Australiens (2014) Poster

(2014)

User Reviews

Review this title
6 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
5/10
They invaded the wrong nation....
paul_haakonsen15 October 2016
Without even having heard of this movie prior to finding it, I decided to give "Australiens" a chance after I happened to find it by sheer, random luck. I read the synopsis, and it did sound like it could be a fun movie, sort of the likes such as "Black Sheep", "Shaun of the Dead" or "Undead".

Sure, there were great elements and funny moments to "Australiens", but it didn't have that great quality like other movies of the same genre had, and as such then it wasn't an outstanding movie. It was a watchable and hilarious enough movie, but it just wasn't a movie that left a memorable impression.

The story is about a group of fairly odd people living their ordinary, routine lives in Australia, when aliens happen to come to Earth to take over the planet. The group of unlikely heroes take up arms and make a stand against the alien invaders.

This was a low budget movie, there was no doubt about it. Even a blind man could tell that from a mile away. But even as such, then they managed to get it all to work here in the movie. Even though it was low budget and questionable props and worse CGI, then it was just all comical enough to actually work in favor of the movie.

The acting in "Australiens" was good. You know what you are getting yourself into essentially when you sit down to watch a movie such as this. But I will say that people were doing good jobs all around, and it was clearly visible that the acting talents were having a blast making this movie.

As for the CGI effects and special effects. Let's just give them a thumbs up for trying. But getting down to business, then the CGI were laughable and very, very fake. The practical effects in the movie were adequate, albeit not the best of practical effects. But again, taking the movie and its budget into consideration, then what was to be expected in terms of effects here?

"Australiens" is the type of movie that will appeal primarily to a specific target audience, and you must be a fan of low budget Sci-Fi movies and comedies in order to get some kind of enjoyment from "Australiens". I was adequately entertained by the movie, although my final rating settles on a mediocre five out of ten stars.
5 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
OK, but ...
ansell-7287930 June 2021
This film apparently cost $15,000 to make. The money was raised via crowd funding. I hope that neither financial contributors, nor viewers, are disappointed. It's supposed be a cheap laugh and I guess it hits that mark though I found some aspects hard work.

Aliens attack Earth, well Australia, Brisbane specifically, drawn to the Land Down Under by the 'special powers' possessed by Andi played by Rita Artmann, a young Australian woman. She is supported by family and friends in repelling the invasion.

Special effects, key in invasion movies, are quite solid given the budget. The aliens are either green skinned or rubber masked actors. The acting is, overall, quite good. Rita Artmann is strong in the lead, over the top, but strong. Dennis Gibson, as Dad, by contrast, is uniformly dead pan.

Slapstick and irony dominate so if you struggle with these you are going to struggle for the entire 112 minutes. Every scene is crammed with these forms of humour. After a while I don't find silly walks and in fact general silliness, funny. Not unless John Cleese is involved, of course.

The Australiana is thick on the ground. Heavy metal versions of Waltzing Matilda, humorous references to locations probably best known to Australians and personal names that are almost cliched in Australia. It seems the production company, founded by husband and wife, Joe Bauer, who plays John in the movie, and Rita Artmann had no aspirations for an overseas release.

Their company Artspear, appears to specialise in this type of movie Killage, another of their productions, is a horror comedy in some ways not dissimilar to Australiens.

