Ten top Auissie films!

1) MURIELS WEDDING…A funtastic comedy pumped on by the heart lifting Abba soundtrack hugging the Sydney skyline. Aussie films have fresh unpretencuios feel to them and this is definitely the case her.
It’s the story of Muriel who’s not the prettiest or cleverest, but every girl deserves a wedding day if nothing else. This is her story of how she finally got one, be it arranged or not. Aussie class.

2) MAD MAX…Septic tank (yank) Mel Gibson born in New York burst on to the scene in this futuristic tale of desert life in a post apocalyptic nuclear Australia.Who ever urns the remaining petrol supply, runs this little corner of the world.
Max stays on top by running heavily adapted vehicles to suit the environment and conflict. Lots of shoot em ups and explosions pushed this right up the all time list in Australian cinema.
Sadly the evevitable sequel followed with no new ideas leaving the film exposed to endless spin offs still with us today……….Great action and adventure though.

3) CROCODILE DUNDEE…Macho man Paul Hogan was plucked from almost TV obscurity from a mildly funny half-hour show to the world’s biggest grossing actor.
The film was deemed to be a certain flop by its Ozzy money men. They invited all the great and good of the countries showbiz types to invest in it as a break-even tax break investment. But the film made over a hundred million dollars and the likes of INXS and Kerry Packer had to pay a flat %50 tax rate from their so called bad investment.
Wonderfully charming film with a great solo performance from the amiable Hogan as Mick Dundee.He even got to marry the gorgeous co star in Linda Kaswelski who never worked again after the sequel.

4) PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT…This is a wonderful burst of color and character study as three homosexuals tour the small towns of the Australian outback with their own brand
of adult entertainment.
Queens are not very welcome in these hard dusty hot habitations and fist and beer fly at the drop of a sequin.
Terrance Stamp (Pricilla) is superb as the flamboyant leader of the bitchy acting troupe. But the real star of the show is the relentlessly beautiful panoramas of the wondrously colorful Australian outback.
The soundtrack is up there with Muriels Wedding and the whole thing seems to come together in a strange and alluring formula. Wayyyyyyyyy better than Too Wang Fu.

5)ROMPER STOMPER…I like this film for its honesty and subject matter over the gratuitous violence that most people rented it for. The racist nature of the film blocked its cinema release here although it’s more about undirectioned youth than any real hate.
Melbourne skinheads get their physical and mental kicks by lashing out at the cities Asian population. The gang wane as numbers fall until a young Russell Crowe and James Pollock are left to vent their anger along with a pointless love triangle. Still a very engaging cool Aussie movie in the line of Clockwork Orange and well worth watching.


6) GALLIPOLI…Mel Gibson is brilliant in this accurate portrayal of the WW1 battle which eventually took the lives of a third of Australia’s young men for little or no value to their home country or themselves.
They enlist as an adventure rather then any idealism and are quickly sucked into the futile slaughter and mayhem that is war.
Great Britain deserted Australia in this conflict and they were never really rewarded for their efforts. We again deserted them in World War Two as most of their youth went of to fight elsewhere, leaving their Northern coastline very exposed.
Brilliantly choreographed battle scenes and a very unHollywood finish which made for an excellent moving war movie.
If you look carefully you will see most of the Home and Away and Neibours cast catching a bullet or two. Including that
Pratt Stefan Dennis and the failed guitar here Kyle Macloughlin.

7) THE CASTLE…..A film full of little known Aussie actors and conceived by local radio and small time TV people was the smash hit of 1997.
It’s a very Australian idea for a movie about a family of very friendly simpletons who live on a toxic landfill site and the end of Sydney’s Kingsford airport runway. Not a desirable residence in anyone’s books.
But the local council want to buy out the residence so they can whack up some factories for a prominent businessman.
But the Kerrigan family and the other residence on the small street have an attack of the morals and turn down the nice offer for the s***house properties.
It’s a low budget film, but charmingly funny and very Australian and you cant help liking it for its original idea and Aussies fight the world to keep their house mate!.

8) PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK…Based on a novel by Joan Lindsay, this film is very mysterious and extremely atmospheric, let alone darn right eerie.
Three schoolgirls and their teacher from a posh 1900s school disappear on a picnic in the Australian Outback.The mystery that unfolds lends credence to the falsehood that the movie was based on a true story.
The acting and story are intriguing and you are rapt by the possibility of the girls still been out there.

9) TWO HANDS…. This is out this year and still on the shelves in Blockbuster.Starring the ever present Aussie Bryan Brown.
Its quite a sharp, funny comedy about a young kid who wants to move up in the Sydney crime scene by taking a job with Kings Crosses local hood (Bryan Brown).
But his simple task of delivering ten grand to a lady in Bondi backfires when he loses it at the beach gong for a sly swim.
The rest of the film is packed with laughs as he tries to raise the money, or getting the bullet from the nasty hood Brown.Aussies do this type of comedy so well and ther
e are some pretty good belly laughs to go wit the rocking guitar rock soundtrack. Ripper!

10) WALKABOUT…..One of the best and most startling beginnings to any films.
A father setting fire to himself and his children in the middle of Australia’s scorching out back doesn’t bare thinking about when no one knows your out there.
Luckily the two children escape there desperate fathers suicide attempt and have to stay alive in the hostile baron out back.
They hook up with a young aboriginal guy, Gulpilil who helps them use the land and fauna to stay alive.
The stunning panoramas of desolate deserts and feeling of hopeless and abandonment leave you feeling for the young children. Jenny Agutter is sexy as hell along with the plucky young kid in a very atmospheric two hour long classic.