Rating: 
Summary: Dude Looks Like a Lady
Review: "The Hard Word" is just on o.k. film. I've seen better, seen worse. It's a crime caper wrapped around a love triangle, and neither storyline works altogether well. There are problems with the script, and it is my personal feeling that Rachel Griffiths, a fine actress in her own right, is miscast in the blonde bombshell role, and instead looks like a man in drag. Sorry, but that's the way it looked. And that threw-off much of the love triangle aspect for me. As for the crime caper element, much of that seemed a little off, as well."The Hard Word" starts off with the release from prison of three men: Dale, Shane and Mal. Some cast listings I've seen has the trio as being brothers, but then in a segment with a prison counselor, Shane describes his family life growing up, and it doesn't sound as though he had any brothers. So go figure. Once the guys are free, their crooked lawyer, Frank, has them set-up to do a robbery. They do this, but it lands them back in prison. Frank finds a way to get them out again, but they have yet another heist waiting in the wings. Guy Pearce ("LA Confidential" and "Memento") plays Dale, the head of the trio of criminals. He turns in a good performance, but is stuck with an uneven script. Joel Edgerton and Damien Richardson, as his co-horts Shane and Mal, are good in their roles, but their characters are bizarre. Shane has had an admittedly bad childhood, and has anger management issues. He even seduces the prison counselor in a particularly ludicrous sub-plot. Mal fancies himself to be quite a good chef, and his specialty seems to be blood sausages (a favorite of Shane's). I'd never heard of blood sausages before this film, and believe me, I never want to hear of them again. As mentioned earlier, Rachel Griffiths stars as Carol, Dale's wife. She has been dilly-dallying with lawyer Frank on the side. Frank is quite enamored with her -- why, I don't know. That's part of the problem with this movie. Dale is a con who is in and out of prison all the time, and has apparently never come across a shaving razor. Carol is hardly a bombshell, although she is blonde, and instead snorts cocaine and sleeps around with whatever available man she can find. And she looks like a man in drag. Did I mention that already? Frank (played by Robert Taylor) is a double-crossing, back-stabbing person who is only out for himself. These people are three peas in a pod, but they do not inspire any real interest from the audience as to their plight. A mistake, when a good part of your movie is supposed to be about this love triangle. As far as heists go, "The Hard Word" features two, but it seems like more. The trio of ex-prisoners commit the first heist once freed from prison, and they will supposedly be given a free pass because there are crooked cops in on it, but I could see the writing on the wall regarding this, yet these three seasoned professionals were totally surprised when events conspired against them, and they were hauled back to prison. Once they are released (again) they commit the 2nd heist and, of course, things go wrong (don't they always in these types of films?) Things stay interesting for a little while afterwards, but eventually I felt worn down with the whole excursion. Everyone came across as bumbling and inept, if not downright unlikeable. Finally, after going through at least two possible ending points, I just wanted the movie to be over with, already. "The Hard Word" tries. It really does. It thinks it has got a good premise -- a heist/crime caper and a sultry love triangle --- but it in the end it has almost nothing. The heists are so blatantly set-up to fail that the suspense is barely evident. We know things will go wrong. We can even tell *what* things. We know people will be double-crossed, and we know by whom. We do not find the blond bombshell desirable, because she isn't a blond bombshell. The film has such little point and meaning except to exist for its own sake that in having no real substantive suspense or points of interest, "The Hard Word" is simply "The Dull Word".
Rating:
Summary: derivative crime drama
Review: **1/2 The Australian film, "The Hard Word," is little more than a wan cross between "The Usual Suspects" and "Oceans 11." In it, Guy Pearce, almost unrecognizable beneath a scraggly beard, plays one of four criminals discharged from prison in order to help mastermind a heist at the famed Melbourne Cup horse race. There's very little that's original or new in this film, with all the generic cliches falling dutifully into place: the release from prison, the inevitable double crosses, the unfaithful wife, the trigger-happy outsider who almost bungles the entire operation with his impetuosity and brashness, and the innocent bystander who, sensing the excitement of life on the dark side, helps the robbers with their getaway. Surprisingly little time is spent on the planning and execution of the heist, and an inordinate amount on getting the men out of prison (they get out once and then, inexplicably for plot purposes, get sent back in again). The performers are good, but their thick Australian accents make much of the dialogue virtually incomprehensible (for non-Aussies that is). That doesn't do much to enhance the clarity of the film. The real problem with "The Hard Word," though, is that we've seen it all countless times before, only better.