Look, I might be too old for this sort of experience, but it is fast paced, unrelenting really, funny in an unsophisticated way and is probably best appreciated with friends after a couple of drinks.
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
I will let you in on the secret of how this has a 5.1 rating.
johnzappulla26 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
When I read the ratings for a movie I usually won't consider even watching it unless it has a 5 out of 10. Which this movie has. But let's look at the breakdown of that score. There are 107 votes. 23 of those votes rated this movie at a 10. Are you serious?? Not even Jaws got a 10, it only got an 8. Gone With The Wind only got an 8.2. So how in the world does Australiens get 23 people voting it a 10? Simple.... those votes are from people who worked the film. And 14 more people voted this movie to be a 8 or higher putting it in the same category as Gone With The Wind, and Lawrence Of Arabia (8.4). They all couldn't vote a 10 because then it would really look as fake a score as it is. So what can you do to make the scores fair? Absolutely nothing until more people vote. When you get up to 1,000 people voting, then you will see the reality of this film which should hover around a 2.5. Yes, it's terrible. It's actually painful to sit through. What little story- line exists is so weak and confused. Bottom line is there are aliens invading earth. And the main character was contacted or abducted, that is not clear at all. She claims the aliens are back to abduct her, again? And the other characters all try to stop the alien invasion. End of story, that's all they wrote. This should teach us all a lesson: never write a screenplay on a cocktail napkin and leave it on the bar to get wet. All the ink smears and you can't read a thing. The budget is listed at 20,000 AUD which is $15,294.00 US dollars. Certainly that money wasn't used for the actual film, but they had some really good craft services for a couple of days. Special effects?? There is one 10 second scene where they are interrogating an alien that is OK for the effects for the alien. But the rest of the film is horrific in terms of effects. What little there are, are so amateurish, they will hurt your eyeballs. OK, i get it. It's supposed to be a comedy. So it should be campy and contrived like Mars Attacks, (rated 6.3). But this film didn't even get campy and funny. Actually, there isn't one funny line in the entire film. It is void of comedy. It is void of sci-fi. It is just plain void. Let me put it as gentle as I can. If given a choice of root-canal or this film, I would pick the root canal, hands down.
14 out of 35 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Let them take you
bowmanblue31 March 2020
Most reviews of 'Australiens' seem to mention 'Shaun of the Dead.' So I thought I'd get the similarities out of the way straight away. In 'Shaun' you have a group of losers fighting zombies. 'Australiens' is effectively a group of losers fighting Aliens (wait... wasn't that the plot of 'The World's End?'). And it's set in Australia - in case the title didn't tip you off.

I love a good B-movie. If I'm in the mood for something silly and cheesy I really don't care about special effects, great acting or reinventing the (movie) wheel. However, after the opening 5-10 minutes of 'Australiens' I was actually on the brink of turning it off. You see... the beginning focuses on the child incarnations of our (soon to be) heroes. And the kids are super-annoying. I don't like to be mean to children, but the three of them can't act. And it's quite painful to watch.

Fortunately, this only takes up the first 5-10 minutes of the film and we're soon thrust into the present day where adults take over acting duties. And, as I mentioned, an alien attack focuses on Australia and our bunch of drop-outs have to sort it out. It was at this point where the film picks up.

The first thing I noticed was that I was starting to laugh. Not all the time, but here and there. Obviously, this film never takes itself seriously and a big part of it is humour. However, in most 'comedy' films I watch the humour seems to be consistent - and when I say 'consistent' I mean all the gags are in turn with each other. However, here it's like there are about five or six different senses of humour on display here (like having five writers all taking it in turns to write a joke, then handing laugh-duties over to the next one). Therefore, the humour on display is kind of random and I can only liken it to 'Family Guy' style.

The acting is bad. Now, I don't know any of the actors in the lead roles, but I'm guessing they were told to 'ham it up.' Normally bad acting is a negative, but somehow here it actually works. As do the special effects. Which aren't that special. Don't expect anything amazing here. They really are pretty cheap-looking which gives it a real 'made-for-TV' feel to it.

Yes, it's a B-movie, but it knows it is. If you're expecting something truly epic and ground-breaking then you won't find it here. However, if you like total silliness and are particularly forgiving then give this one a go. Just sit back, don't think too much and let its totally random humour take you. 'Shaun of the Dead' it isn't, but it isn't bad either.
6 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
weird but fun
jimvandemoter-5023625 August 2019
Ok, I have to say it, this movie has got one of the dumbest strangest weirdest flicks out there. That said it's also a lot of fun. The effects are as cheesy as it gets, but they fit the movie perfectly. Everything is totally over the top. It's really good at being a bad movie, or is it really bad at being a good movie? I'm not sure...........
5 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
It's not a party without a balloon
nogodnomasters25 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Andi (Rita Artmann) is a singer in the punk rock band "Titanium Turdles" and not a very good one at that. When aliens attack Australia and only Australia, she believes it is because of her due to a close encounter she had 17 years ago, that gave her "telepathetic" (sic) powers. She leads an attack of family and friends against them that includes her nerd puffer brother Elliot (Doug Hatch), fighter Keith "cheap shot" Flynn (Lawrence Silver), Cam (Tamara McLaughlin) who operates a camera...and not too well, and John (Joe Bauer) who dies a lot.

This is a quirky camp-fest film that was funny from beginning to end. The film pays homage to "Close Encounters", "Poltergeist", "E.T.", "The Fugitive" , "Star Child" and spoofs alien films in general. There are running jokes throughout the film which doesn't look highly on Tasmania.

Guide: No sex or nudity. Seems like Andi says something that sounds like the F-word 3 times in her "telepathetic" mode.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed