| DIRTY DEEDS (2002) |
| DIRECTED BY DAVID CAESAR . STARRING BRYAN BROWN, TONI COLLETTE, JOHN GOODMAN, SAM NEILL, FELIX WILLIAMSON, and SAM WORTHINGTON. |
| With his biggest budget to date, David Caesar (Idiot Box, Mullet) drops us straight into Sydney's seedy underworld circa 1969. Barry Ryan is one of the cities more successful organised crime lords. Among other things, he runs most of the poker machines in the city. We get a pretty good idea of how Barry clawed his way to the top in the first five minutes of the movie. |
| Seeking a better deal with a rival organisation, a club owner removes Barry's pokies and replaces them with the said rivals machines. In a glowing example of customer relations, Barry and his men smash every machine in the place to pieces with sledgehammers.Then Barry does the same to the club owner. The whole scene is elecrifyingly played out to the strains of AC/DC's 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'. |
| Barry's nephew Darcy has just returned from Vietnam, and asks his uncle about some work. Meanwhile, a couple of Mafia heavies from Chicago fly into Sydney attracted to the lucrative poker machine market. They have a fancy new electronic machine, and want to muscle their way into Barry's profits. From here the movie progresses into a dangerous game where every party has a card or two up their sleeve. |
| Dirty Deeds was a very satisfying addition to the blossoming Aussie crime genre. The cast was a solid ensemble. I normally don't like John Goodman much, but his character Tony was both likeable, and wasn't cliche whatsoever. It was a very stylish movie, with Caesar experimenting with innovative shots much more than he has in the past. Highlights of the movie include the opening sequence, in which the air is literally filled with flying cogs, springs, and twenty cent pieces from dozens of sledgehammer assaulted poker machines. The pig hunting scenes are also great. |
| With its high profile cast, this should get a decent release worldwide. The movie reminded me a lot of Mean Streets (also reviewed here). This isn't a bad thing, because the whole hip post-Tarantino thing was getting a little tiring. Dirty Deeds can proudly hold its head high alongside Blue Murder as one of the better crime flicks of the past few years. |
| Entertainment : 3.5 out of 4 |
| Watchability : 3 out of 4 |
| Overall : 3.25 out of 4 |
| Reviewed by Blake |