AUSTRALIENS (2014)

AUSTRALIENS (2014)

Tagline: We aren't alone. And it sucks.

(Comedy, Action, Titanium Turdle Power) [PG-13].

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but I think it would have landed at a PG-13 rating. 

I never thought the world would end on a Tuesday…

This one revolves around the lead singer of Titanium Turdle, Andi Gibson, her friends Cam and John, her cousin Keith, and her brother Elliot. When Andi was 10 she encountered an alien and has been telling people about it ever since. 17 years later an actual alien attack happens only in Australia and Andi feels like she has some special powers that allow her to deal with the threat. It’s also personal because the aliens have taken her mother. To add to their problems, the aliens can impersonate humans, so good luck with all that. 

This is another B-movie where some of the humor is subtle but wildly hilarious and the rest of it is too lame to be funny. What does work in this thing, is the effects. I think because we get some excellent use of filters, the color pallet in the shots that don’t have effects are actually complimented by any effects we see. The CGI is not realistic and is loaded with cheese, but the style matches everything going on and it’s incredibly effective. Because of this AUSTRALIENS is far more aesthetically pleasing than a lot of other B-movies out there. 

There is also a lot of use of suspense queues in the camera work and score designed to make us think the scenes are going to reveal something tense or creepy. Instead nearly every time it’s a mechanism to drop some humor on us. I think over the course of the film this mechanism does wear thin, but I actually liked it for the most part. The downside is that it does make the characters look pretty stupid, but this is a comedy, so it works with one exception. The fact that they don’t realize John is an alien gets pretty freakin ridiculous over time. 

Acting wise Rita Artmann is fantastic as Andi and her role in this made me want to watch some of the other stuff she’s in, but after checking out the trailers for some of that, I think I will pass for now. Andi is a bit too self-centered for me to really embrace as a character. I didn’t like his character, but Lawrence Silver is solid as Keith in this, but I haven’t seen any of his other films. Doug Hatch is great as Elliot but doesn’t get enough lines in this. Tamara McLaughlin is decent as Cam. She is kind of the loyal friend character in the movie and I am always attracted to fierce loyalty. Tamara McLaughlin is probably best known for THOR: RAGNAROK working as additional crew. She does have more acting roles than most of this cast though. Wrapping up the main cast we get Joe Bauer as John. Like everyone else in this, I am not familiar with any of their other acting efforts. 

If I have any complaints it’s that there are sections of this movie that are funny, but still feel fairly slow. Most of this is actually during the final act. We also don’t get a ton of character building which is a bit odd in a film that is nearly 2 hours long. 

I could have done without a few scenes, but overall this thing is a total blast. If Australian accents bug you, maybe sidestep this thing, but I thought it was pretty epic. Apparently, I am not the only one. This thing has gotten quite a few accolades in the indie scene. AUSTRALIENS won Best Special Effects and was nominated for Best Comedy and Best Sci-Fi at Sydney Indie Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. 

You have to watch a lot of off-the-wall stuff to find a diamond in the rough that most people haven’t seen, but this is definitely one of those. AUSTRALIENS over the top madness definitely won’t be for everyone, but I give this one a solid 5 out of 7. It’s better than similar alien-based efforts like BLASTED, ESCAPE FROM AREA 51, and MONSTER FORCE ZERO.

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