I have an excellent idea for a film. Let's take a story about someone who has been persecuted by the laws of their country all their life and due to his bad relations with the authorities, his family is arrested and charged with a crime they did not commit. Let's say that this person then gets together a makeshift posse and fights back which results in many lawmen dead and gun fire battles that will blazen the screen.
With out plot now set, now we should try and get two young leads to ensure the teenage ticket buyers. I know, maybe Heath Ledger (A Knight's Tale) and the red-hot Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings). To add some credibility to the film, let's now try and grab an international star - someone who is both known to the public and has won over the critics. I know, Geoffery Rush, hot off The Pirates of the Caribbean. Now with just one more piece to fill, that being the love interest, let's try and nab another scorching superstar, say, Naomi Watts who has been nominated for Academy Awards in recent history and is also coming off a critically revered film in 21 Grams. So, let's put all this together and try and wrap it up in a true story to add authenticity. There! Pure movie magic that is impossible to fail.
What? It's already been done you say? Ned Kelly? What the hell was Ned Kelly?
Alright, enough fun. Ned Kelly was released in 2003 and indeed starred Ledger, Watts, Bloom and Rush in the roles mentioned above. The story was about the Australian outlaw who robbed banks and eventually had control over a whole town as what seemed to be the entire Australian police force raining down upon them. Using body armor, the fugitives come out ahead in a battle that is Australia's equivalent to the American OK Corral, but eventually are overpowered due to sheer numbers. Ledger plays the title role of Kelly who after a stint in prison resulting in being provoked by a copper, becomes a free man only to find the prejudice against his family as a result of his fathers actions are still resonating strongly amongst those in uniform. When an over anxious cop tires to make moves on a female member of the Kelly household, he ends up bloodied but alive and uses the sympathy from other officers to lead an all out attack on Kelly and his band of outlaws.
Directed by Gregor Jordan who directed the wonderfully misunderstood Buffalo Soldiers (2001), Ned Kelly is a mess of a film. Not since Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead has such a talented cast been put to such poor use in trying to tell a story that should have the audience cheering in the aisles with every fallen corrupt baddie. However, the development of the characters and the overall interest in the story doesn't lead one to care either way who wins out in the end. Jordan wastes an opportunity he may never see again in having such star power sharing the screen at the same time especially the underused Watts who has a part in the film so underdeveloped that putting her name on the films poster should result in a false advertising suit. Geoffrey Rush seems to sleepwalk through his role as Francais Hare, the head copper who leads the troops into battle against the young Kelly gang. Uninterested and misunderstood, this is Rush's worst paycheck choice since Mystery Men (1999).
If the fact that you never saw Ned Kelly advertised or on the marquee at your local theatre surprises you, maybe you will be completely bewildered to find out that the movie had been made once before in 1970. Tony Richardson solicited the aide of acting newbee Mick Jagger in the lead role over 30 years ago, which begs the question, who was barking for this remake in the first place? (That is rhetorical as I imagine it was the same people who thought the remake of Get Carter with Sly Stallone was a good idea too).
For all the names you will read on the DVD box, Ned Kelly is one to stay away from. Which is a shame really. I imagine that the story (based on the book Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe) is a remarkable one of a young man Kelly was 25 years old when caught who was endeared by the countrymen while being hunted by the police. The epilogue reads that despite 32,000 signatures, Ned Kelly was hung for his crimes in 1880, and that is nothing to shake a stick at I bet less that 32,000 people actually went to the theatres to see this failure.
www.gregsrants.com
With out plot now set, now we should try and get two young leads to ensure the teenage ticket buyers. I know, maybe Heath Ledger (A Knight's Tale) and the red-hot Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings). To add some credibility to the film, let's now try and grab an international star - someone who is both known to the public and has won over the critics. I know, Geoffery Rush, hot off The Pirates of the Caribbean. Now with just one more piece to fill, that being the love interest, let's try and nab another scorching superstar, say, Naomi Watts who has been nominated for Academy Awards in recent history and is also coming off a critically revered film in 21 Grams. So, let's put all this together and try and wrap it up in a true story to add authenticity. There! Pure movie magic that is impossible to fail.
What? It's already been done you say? Ned Kelly? What the hell was Ned Kelly?
Alright, enough fun. Ned Kelly was released in 2003 and indeed starred Ledger, Watts, Bloom and Rush in the roles mentioned above. The story was about the Australian outlaw who robbed banks and eventually had control over a whole town as what seemed to be the entire Australian police force raining down upon them. Using body armor, the fugitives come out ahead in a battle that is Australia's equivalent to the American OK Corral, but eventually are overpowered due to sheer numbers. Ledger plays the title role of Kelly who after a stint in prison resulting in being provoked by a copper, becomes a free man only to find the prejudice against his family as a result of his fathers actions are still resonating strongly amongst those in uniform. When an over anxious cop tires to make moves on a female member of the Kelly household, he ends up bloodied but alive and uses the sympathy from other officers to lead an all out attack on Kelly and his band of outlaws.
Directed by Gregor Jordan who directed the wonderfully misunderstood Buffalo Soldiers (2001), Ned Kelly is a mess of a film. Not since Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead has such a talented cast been put to such poor use in trying to tell a story that should have the audience cheering in the aisles with every fallen corrupt baddie. However, the development of the characters and the overall interest in the story doesn't lead one to care either way who wins out in the end. Jordan wastes an opportunity he may never see again in having such star power sharing the screen at the same time especially the underused Watts who has a part in the film so underdeveloped that putting her name on the films poster should result in a false advertising suit. Geoffrey Rush seems to sleepwalk through his role as Francais Hare, the head copper who leads the troops into battle against the young Kelly gang. Uninterested and misunderstood, this is Rush's worst paycheck choice since Mystery Men (1999).
If the fact that you never saw Ned Kelly advertised or on the marquee at your local theatre surprises you, maybe you will be completely bewildered to find out that the movie had been made once before in 1970. Tony Richardson solicited the aide of acting newbee Mick Jagger in the lead role over 30 years ago, which begs the question, who was barking for this remake in the first place? (That is rhetorical as I imagine it was the same people who thought the remake of Get Carter with Sly Stallone was a good idea too).
For all the names you will read on the DVD box, Ned Kelly is one to stay away from. Which is a shame really. I imagine that the story (based on the book Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe) is a remarkable one of a young man Kelly was 25 years old when caught who was endeared by the countrymen while being hunted by the police. The epilogue reads that despite 32,000 signatures, Ned Kelly was hung for his crimes in 1880, and that is nothing to shake a stick at I bet less that 32,000 people actually went to the theatres to see this failure.
www.gregsrants.com