I borrowed a few DVD’s last Wednesday for the household to watch. The selection included Australia and Black Sheep. An Australian movie vs a New Zealand movie. I chose the Kiwi.

I did see the end of Australia. Such a self-consciously epic film that I couldn’t stomach it. Watching mutant sheep bite the arms and rip the guts out of people was much more palatable. Did Australia ever have the immortal lines “You f_cker!” “Actually it was a sperm sample.” “You wanker!”? I don’t think so.

The Australian film industry is usually so absorbed with films about miserable people or trying to define the Australian stereotype that I am put off watching most local movies. Imagine how much better many of those films would have been had Peter Jackson directed them (with the help of his special effects team). Certainly would have been more huge battle scenes. And if we could all 10 of the local film actors scanned and computerised then we would save loads reusing them in each movie (which pretty much happends now). Could the CGI Bill Hunter or Nicole Kidman be any worse than the real thing?