This opens with one of the most clichéd scenes you get in cinema - a young pretty boy called Jesse Ryan is in a prison van going to prison and he's surrounded by creatures several species down the evolutionary ladder who are looking at him in a hostile way . Yeah it's clichéd but people enjoy a good cliché now and again especially prison ones and being an Aussie film I was intrigued I might be watching something along the lines of John Hillcoat's 1988 prison nightmare movie GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD , a film that was criminally underrated and despite being understated had the capacity to shock . SON OF A GUN isn't really in the same league and tries to be a plot driven gritty thriller
!!!!! SPOILERS !!!!!
This might have succeeded in its aims of being a great plot driven thriller but it often misses the mark where credibility is concerned . Jesse is sent to prison for a relatively minor offence that carries a sentence of six months but apparently he finds himself in a prison full of convicts who are doing life . I'd have thought that like Britain and America Australian prisons would have different categories where people doing relatively short sentences don't mix with lifers . I'm guessing this is because Jesse needs to meet someone who can save him from prison predators who have nothing to lose and that man is Brendan Lynch who has another twenty years to serve . If he protects Jesse from the predators he wants Jesse to come up with a plan to spring him from jail by hi-jacking a copter . Hmmm so someone who can't protect himself in jail might just happen to be a very effective hijacker on the outside ? . It's not like Jesse is all that hardened and violent .Doesn't Brendan have any mates on the outside who might be more reliable ? And what's to stop Jesse changing his mind ? Let's face it he's looking at 25 years in jail if he gets caught but I guess if the characters stopped to think about all this as much as the audience do then the film would abruptly stop
The contrived writing is a pity because SON OF A GUN is a rather enjoyable and tense thriller in parts . Ewan McGregor is normally an actor I dislike and seems incapable of giving a convincing performance but here he's something of a revelation as tough villain Brendan Lynch and speaking in his native accent does help . I take it by his spoken idiom Lynch is a Scot ? He's ably supported by a cast I'd had no previous knowledge of in a film while entertaining could have been a bit more intelligent
!!!!! SPOILERS !!!!!
This might have succeeded in its aims of being a great plot driven thriller but it often misses the mark where credibility is concerned . Jesse is sent to prison for a relatively minor offence that carries a sentence of six months but apparently he finds himself in a prison full of convicts who are doing life . I'd have thought that like Britain and America Australian prisons would have different categories where people doing relatively short sentences don't mix with lifers . I'm guessing this is because Jesse needs to meet someone who can save him from prison predators who have nothing to lose and that man is Brendan Lynch who has another twenty years to serve . If he protects Jesse from the predators he wants Jesse to come up with a plan to spring him from jail by hi-jacking a copter . Hmmm so someone who can't protect himself in jail might just happen to be a very effective hijacker on the outside ? . It's not like Jesse is all that hardened and violent .Doesn't Brendan have any mates on the outside who might be more reliable ? And what's to stop Jesse changing his mind ? Let's face it he's looking at 25 years in jail if he gets caught but I guess if the characters stopped to think about all this as much as the audience do then the film would abruptly stop
The contrived writing is a pity because SON OF A GUN is a rather enjoyable and tense thriller in parts . Ewan McGregor is normally an actor I dislike and seems incapable of giving a convincing performance but here he's something of a revelation as tough villain Brendan Lynch and speaking in his native accent does help . I take it by his spoken idiom Lynch is a Scot ? He's ably supported by a cast I'd had no previous knowledge of in a film while entertaining could have been a bit more intelligent