Rating:
Summary: derivative crime drama
Review: **1/2 The Australian film, "The Hard Word," is little more than a wan cross between "The Usual Suspects" and "Oceans 11." In it, Guy Pearce, almost unrecognizable beneath a scraggly beard, plays one of four criminals discharged from prison in order to help mastermind a heist at the famed Melbourne Cup horse race. There's very little that's original or new in this film, with all the generic cliches falling dutifully into place: the release from prison, the inevitable double crosses, the unfaithful wife, the trigger-happy outsider who almost bungles the entire operation with his impetuosity and brashness, and the innocent bystander who, sensing the excitement of life on the dark side, helps the robbers with their getaway. Surprisingly little time is spent on the planning and execution of the heist, and an inordinate amount on getting the men out of prison (they get out once and then, inexplicably for plot purposes, get sent back in again). The performers are good, but their thick Australian accents make much of the dialogue virtually incomprehensible (for non-Aussies that is). That doesn't do much to enhance the clarity of the film. The real problem with "The Hard Word," though, is that we've seen it all countless times before, only better.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not a remake of Ocean's 11!
Review: after reading some of these reviews its obvious that some of you are missing the point entirely. This is not a preposterous diamond heist film such as 'entrapment', nor is it one of these garbage hollywood films made to a formula involving an inordinate number of double, triple and quadruple crossings. the only american film which i would really compare it to at all is the similarly gritty and blackly comic classic 'reservoir dogs'. first of all, the three main characters are not brothers, although it seems a blurb somewhere must have said this. the reason they speak the butcher's tongue is due to their time in the slammer. secondly, i feel the way that the guys KNOW theyre going to get screwed over by their lawyer ADDS to the suspense. the fun is in seeing how he tries to do it, not "is the good guy a bad guy or a good guy pretending to be a bad guy so he can double cross the bad guy who is actually playing for both sides whilst sleeping with the good guys wife etc. etc." also, i felt the robberies were very realistic. whats more likely to come off, robbing a bunch of intoxicated bookies after all the security guards have gone home (on a side note the melbourne cup is a hugely significant sporting event on the australian calendar, a nuance perhaps missed by our american friends), or breaking into a bank, disabling the security system with non-existent electrical equipment and lugging 50 tonnes of gold bars away from a 12-inch thick lead vault? enough of that, the idea behind the film was to illustrate the human qualities of these flawed characters - after all, are these theives really any worse than shady politicians or mass tort lawyers? ive gotta agree that rachel griffiths looks a bit she-malish, but if theyd got liz hurley theyd also have got her acting ability! the role called for a tart not a glamour model. all in all, i thought it was a very original and emotionally involving film, certainly one of the best crime thrillers of the past few years, with especially fantastic performances by joel edgerton and guy pearce
Rating: 
Summary: 3 Stars for 2 Great Leads, Pearce & Griffith (in Blonde Wig)
Review: Guy Pearce and Rachel Griffith star in this Aussie film by first-time director Scott Roberts. To be honest, I find nothing memorable in the film except the well-drawn characters and the good acting. But that may be because I missed the humor part of the film. The truth could be either the film is filled with Aussie humors or it's just a mess. Just choose for yourself. The story is familar, but not bad. The three brothers Dale, Mal, and Shane are doing time at the prison in Melbourne. According to Shane, Guy Pearce's Dale is intelligent, Mal is kind, and he is just a messed-up one. Anyway, with a help from oily, corrupt lawyer Frank (Robert Taylor, one of the "agents" in the first "Matrix"), they are assigned to do the heist job while out of jail. And their no killing" policy assisted by the professional skills again worked, or it seems. If I write like this, you might think that "The Hard Word" is what you call "heist movie" featuring the expert jobs of robbery. Not exactly. The film's forcus is on the relations between characters -- among the brothers, and between them and surrounding ones like lawyer, cops, and so on -- and if you expect actions, you will be disappointed. The film is more about the mildly comical moments generated by the interations between them, which are peppered with strangely engaging humors. But the most striking character is not a male one; she is Carol played by fabulous Rachel Griffith, whose acting at one place will easily out-Stone Ms Sharon Stone of the now famous scene in "Basic Instinct." Oh, don't forget, now she is blonde, too. 1,000 miles away from her portrayal of the understanding wife seen in Dennis Quaid's "Old Rookie," she is simply great -- the only thing we regret is her comparatively short screen time. The film is often edited badly (the heist scenes are most lamentable condition, with too many jambled shots), and the story looks as if going on and on, never knowing where to stop. The film shows "Melbourne Cup" and you will think that is the place where the film is heading. In fact, you will see much more and more. And strangely, there are good scenes (see how the brothers run with huge black bags on the shoulder) scattered among those parts which, in purely dramatic point of view, are obviously superfulous. Too bad the film doesn't know what it wants to be.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Stars for 2 Great Leads, Pearce & Griffith (in Blonde Wig)
