I think this is Mark Savage's fifth film, but his first that got a movie theatre release. I've been reading press on him and it reminds me of the press directors like Wes Craven got when they started making movies. Nobody got them until twenty years later. I think this will happen with Mr. Savage.
This came out through Fox in NZ and got called SNAK a lot. Seems like a comedy at first, but is actually very dark and very clever. It has macabre touches everywhere (the Snake character's penchant for listening to the dying hearts of his victims, for example) and looks very slick. But it's very good exploitation and I don't mean that in a bad way.
The action sections are directed with great confidence and energy. A blistering gunfight in a train carriage has a fury and chaos to it that one doesn't usually see in most pics from any country, then there's the final shootout...you have to see it to believe it.
SNAK also has a great villain (Kevin Hopkins) and a policewoman character who'd rather get laid than make an arrest. There's also a great scene in a Chinese restaurant and some terrific lonmg takes without cuts.
It's obvious that Savage loves movies because many are referenced...but there is a philosophy at work here, and that's what makes this one stand out. As with his THE MASTURBATING GUNMAN, this again is about people whose lives are lived in two opposing worlds and the struggle that involves.
Definitely one of the best Australian movies for a long time.
This came out through Fox in NZ and got called SNAK a lot. Seems like a comedy at first, but is actually very dark and very clever. It has macabre touches everywhere (the Snake character's penchant for listening to the dying hearts of his victims, for example) and looks very slick. But it's very good exploitation and I don't mean that in a bad way.
The action sections are directed with great confidence and energy. A blistering gunfight in a train carriage has a fury and chaos to it that one doesn't usually see in most pics from any country, then there's the final shootout...you have to see it to believe it.
SNAK also has a great villain (Kevin Hopkins) and a policewoman character who'd rather get laid than make an arrest. There's also a great scene in a Chinese restaurant and some terrific lonmg takes without cuts.
It's obvious that Savage loves movies because many are referenced...but there is a philosophy at work here, and that's what makes this one stand out. As with his THE MASTURBATING GUNMAN, this again is about people whose lives are lived in two opposing worlds and the struggle that involves.
Definitely one of the best Australian movies for a long time.