You and Your Stupid Mate
| Year: | 2005 |
| Director: | Marc Gracie |
| Cast: | Nathan Phillips, Angus Samson, Rachel Hunter |
For several years leading up to the time of seeing this film and writing this review, there's been a quite influential force in filmmaking in Australia, that of a pool of money to make movies funded by a consortium made up of Channel Nine and the Macquarie Bank.
They always seem to be of a certain flavour; inane, lowest-common-denominator comedies that invariably base much of their humour on one or more of the major characters being implausibly stupid.
I got to thinking about why they always make these, and suddenly it hit me; they're funded in part by a TV station. TV specialises in quick, short bursts of sitcom-style comedy. This particular genre of shocking Australian films that's dominated local production for five years or more I always think of as 'the 90 minutes sitcom'.
I had a friend from England who used to be amazed at how many Australian TV comedies are based around a stupid lead character, and this is that same writing and directing, for two hours and on a bigger screen.
So as you may have guessed, You and Your Stupid Mate is the latest in a long line of idiotic films with no artistic merit whatsoever (and hardly any comic merit either) that's included You Can't Stop the Murders, Takeaway, Horseplay and the rest of the Nine/Macquarie progeny.
Two stupid dole bludgers (Phillips and Samson) live in a caravan park and religiously watch a TV soap that gets cancelled. Determined to do something about it, they go on a wild goose chase that turns into a million other stupid follow-your-dreams parables, learn about the value of friendship etc etc etc ad nauseum.
Worthy of nothing but a quick box office death (which I believe it's had at the time of writing this), another one to make us ashamed to be Australian.
They always seem to be of a certain flavour; inane, lowest-common-denominator comedies that invariably base much of their humour on one or more of the major characters being implausibly stupid.
I got to thinking about why they always make these, and suddenly it hit me; they're funded in part by a TV station. TV specialises in quick, short bursts of sitcom-style comedy. This particular genre of shocking Australian films that's dominated local production for five years or more I always think of as 'the 90 minutes sitcom'.
I had a friend from England who used to be amazed at how many Australian TV comedies are based around a stupid lead character, and this is that same writing and directing, for two hours and on a bigger screen.
So as you may have guessed, You and Your Stupid Mate is the latest in a long line of idiotic films with no artistic merit whatsoever (and hardly any comic merit either) that's included You Can't Stop the Murders, Takeaway, Horseplay and the rest of the Nine/Macquarie progeny.
Two stupid dole bludgers (Phillips and Samson) live in a caravan park and religiously watch a TV soap that gets cancelled. Determined to do something about it, they go on a wild goose chase that turns into a million other stupid follow-your-dreams parables, learn about the value of friendship etc etc etc ad nauseum.
Worthy of nothing but a quick box office death (which I believe it's had at the time of writing this), another one to make us ashamed to be Australian.