The Crop

Synopsis: It's the 1980s and Sydney night club owner, Ronald 'Blade' Gillette (George Elliot), realizes two months after random breath testing has been introduced that he is going broke. He is still getting plenty of customers to gawk at the girls and listen to the band, but afraid of drink driving, they're not buying his grog. They're going out into the car park, smoking marijuana, then coming back in for a glass of water and free entertainment. Blade decides he needs to tailor his business to suit his customer demands. His answer: grow his own dope. Recruiting his best mate, David 'Wack' Kowakski (Rhys Muldoon), and his girlfriend, Geraldine (Holly Brisley), to assist him, Blade finds that no matter what kind of business you're in, it's one headache after another.

Judging by its credits, writer and star George Elliot leant on his family to finance this film as the Elliot name appears quite a few times. Whilst showing commendable go-it-alone initiative, anyone who stumped up their hard-earned or even not-so-hard-earned, will never be seeing it again, let alone any return on it.

The film stays close to the template for recent Australian comedy. Get together a gaggle of likeable dunces, give them a mission and watch how they cock it up but, after all, learn something about themselves and each other. Mate, there's your movie. Amateurish as it is, I wouldn't say that this film is much worse than recent clangers such as Thunderstruck or Under The Radar which had serious industry finance behind them but from Elliot's swooped-over 'do to Tahne Stroet's ear-peircing banshee there's too much here that's embarrassingly bargain basement. As it is, it's Dirty Deeds without David Ceasar or Bryan Brown or Toni Collette, or really anyone who could act or do anything credibly cinematic or comedic.

It is fairly evident that Elliot based the film on his own experiences. There may be quite a bit of artistic license with the story and characters but one feels that Elliot is pretty much the character we see and if he didn't live through the episode we see, someone close to him did. This manages to give the film a certain likeability. But not enough for anyone but George and his relatives to find reason to watch it.

 

 

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