Ned Kelly
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Movie Reviews of Ned Kelly
Movie Review: Aussie Western with Irishmen
Summary: 3 Stars
Here's a real hybrid: an Australian Western featuring a bunch of Irishmen who run afoul of the "coppers" and lead a folk movement afterward. Heath Ledger is the star, and he does a decent job. The accents are a bit thick here and there, but you get the gist. A few love angles are tossed in to keep things interesting. Nothing serious here, and not the best movie ever made. Every once in awhile, we see some native Aussie wildlife to remind us this isn't a backlot in Hollywood.Movie Review: an afternoon w/ NOTHING to do?
Summary: 3 Stars
I love Heath Ledger, I also love movies about history.
The movie was a bit boring in the beginning and even towards the middle. Best part is near the ending.
Heath was a fantastic actor, but this movie isn't one of his greatest.
So 3 stars from me- it's just OKAY.
Movie Review: nothing new from Down Under
Summary: 2 Stars
If the term itself were not geographically and semantically meaningless, one might well refer to "Ned Kelly" as an "Australian Western." For the people Down Under, Ned Kelly was, apparently, a folk hero bandit akin to Robin Hood, Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The descendant of Irish immigrants, Kelly became a fugitive and an outlaw after he was falsely accused of shooting an Australian law officer, a crime for which his equally innocent mother was put into prison. To get back at the government for this mistreatment, Kelly, his brother Dan, and two other companions, became notorious bank robbers, winning over the hearts of many people in the countryside while striking a blow for justice in a land where Irish immigrants were often treated with disrespect and disdain by those who ran the country.
Perhaps because we've encountered this "gentleman bandit" scenario so many times in the past, "Ned Kelly" feels awfully familiar and unoriginal as it pays homage to any number of the genre's stereotypes and cliches on its way to the inevitable showdown. Ned is the typical heart-of-gold lawbreaker who kills only when he is forced to and, even then, only with the deepest regret. He also has the pulse of the common folk, as when, in the middle of a bank robbery, he returns a valuable watch to one of the customers, after one of his gang has so inconsiderately pilfered it. What movie on this particular subject hasn't featured a scene like that? It`s acts of selective generosity like this, of course, that earn him the love and respect of all the little people who come to secretly admire anyone who can get away with sticking it to the powers-that-be and the status quo. Geoffrey Rush plays the typical bedeviled law enforcer who feels a personal stake in bringing down this upstart troublemaker who keeps getting away with tweaking the establishment. There's even the inevitable episode in which one of the ladies being held up goes into the next room and has sex with one of the robbers, so turned on is she by the romantic derring-do of the criminal lifestyle. And the film is riddled with one hackneyed scene like this after another.
Heath Ledger fails to distinguish himself in the title role, providing little in the way of substance to make his character either interesting or engaging. It doesn't help that he has been forced to provide a droning voiceover narration that underlines the sanctimoniousness and pretentiousness of both the character and the film.
"Ned Kelly" might serve a function of sorts as a lesson in Australian history, but as an entertainment, it's just the same old story told with different accents.
Movie Review: Poor drama . .
Summary: 1 Stars
I'd take the time to elaborate . . . but it's not worth it. This is just a poor western. See 'Quigley Down Under' with Tom Selleck or 'Broken Trail' with Robert Duval . . . or save your money for 'Shrek 2' - but avoid this like the plauge.