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the audience applauded

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Saw this long ago, and the movie has stuck with me, partly for it's feel, and partly for the crazy inventions that I wish I had thought of. Been looking for it for years, and can't find a copy anywhere. One thing about the crazy inventions- they all had to be made to work in the film. Pete makes a machine that folds newspapers into the shape of paper airplanes to chuck them at people's houses to make his paper route more efficient- the giant paper airplanes get flung from the machine itself and really fly. He gets himself run out of town for playing one revenge prank too many on the local constable, destroying the entire squad car fleet, because the constable, years before, accidentally ran down his mother in a crosswalk and crippled her. So he and his sister go on the run to the outback, and, helping her work as a geologist, he decides to make a mechanical horse so they can drill 6 holes into the rock at once instead of just one, and you can see him operating/riding the horse, and you can see they really had to figure out how to build one of these things to make it work. Overall, the whole movie reminded me of similar movies form Down Undah, like Red Dog, where the Aussie vibe really comes through.

Tracing paper thin plot, WEAK conflict and so much forced quirkiness that it'll make your head ache! The characters are all unbelievable and SUPER cliché. And its about a brother and sister...there are many moments where there would be sexual tension and excitement in their conversations if they weren't brother and sister, even if they weren't love interests. But its a brother and sister...and they're not even interesting. The guy Pete makes weird machines and acts as quirky as he can, but it's all forced, trite and poorly executed. There are several scenes where the filmmakers have Pete do something quirky and crazy but its unrealistic enough to seem stupid and forced in there, for example at one point he's driving a car and his sister is asleep next to him (awesome, HIS SISTER, right guys, she's coming along for the trip yah! A crazy "ZANY" trip with his...sister...) anyway he climbs out onto the roof of the car after tying leather straps to the steering wheel and steers from the roof. I don't know how he was accelerating and braking, but screw it right! Its quirky and zany! So many other ridiculous scenes like that, but it's worse because there is terrible dialogue supporting a terrible "story."

I wanted to see this movie to see what the cop cars looked like in the eighties (it was a long time ago and I can't remember a VL commodore as the standard cop car). Anyway, I felt quite jipped when the cop cars were VB Commodores and had YELLOW lights. They are not real cop cars (though the cops probably did drive VB Commodores when then were first being built). That doesn't matter because obviously this is a low budget movie and one can't expect everything.It wasn't a good movie though - there seemed to be a lack of a plot, and once they had fled the city after causing enormous problems for a certain nasty police sergeant, the movie lacked direction. They began mining, which is difficult in Australia because one does not own the minerals under the ground, the government does, and one cannot simply start mining them. The movie simply seemed to be glued together and there was little joining the scenes together. The end of the movie was completely illogical as well, because Ricky becomes a builder, or is it that she is mining in the middle of Melbourne - it is difficult to work out.Pete is an inventor, though this is done fairly well, the movie simply seems to be an excuse to show some weird inventions, and not many of them exist in the movie either - at least Malcolm had a plot (from what I can remember). One might argue that we should support Australian film - I will as long as they are not like this movie.The plot is very difficult to make out - a sergeant injured Ricky and Pete's mother and Pete becomes Evil Donald in a quest of vengeance against this police officer. He causes one too many problems and they flee the city to make a new life in the country. It begins as a road movie, but then settle down in a town (no idea what the town is, but it probably is Mount Isa) and begin mining after ripping off a major mine. They then sell the mine, make heaps of money, and get the police officer in lots of trouble, reconcile with their parents (though this is not resolved, simply the police laugh at the pompous old father) and then have a happy ending - nothing directing them to the end, simply an unconnected series of events culminating in a pathetic ending where everybody is happy. Not exactly a movie that is worth wasting one's time to see.

Shrewd and spunky geologist Rikky Menzies (a radiant and excellent performance by Nina Landis) aspires to be a country and western singer/songwriter. Rikky and her willful and mischievous mechanical genius brother Pete (a fine and likable portrayal by Stephen Kearney) decide to get away from their disapproving and overbearing wealthy father (a perfectly hateful Don Reid) and hit the road in search of a new life. The siblings wind up in a small remote rural community where they purchase a mine and start their own business. Director Nadia Tass and screenwriter David Parker concoct a disarmingly low-key and quirky charmer about living life the way you want to live it sans compromise that ambles along at a relaxed, yet steady pace, wins the viewer over with its amiably aimless tone and unpredictable rambling narrative, and offers a wondrous wealth of amusingly flaky incidental details (the babbling religious loony with the runaway car that goes only ten miles in hour in particular is a complete riot!). Landis and Kearney make for very appealing leads; they receive terrific support from Tetchie Agbayani as Rikky's sweet and perky girlfriend Flossie, Bill Hunter as vengeful ramrod police sergeant Whitstead, Bruno Lawrence as the hearty and rugged Sonny, Bruce Spence as the friendly Ben, Lewis Fitz-Gerald as smitten nerd Adam, and Peter Cummins as sleazy mine boss Delahunty. Moreover, Pete's wacky inventions are very cool, Nikky's songs are extremely catchy and tuneful winners, the outback scenery is often breathtaking, the characters are a colorful assortment of endearing oddballs, and the movie concludes on a lovely upbeat note. The bouncy and harmonic score by Brain Baker and Eddie Raynor further adds to the considerable irresistibly breezy'n'easy charm. Parker's sparkling picturesque cinematography delivers plenty of strikingly beautiful images. A thoroughly pleasant and satisfying delight.