Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

the_only_warrior Last Ride is a Australian movie about a father, Kev (played by Hugo Weaving), and his son, Chook (played by Tom Russell), on their last road trip together through the Australian outback. What's great about this movie is that it doesn't follow the typical father/son discovering each other movie formulas and just tells a story.Kev is a man running from something. He is quick tempered and lives a lifestyle that is fueled only by thievery and violence. It is not a good life in which to raise a son, Chook, who is dragged along for the ride in the only life he has known, and begins to suspect that everything is not entirely what it seems.This film takes place mainly outside and has a very naturalistic feeling to it. There are a lot of beautiful desert and bush shots and all of the small town shots look authentic.A lot of people complain that the central character is completely unlikeable, but I think these sort of characters with a twisted morality are really plausible. You meet a violent man like Kev every once in a while and you wonder what has happened and what happens in their lives. And even amongst the more middle-class population, you meet people all the time who really aren't cut out to be parents and are too proud to get help - some of them still try to do well, some of them don't even bother.However, there is a point to these criticisms of the central character, there is not much in the movie that uplifts you. Not only that, but you can see how it's going to turn out right from the beginning and so watching this movie is waiting for the train wreck with very little positivity to take away at the end for either of the central characters.I don't think it's one of the great movies, but it is a good one: an interesting story, interesting characters, nicely shot and great actors.My only gripe is that it's yet another successful Australian movie that is frankly depressing and it's becoming a little bit of a cliché to have dark Australian outback stories.

Martin Graupner a silent, melancholic movie about father and son who gonna cope with their own special reality and history. these two guys, who cannot avoid getting in trouble again and again, because of the fathers violent character. we only know some of the shadows of his past and the reasons behind his violence. that's enjoyable enough to remain in the frontiers of melancholy. the movie tells -- literally, like at the campfire -- about the wounds that are reason and those who can be results.anyway, the pictures don't surprise. we see nothing new. especially, if we have already seen ›perfect world‹. and if we have seen widescreen documentations about the terrific Australian landscape.

Suzzymelton I am a big fan of Australian films. Remember Mad Max? Well this film is Australian and it's not bad. Starring the great Hugo weaving you can't really go wrong. It is a Father son story of a not so great Father that does love his son.The story rolls along nice enough. Sure there could have been a bit more character development but it's not bad. The scenery looks amazing! The shot in the dessert with the water running over it is just spectacular. Credit to the DOP. The young boy playing Hugos son I don't think has acted in anything before this. It shows in some scenes but overall he is not bad. I was though expecting the film to climax a little more but all in all I liked it. Check it out.

Philby-3 According to the Screen Australia web site, some 45 Australian features were made in 2008, up from 25 in 2007. This movie is probably one of the better ones along with Sampson, My Year Without Sex, Disgrace, Mary and Max and The Black Balloon. It is an adaptation of a well-received first novel by Denise Young by a first-time feature director Glendyn Ivin, the sort of creative combination so beloved of our film funding bodies – "Here's $3 million, go away and play dears". In this case the result isn't so bad and the film does add something to the novel's story of a petty criminal's last sojourn with his 10 year old son across the Australian countryside, with the forces of law and order in hot pursuit. The novel set the action in outback New South Wales but the film makers removed the setting to the more spectacular wildernesses of northern South Australia for both artistic and financial reasons. The reason for Kev and his son Chook's flight, apparent at the start of the novel, is revealed only by degrees, which does add to the drama.As others have noted, the father Kev, played with all lugubrious stops out by the lugubrious Hugo Weaving, is not a very likable character. Not only does he have serious anger management issues, he is pretty selfish and stupid – the sort of criminal one finds in prison rather than out of it. Having had a pretty sad upbringing himself he does try to do better as a father, but it is not easy for him, and it is not surprising his son becomes disillusioned. His son, despite all the fatherly incompetence, seems surprisingly normal – perhaps this is the result of an uncannily naturalistic piece of acting by Tom Russell, a child actor who is so good he doesn't seem to be acting. What does come across is that even bad fathers can teach good lessons, and that in the end we have to become our own person.Greig Fraser's cinema photography featuring the Flinders ranges, Wilpena Pound and Lake Gairdner gives a majestic backdrop to what is a fairly small story – I thought it a bit like "And When Did You last See Your Father" would have been if it had been set in the Swiss Alps. Unlike that film, this one has a less angry tone. Poor old Kev can't really help being so inadequate, and he at least makes an effort for his son.This was an interesting and watchable piece, but I can't see it doing well. Like a lot of similar realistic movies it deals with people at the margins of society, and frankly, most people aren't interested (escapist is a different story). I just wish the government film bodies would stop throwing money at first-timers to make stuff so alien to most people's experiences and of so limited relevance to whatever main steam Australian culture is. One the other hand, The Black Balloon and My Year Without Sex did deal with topics relevant to us all. Bring back David Williamson, I say.