BEFORE: So much for a relaxing weekend, I got a text on Saturday morning from a co-worker who was sick and asked if I could cover his shift - I checked the calendar and saw it was an animation event, so I took the shift. Animation is my jam, so I wonder why I wasn't scheduled for it in the first place - well, either way, the shift found me, so I worked on Saturday afternoon & evening, as I didn't have anything else planned. There was plenty of pizza left over after the event, they had over-ordered and were giving away pies to any guests who asked. Well, at least they didn't throw food away like some events do, which drives me a little nuts. I'd had dinner already, but who can say no to a couple free slices? Anyway I still got Sunday at home to relax before the work week begins again.
Guy Pearce carries over from "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and he makes the year-end countdown, so I'm sure he'll sleep better at night now that that's out of the way.
THE PLOT: 10 years after a global economic collapse, a hardened loner pursues the men who stole his only possession, his car. Along the way he captures the brother of one of the thieves and the duo form an uneasy bond during the dangerous journey.
AFTER: This is another weird one tonight, though we're still in Australia and the main plot concerns driving for a long distance. But this is set in the future, after the world economy collapses and society falls into chaos and everyone accepts only U.S. dollars as currency. Hey, maybe humanity's downfall won't be the United States' fault after all. They never say exactly what caused the calamity in the first place, but possibly it might have had something to do with drag queens performing across the Outback. That would set this film squarely some time between "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and the "Mad Max" movies, right?
But this is a very simple movie, too - guy loses car, guy tries to get car back. That's it, because all you really are going to have in the future is... what you have. The future that's coming at some point is not a happy place, and this is a problem because the future is where some of us are going to be spending the rest of our lives. What happens when there aren't enough resources to go around, there's very little clean water, no food except what was put in cans years ago, and nobody is farming or serving up McNuggets or getting food stamps, because there's no government to issue them. Everybody circles the wagons, shuts down their house and waits to see if a mysterious stranger comes by to pay to have sex with their grandchildren.
We never really find out what the thieves stole (does it matter?) or who they're running from (nope, that doesn't matter either) but after they crash their car they need another one, and Eric's car is RIGHT THERE while he's getting a drink at a makeshift bar. Thankfully there's still alcohol in the future, so it's not a total loss. So Eric chases after the thieves in THEIR pick-up, to get his car back, but they don't seem interested in trading back, they like the car better, so they knock him out and drive off.
Eric trails them again, and encounters a number of strange characters who maybe remember that car passing through town, but everyone's also very weird and cagey in the future, so who knows, they could all be lying. But he happens upon an injured man who recognizes the pick-up, and says that's his brother's truck. Eric finally has a solid lead, if he can get this wounded man to an Outback doctor and get from him the location of his brother's hideout.
Well, a couple good things about society collapsing, nobody has to work a 9 to 5 job any more, and if you see something you like, you can just pull out your gun and take it - it's going to be like the Wild West all over again. This is maybe why the U.S. dollar will still be worth something, because we have the most guns and the most people willing to use them. Sorry, Australia and all the other countries, but my guess is we're going to come out on top after the apocalypse or the worldwide Depression or whatever.
Also starring Robert Pattinson (last seen in "The Batman"), Scoot McNairy (last seen in "Blonde"), Gillian Jones (last seen in "War Machine"), David Field, Tawanda Manyimo (last seen in "Slow West"), Anthony Hayes (last seen in "Animal Kingdom"), Susan Prior (ditto), Nash Edgerton (last seen in "Son of a Gun"), Jamie Fallon, Samuel F. Lee, Frank C. Sun, Scott Perry, Richard Green, Ben Armer, Ethan Hanslow, Gerald Coulthard, Christina Ling, Joseph Wilton, Daria Wilton, Mark Duncan, Jack Mayo, Jan Paio
RATING: 4 out of 10 free motel rooms - you won't even need a reservation!
No comments:
Post a Comment