Review: Guy Pearce and Rachel Griffith star in this Aussie film by first-time director Scott Roberts. To be honest, I find nothing memorable in the film except the well-drawn characters and the good acting. But that may be because I missed the humor part of the film. The truth could be either the film is filled with Aussie humors or it's just a mess. Just choose for yourself. The story is familar, but not bad. The three brothers Dale, Mal, and Shane are doing time at the prison in Melbourne. According to Shane, Guy Pearce's Dale is intelligent, Mal is kind, and he is just a messed-up one. Anyway, with a help from oily, corrupt lawyer Frank (Robert Taylor, one of the "agents" in the first "Matrix"), they are assigned to do the heist job while out of jail. And their no killing" policy assisted by the professional skills again worked, or it seems. If I write like this, you might think that "The Hard Word" is what you call "heist movie" featuring the expert jobs of robbery. Not exactly. The film's forcus is on the relations between characters -- among the brothers, and between them and surrounding ones like lawyer, cops, and so on -- and if you expect actions, you will be disappointed. The film is more about the mildly comical moments generated by the interations between them, which are peppered with strangely engaging humors. But the most striking character is not a male one; she is Carol played by fabulous Rachel Griffith, whose acting at one place will easily out-Stone Ms Sharon Stone of the now famous scene in "Basic Instinct." Oh, don't forget, now she is blonde, too. 1,000 miles away from her portrayal of the understanding wife seen in Dennis Quaid's "Old Rookie," she is simply great -- the only thing we regret is her comparatively short screen time. The film is often edited badly (the heist scenes are most lamentable condition, with too many jambled shots), and the story looks as if going on and on, never knowing where to stop. The film shows "Melbourne Cup" and you will think that is the place where the film is heading. In fact, you will see much more and more. And strangely, there are good scenes (see how the brothers run with huge black bags on the shoulder) scattered among those parts which, in purely dramatic point of view, are obviously superfulous. Too bad the film doesn't know what it wants to be.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth watching...
Review: I got to see this the other day & loved it. It had been labelled as a "Lock, stock..." style movie. It wasn't. That is to say, it was a lot less violent, but still had a very watchable story. Ignore the comments about the Australian "slang" used throughout the movie. There are some moments where a certain dialogue is used and, you may need the sub-titles on to understand it (and it's not local "slang"), but this should not detract from the rest of the movie. Guy Pearce & Joel Edgerton portray very good roles as angry cons, who will take on anyone that get in their way, but in a generally, non-violent fashion. Without giving too much of the plot away, it's certainly worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth watching...
Review: I got to see this the other day & loved it. It had been labelled as a "Lock, stock..." style movie. It wasn't. That is to say, it was a lot less violent, but still had a very watchable story. Ignore the comments about the Australian "slang" used throughout the movie. There are some moments where a certain dialogue is used and, you may need the sub-titles on to understand it (and it's not local "slang"), but this should not detract from the rest of the movie. Guy Pearce & Joel Edgerton portray very good roles as angry cons, who will take on anyone that get in their way, but in a generally, non-violent fashion. Without giving too much of the plot away, it's certainly worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth watching...
Review: I got to see this the other day & loved it. It had been labelled as a "Lock, stock..." style movie. It wasn't. That is to say, it was a lot less violent, but still had a very watchable story. Ignore the comments about the Australian "slang" used throughout the movie. There are some moments where a certain dialogue is used and, you may need the sub-titles on to understand it (and it's not local "slang"), but this should not detract from the rest of the movie. Guy Pearce & Joel Edgerton portray very good roles as angry cons, who will take on anyone that get in their way, but in a generally, non-violent fashion. Without giving too much of the plot away, it's certainly worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: Blood Sausage
Review: Resolutely Australian, brash, funny, irreverent, alternately devilish and angelic and at times disgusting, "The Hard Word" is nonetheless full of life...in an electrode to the spinal cord kind of way. It is definitely on the side of the bad boys though, the thieves who happen to be brothers: Guy Pearce as Dale, looking as if he never sleeps, never washes his hair nor brushes his teeth but still somehow holds on to the love of his wife Carol (Rachel Griffiths), Shane (Joel Edgerton), a Kurt Russel look-alike with Elvis sideburns and with an anger management problem as big as all outdoors and Mal (Damien Richardson) a butcher who looks to Sweeney Todd for inspiration. By the way, they are all recently released guests of the Australian prison system encouraged to participate in that one final heist that will bring in enough cash for them all to retire.
We've had a rash of heist,double/tripe cross caper films of late but none has the finger-in-the-nose, sloppily efficient bravura of "The Hard Word." It's a puppy dog of a movie inhabited with Dobermans, Pit bulls and Rottweilers.
Director Scott Roberts III has injected gallons of adrenaline and cock-eyed optimism into this movie to fuel several films. That he keeps us firmly on the side of the supposed "bad guys" only attests to the humanity and inspired intellectualism of his direction.
|
