and I doubt anyone would watch it outside of Australia, especially those with fond memories of Hey, Hey, Its Saturday.... but it's still loved by myself, probably a nostalgia thing, but if you absolutely love parody/Spoof films and aren't just a snob accepting only the top ones as the only ones worthwhile, then you might get a few laughs out of this... but keep in mind, if you don't know what Hey, Hey was, or Australian or been in the country since the early 90s and aware of what was on TV at the time, then a lot of the jokes might go over your head... and as mentioned already, those not born in the day might feel the same way, plus knowing it was also a visual plug for the theme park, then you might be confused about the humor taking place here. Then again, there should be a few laughs if you're still interested and never heard of this.