Like some other reviewers, I was disappointed by "Last Cab To Darwin". I saw the trailer on some other DVD or Blu-Ray and I was looking forward to seeing this movie. Michael Caton is a very good actor who will never play a better part than he did as Darryl Kerrigan in "The Castle", one of my all-time favourite movies.
I share the views of some other reviewers. There was a missed opportunity in Last Cab in that very little of the strange beauty of the Australian outback made it into the final cut. The outback is beautiful and dangerous in about equal measure and I would have liked to see much more of it, particularly since this movie runs just over two hours. What we have instead are endless scenes involving Rex and Tilly, the latter who increasingly got under my skin, not because he was an Aboriginal but rather because he was just so bloody annoying. Were it me driving 3,000km to Darwin, I would have had Tilly out of the cab at the first stop after leaving the place where he fixed Rex's windscreen.
Jackie Weaver has never been a good actress and my impression was not changed by this movie. The only stand-out acting wise was Michael Caton as Rex. He played the part with exactly the right amount of sympathy, poignance and empathy with someone dying from cancer.
And this leads me to the matter of euthanasia. I believe that in Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT and I think also Tasmania have passed laws allowing euthanasia in some appropriately limited circumstances. These laws have been over-ridden by Federal Government legislation, this of course resulting in a great deal of unnecessary suffering for patients and their families. I would have liked to see a movie in which the expected difficulties for Rex didn't happen and he was then allowed to die a dignified death rather than the drawn out and painful death that we can assume followed the end of the movie. However, as with so much else these days, Australia is no longer a leader in the world in any capacity. We are always followers with little vision for the future. Australia's resistance to both euthanasia and gay marriage are two good examples of what I'm saying here. They are both absolutely inevitable so why don't Australian Governments just recognize that and enact appropriate legislation that could only make many people much happier and make Australia again the forward-looking country that it was in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
My major problem with "Last Cab To Darwin was just the length of the movie. It's way too long at over two hours and I was bored to death by the end, just hoping that it would finish. This seems to be commonplace these days when most movies are no longer the "correct" length of about 90 to 100 minutes. Some movies can sustain interest for two or even three hours but most just don't make it.
By all means see "Last Cab To Darwin". It's not a bad movie. It just could have been so much better.
I share the views of some other reviewers. There was a missed opportunity in Last Cab in that very little of the strange beauty of the Australian outback made it into the final cut. The outback is beautiful and dangerous in about equal measure and I would have liked to see much more of it, particularly since this movie runs just over two hours. What we have instead are endless scenes involving Rex and Tilly, the latter who increasingly got under my skin, not because he was an Aboriginal but rather because he was just so bloody annoying. Were it me driving 3,000km to Darwin, I would have had Tilly out of the cab at the first stop after leaving the place where he fixed Rex's windscreen.
Jackie Weaver has never been a good actress and my impression was not changed by this movie. The only stand-out acting wise was Michael Caton as Rex. He played the part with exactly the right amount of sympathy, poignance and empathy with someone dying from cancer.
And this leads me to the matter of euthanasia. I believe that in Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT and I think also Tasmania have passed laws allowing euthanasia in some appropriately limited circumstances. These laws have been over-ridden by Federal Government legislation, this of course resulting in a great deal of unnecessary suffering for patients and their families. I would have liked to see a movie in which the expected difficulties for Rex didn't happen and he was then allowed to die a dignified death rather than the drawn out and painful death that we can assume followed the end of the movie. However, as with so much else these days, Australia is no longer a leader in the world in any capacity. We are always followers with little vision for the future. Australia's resistance to both euthanasia and gay marriage are two good examples of what I'm saying here. They are both absolutely inevitable so why don't Australian Governments just recognize that and enact appropriate legislation that could only make many people much happier and make Australia again the forward-looking country that it was in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
My major problem with "Last Cab To Darwin was just the length of the movie. It's way too long at over two hours and I was bored to death by the end, just hoping that it would finish. This seems to be commonplace these days when most movies are no longer the "correct" length of about 90 to 100 minutes. Some movies can sustain interest for two or even three hours but most just don't make it.
By all means see "Last Cab To Darwin". It's not a bad movie. It just could have been so much better.