Sleepless Travels Reloaded

Synopsis for movie:

Australian small-town cop Gary enjoys his nearly pastoral existence, with traffic violations providing the major excitement to his normally low-key days. While not at work Gary spends a good deal of time fantasising about local news reporter Julia, who would just as soon relocate to the thriving metropolis of Sydney. Then a motorcyclist is found decapitated and a construction worker, a sailor, a cowboy and an Indian soon meet the same fate. With some murderous weirdo with a Village People fixation terrorising the town Gary, with the help of bigwig city detective Tony Charles, begins to realise that a policeman is the last remaining victim to be murdered for the killings to be complete.

This is a review from TrevorAclea, from IMDB:

“Okay, let’s take a vote. Who thinks he’s not being sarcastic and I AM the smartest guy in the world?” You Can’t Stop the Murders never got released outside Australia, which is a great pity since it’s one of the funniest comedies in years, and has a killer premise. West Village is a small Australian town that barely registers a heartbeat, where the postman never has any mail, the main source of revenue is a badly signposted 10-metre long speed trap, the two local and almost identically named biker gangs (the Vandillas and the Vandillos) keep on getting each others’ gas bills and local lovelorn prematurely balding cop Gary dreams of the local TV news reporter (biggest scoop: the butcher’s premium mincemeat is just regular mincemeat) while practising for the line dancing championship. And then the murders start as someone targets West Village’s people – a biker, a construction worker, a sailor, a cowboy, an Indian, all left with their decapitated bodies spelling out the letters Y, M, C…. When the most obvious suspect (well, the only one in town apart from the mum of one of the cops who has a really big knife) comes up with an alibi, in comes a trigger-happy, media-friendly egomaniacal big-city cop to steal the local boy’s thunder and, of course, the girl of his dreams.

At once surprisingly gentle and wildly funny, it’s a great character comedy with a likable unknown ensemble cast of eccentrics, the cops worst among them – the hero’s sidekick is constantly coming up with inane ideas for movies (such as The Adventures of Dead Dog or an intellectual sperm that becomes a media celebrity to the chagrin of it’s moronic host: “It’s a tragedy”) while the excessively devout chief of police suspects Satan (”the real one”) and has his own odd ideas on going undercover. But beyond an endless stream of great gags, it’s also genuinely fond of its characters, which just adds to the likability. In fact, despite the premise, it’s almost reminiscent of Tati’s Jour de Fete in its affectionate tone, and does indeed include a disastrously unattended ‘Funfest’ day. Unfussily directed by Anthony Mir, who also co-wrote with co-stars Gary Eck and Akmal Saleh, it may be hard to find, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Watch out for the Love Panda, though.

My goodness. I only happened to catch this movie on SBS today (one of those late night flicks). Turns out it’s actually an aussie production. This is an awesome, awesome, movie. I looooove the way it is shot. It is very tongue in cheek, very satirical, and so, so, aussie. I love it!

Actually maybe the experience was heightened for me because the scenes and characters felt so familiar. It feels very homemade which is very charming in its own way. It gets gay, but in a very good way XD

There were some other local aussie comedians who made cameos too, such as the Sandman and the Umbilical Brothers.

The movie was directed by Anthony Mir and written by Gary Eck, Anthony Mir and Akmal Saleh…who are like the 3 main actors in the film too XD
Another thing I noticed is that it looks as if they couldn’t be bothered trying to think up character names. For example:

Gary Eck … Constable Gary Raymond
Akmal Saleh … Constable Akmal
Richard Carter … Chief Carter
Shane Dundas … Shane

I did wish some characters were given a bit more character development (like the Work Experience Girl), but I guess it’s not that type of film.

If I find this DVD I’d SO buy it!

I am really enjoying Australian-produced TV, and particularly stuff on SBS and ABC lately. Chaser’s War on Everything and the Sideshow come to mind. It’s been so long since I’ve *actually* LOL’d at something on tv.