Original UK Release Date: 8th April 2011
Original US Release Date: 24th February 2012
UK Rating: 12
US Rating: R
Director: Stuart Beattie
Genre: Action
Plot: When a group of friends return from a camping trip they discover that their country has been invaded by foreign forces. They decide to remain in hiding and fight back.
Mike's Review
Back in 1984, a film came out called Red Dawn. It
depicted the results of an invasion of America by Russian forces and the affects
of the invasion on a group of school friends who hide out and fight back
against the invading army. This film is a classic with an amazing cast of up
and coming young actors. My review of it is here.
I saw the trailer for Tomorrow: When the War Began (2010) and my first thought was that it was ripping off Red Dawn
(1984). But the trailer hooked me. It looked good and I decided to give it a
go.
The film is set in a small town in Australia and
starts off with a group of friends going off on a camping trip. During the trip
they notice an unusual amount of aircraft flying over head. After the trip is
over they return to their homes to find the all the electricity and phone lines
are not working and all the people are missing. It soon becomes apparent that
the town has been overrun with foreign military forces and all the residents
are now being held captive. The friends decide to disrupt the invasion as best
they can.
The film is based on a series of books written by
Australian author John
Marsden, and this is based on the first one of seven.
The
cast is pretty much unknown outside of Australia. It includes Caitlin
Stasey, Rachel
Hurd-Wood, Lincoln
Lewis, Deniz
Akdeniz, Phoebe
Tonkin, Chris
Pang, Ashleigh
Cummings & Andrew
Ryan. They are all really good in this and after seeing
the film I read all the books in the series and the attention to the casting of
the characters fits well with their counterparts in the novels. It was hard to
find one stand out performance in this as all do a great job with their
respective roles. I don’t often like to choose the main leads in the film as
they should have been cast as the lead for a reason. However in a cast of
relative unknowns, Caitlin Stasey as Ellie Linton clearly
stands out as the lead in the film. She is definitely one to watch and
Hollywood success shouldn’t be far behind.
The
setting in Australia is good with great use of locations and scenery. Once
again attention has been made to the feel of the film in comparison to the
novel and it is perfect. The clever use of a nondescript country avoids alienating
any nation.
The
story may be similar to Red
Dawn (1984), but it is different enough to be judged on
its own merits, it is very well made and really enjoyable. The release of the
movie in America over 16 months after the release in Australia and nearly a
year after its release in the UK has probably harmed the film in respect of its
takings and overall exposure of it. The film is exceptionally well made and
would put many Hollywood blockbusters to shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment