Reviews

The script is abysmal. The acting is absymal. The use of location is abysmal. Nicole Kidman should be absolutely ashamed to have her name attached to this. The enitre premise is ridiculous, the attempt at characters trying to show and express emotions is stiltled. The story and characters reactions to situations are so improbable they border on the absurd. As an expat of HK, they have captured none of the vibrancy of the city, or the peculiarities of expats who live there. It is fiction yes, but there has to be some sembence to how humans behave and speak and emote.

I would encourage anyone in the industry to watch this series as a " How Not To" guide.

The bright colours will appeal to youngsters, and thankfully the mindless feminism will sail over their heads, the feminism sticks with young adults but the nostalgia wont appeal, and for oldies the nostalgia is fun but the poor script and acting is appalling. I think Mattel have highlighted in a 2 hour film why their toy is now completely obsolete no matter how hard they try to rebrand it. If you like comedy watch the trailer, its not just a highlights reel, it is the enitrely of anything amsuing in the whole film. The cast made the best of a bad script, but the writers have missed an opportunity to make a classic comedy for the ages.

Really boring in that it tries too encompass every global theme into a short film. The directors comments that "if you dont like it, it is because you dont get it" are arrogant, and that has been shown in his film direction. I must have failed to see the comedy side of the film entirely, only some base humour on occasion, no subtelty, no plot worth considering, and the script itself is child like.

I have the feeling the entire purpose of the film was to create something so "intellectually" complex it would be talked about in the same vein as The Matrix or Inception were in their day. To me, it failed miserably. Firsty, and I checked with others leaving the cinema and all agreed, the sound balance is all wrong. Unless the actors were sitting in an empty room having a chat, a lot of their dialogue was muffled, quiet and generally impossible to hear. It felt at times like watching a foreign language movie with no subtitles. This made trying to understand the overly forced plot even harder, and eliminated even the smallest amount of character development to the point where I personally didn't care who lived or died. The special effects were well done, but again, there were just way too many of them as the plot lost the plot at the 2 hour mark. It was probably meant to be a build up to a grand crescendo, but ended up feeling as if a piano was dropped from a height in the hope that a few notes might make a tune, but when it didn't call, they just pretended it was modern jazz....... I have heard other say you need to see it a "couple" of times to appreciate it. Not a chance.

It has the feel of someone who has read a book on how to write a movie script and be a director/producer, and then attempted to make a classic. Unfortunately the book was written in the 1970's. In code.

The move was long, boring, had no endearing characters and, to be frank, Nicole Kidman's acting consisted of very little other than long lingering camera shots which leads me to believe the director must be related to the make up artist.

IS IT A SPOILER? - that final scene. A dog/wolf? walks in front of the car, and then we pan to the sky to see birds circling before once more looking at Nicole's overly make up caked face. This isn't wistful symbolism, it is outdated lazy rubbish.

I don't often get to recommend an Australian comedy/quiz show to folk back home in the UK, but this is spot on in every way. Not too serious, not too silly, not too cynical, it is easily watchable and guarantees a few laughs in every show. One to export the format......

Yet another Australian comedy sponsored by the ABC misses the mark by a country mile. It genuinely baffles me how the powers that be consider this worth making. It is at best 30 years out of date, and even in that era would have still failed due to its awful script and overly ham acting. I have seen better timing and lines in school plays. The only humour I see is being shown by the ABC.

Beautiful scenery and interesting conversation as the 'stars' make their pilgrimage. The humanist, the atheist, the convert, the priest, a couple of indifference, and the one with so many chips on her shoulder be it race, religion or sex, she spoils the atmosphere most days. The back stories for most of the participants is fascinating, as our those of the people they meet.

The premise is fine, it is light entertainment which has some interesting trivia and provides the very occasional laugh. Rove seems to be warming up as the season progresses..... but the team captains, Joel Creasey and Jane Harber add nothing. Joel does attempt to join in but fails to hit the mark, whereas Jane Harber seems to think wistful looks and facial expressions are somehow enough to get her by. She is wrong and this leaves the rest of her team to carry the work load. A change of captains and this could be infinitely funnier.

It feels as if this was a mini TV series which was edited down to make a film, generally rushed, mostly non sensical, and with zero compassion for any character developed. So many lose ends and parts of the plot which were completely irrelevant, made worse by appalling cinematography. Its Norway for good ness sake, how can you make it seem bland, and what is with all the short scenes and poorly timed cuts. Straight to video if they still existed, betamax even.