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Here we go
again with another visit
to the VHS vault and
another couple of comedies
from the 80s.
Australian
Dream
1987
Australian
Dream is a Queensland set
dramedy that follows
Dorothy Stubbs (Noni
Hazlehurst), a put-upon
housewife to her butcher
now politician husband
Geoffrey (Graeme Blundell)
and their two kids. At a
sex toy party, Dorothy
meets the stripper, Todd
(John Jarratt), and
instantly begins to dream
about him and starts to
write about him in her
stories for writing class
she is taking. Her
birthday is coming up and
after dropping off her
daughter to riding
lessons, she again meets
Todd, who is the riding
instructor and he's also
in a band, which Dorothy
decides to hire for her
party, which she feels is
been taken over by her
husband for campaign push.
The party has a dress-up
theme of 'dress who you
want to really be' and
Dorothy chooses to be
Geoffrey which even he
thinks is uninspiring. But
after some more
fantasising, Dorothy comes
out in her night dress to
the shock of Geoffrey who
has invited the leader of
his ultra-conservative
party. And then Todd and
his band arrived,
unbeknownst to Geoffrey.
It's going to be a helluva
night. A throw everything
at the wall and hope some
of it sticks type of
comedy where no attempt at
comedy is left on the
table. Sadly, not a lot of
it works, a fair bit of
sexual humour that feels
there to be raunchy
instead of funny.
Australian Dream has a
strangely subversive
ending where Dorothy
decides to take the road
less travelled which was
an interesting surprise.
Hazlehurst is as usual
pretty great as she played
a lot of similar type
roles during this period
and holds the movie up
well. Blundell and Jarratt
are also good, but the
rest of the cast is fairly
anonymous. Not bad, but a
fair bit misses the mark
and there's a lot going
on.
Relatives
1985
Relatives is a
comedy where a family is
getting to get together
for the 80th birthday of
Grandpa (Bill Kerr) at the
old family farmhouse
before it is to be sold
off. Geoffrey (Ray
Barrett), who owns and
runs the farm but hasn't
told the family, and his
children Clare (Alyson
Best) and Ross (Brett
Climo), who brings Clare's
Czech lover Alex (Marian
Dworakowski) are joined by
the rest of the family.
Nancy and Peter (Rowena
Wallace and Michael
Aitkens) are trying to get
their share from the
house. Alfred (Robin
Bowering) and Catherine
(Jeanie Drynan) are
carrying on an affair
behind their spouse's
back. Clare is planning to
move to Czechoslovakia
with Alex and Ross is
planning on dropping out
of university. And all
Grandpa wants is a drink.
Very low key family
getting together light
comedy and I think that is
being very generous as
there doesn't seem to be a
lot to laugh at. Usually
these types of movies are
about very dysfunctional
families, but this family
is light on the drama and
tension. What little
comedy there is either too
obvious, as in the Grandpa
being a smelly, deaf and
wanting a drink or too
dark, as in one kid
threatening to shoot his
cousin. To be honest, I'd
rather watch a bad movie
than the boring movie that
Relatives is.
As
with all VHS updates, the
quality isn't the best,
but both movies are not
bad quality and I doubt
either with make the leap
to DVD/Bluray. But, you
never know...
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