Red Billabong (2016)

Too much of everything

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This couldn't be any worse if it tried, just awful. Australia have made some amazing films, but this sure ain't one of them! This film is based off an Australian Aboriginal myth, and I can only imagine how disgusted they are with how slanderous this movie comes across. The actors are terrible (the main 'star' is from a soap, and it shows), they obviously couldn't agree on the 'monster' as it seems to change size from shot to shot (one minute it's 8 feet tall, the next it's the size of a man) ... I feel like it's my duty to let as many people know just how dreadful this film this. I've seen much better horror film efforts come out of 48 Hour film festivals! This will be available in the USA in Feb, and I implore you to ignore it--no matter how tempting it may be to see for yourself how bad it is.

I had high hopes of this flick as Australian creature features of the past such as rogue and razorback were well constructed. This however fell dry and flat with scheduled cliché Aussie songs and slang sayings. The generic character stereotypes were spot on the money for this sort of movie however they were mostly all overacted and generally unbelievable at best. as a fond fan of the horror genre this movie seemed to cross over to the action genre after approximately 50 minutes of boring character building. There were no scare scenes nor shock factor moments. There were no real comedic moments which are usually familiar within Australian films however I did find myself having a giggle at the terrible creature effects and the unrealistic script. The one star for this movie is attributed to the stunning Queensland scenery and most of the outdoor backdrop shots. To conclude, this could have been an extended episode of home and away which may have had a better reception among those viewers.

It was one of the worst things "not just movie" I've ever seen. How this movie has got a rating of 6.5 is beyond me!! I don't want to waste any extra words on this shitty movie but because it is compulsory to write a minimum of 10 lines I would have to apologize for the following.Awful Awful Awful.I beg of you if you are reading this review not to waste two hours of your life watching this movie.I don't normally write reviews but I feel it is my social duty to try and warn as many people as I can from watching this horrid thing.

This film is such a shame. It had everything going for it, decent production values, visually interesting and a unique idea. All of this gets turned into a missed opportunity by a poorly executed script full of cliques, casual misogyny and lazy dialogue.The main problem is that main characters (the brother) are just boring. The film doesn't give you a single reason to like or care for them. They're not unlikable people but they're far from being interesting or emotionally engaging enough for you go on this journey with them. Nor are they cool or charismatic enough for you to live a power fantasy through them. On top of this, all the minor characters are totally interchangeable and forgettable (which the expectation of the goofy girl). The main plot (until the monster plot takes over) is about the leads working out whether or not to sell their family farm. Something you don't really want for a film that's touting it self as as 'the biggest Australian action film of 2016'. I'm guessing they didn't catch the absurdly silly 'Gods of Egypt'.You would think that this plot would just be a mcguffin so a family drama can unfold between the brothers but… nope. And this's the problem. Internally, you have no idea who the two leads or what they really want. Don't get me wrong, characters in these type of films needs to be too deep but they do need some dept. Even Max is the 'light on plot' 'Fury Road' had internal desires and motivations. I.e. testing if he could trust and connect with humans again. These characters are just uninspiring cliques who spurt plot points until the monster turns up.The first two acts just have too many 'talking head' scenes that could have been edited right down. But in its defense, the third act is pretty good. It's where all the action, CG and set pieces are but by the time it came around, I'd I'd stopped caring. To be honest, the film really didn't bother me too much. We've all seen bad films. What inspired the review was the Q&A after the film in which the director spend the entire time attempting to humble brag about how great he and his film is. He used every opportunity to mention that it was a "Good, fun action film" It's really not. It's a technically sound, bloated film with a bad script. It also made it perfectly clear he's an 'independent filmmaker and not Hollywood". I think that was clear to everyone from all the actors from 'Home and Away'. And he really going to leave his mark on the Australian film industry; not with scripts like this he isn't.The film fails at it's aspirations of being a light and fun popcorn film. Everyone clearly has talent and were trying there best. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but there are so many other great Australian genre film you really should be watching before this.