Tomorrow, When the War Began (2012)

Pretty Good

Admirable film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's probably a case where the book is better than the movie. This lame Aussie knock-off of Wolverines fails to deliver on a number of fronts. They never identify the attackers for one thing. They're Asian, that's all you know. I won't criticize the acting; it was passable. But the writing and direction are just awful. Imagine this. Two teen-age girls have just stolen a gas tanker to use to blow up a bridge used by the enemy. The enemy was firing on them and pursuing as they drove away. When they reach their target, they are supposed to sit in the tanker and wait for a signal from their comrades. Instead of waiting carefully and being alert? The engage in idle chit-chat about girl stuff. Even smiling and laughing. As enemy soldiers creep up on them. They have accidentally turned their radio off. That's what they're waiting for, right? A signal? In the scene they didn't even check their rear-view mirrors. Not once. Not even teen-aged girls are that stupid. It's as if they were not even scared as an entire army was trying to kill them. Beyond stupid. That's just a bad Director. And the ending is unsatisfying. There is no cataclysmic sequence near the end like you would expect. One other thing. A young girl who has never even had a gun in her hands reluctantly picks up an SKS automatic rifle and expertly mows down three enemy soldiers in one burst. Enemy that were standing at least 15 feet apart. Anybody that has fired one of those weapons knows that they kick upward and would make that difficult. Especially if you have never fired one before. It's also unrealistic that more of them were not killed or wounded. Given that they had no training or experience.

Really good film but a total rip-off of Red Dawn. Even if it is based on a series of books, then the books are a total rip-off of Red Dawn, the story lines are practically identical. Enjoyed watching it but at the end I was expecting credits to say based on the original film 'Red Dawn,' because while good it is nothing more than an Australian version of that film. Credit needs to be given where credit is due.

I stumbled upon this title a long time ago and, without reading anything about it, gave it a whirl. It took me on an unexpected ride. I loved it.I am a fan of the 1984 Red Dawn movie. In fact, this time around I actually watched that movie first and then came back to this one. The re- make of Red Dawn was a severe disappointment for me but this gave me a modern adaptation that, while not based in the USA, was both feasible and engaging. This is the story that people should be made aware of.I believe that it has been turned into a series, somewhere. Although I might be tempted, this contained cinematic version hits the best spots while leaving the future uncertain. I don't care. I love this movie.

Having read the books when I was very young, and largely forgotten them since, I came into this more or less blind.Having said that, either there were some major plot holes I missed as a child or there were some terrible decisions made. There are a lot of issues, the below are the four that annoyed me the most.Random civilian vehicles are never bulletproof, no matter how big they are. Neither are rotting wooden gates. Also, crashing tends to throw people inside the vehicle about, especially if they're not strapped in (double especially if they're not strapped in, in the bucket being used to do the ramming and already have a bullet wound).Petrol does not explode except for under very specific conditions, none of which are met in both times this is used, otherwise it just burns (the first time, I was legitimately wondering what she was up to. Is she making some kind of distraction? Then the lawn mower blew up and killed three soldiers). Normally I'd let a movie get away with this, but this is a fact I first learned from the books.There is an actual line in the movie where they say the book is usually better than the movie. This almost seems apologetic and pulled me out of the movie at a point I was hoping to be drawn back inThe invading army is laughably inept (despite invading the whole of Australia overnight), including using flashlights when trying to sneak up on the enemy, not shooting at oncoming vehicles, being chased from their posts by a herd of cows and not one but two military vehicles being outmaneuvered by a dump truck. About five of them also manage to get outflanked and wiped out at one point by a small girl with no weapons training (and probably never having held a gun before given her views on the world) who is suddenly strong enough to completely eliminate recoil on her fully automatic weapon It's a real shame, really. The movie starts strong, I enjoyed getting to know the characters, and their reactions throughout were usually quite believable. But the moment any real action occurred it just failed completely. Oh, and if the very last pose had been cut, the movie would have ended on a much better note.