David Ferguson Greetings again from the darkness. Gosh! Enough already! How many Aboriginal musicals featuring a VW hippie van being pursued by a priest must we endure? OK, so maybe the premise isn't all that common. Based on an extremely popular Australian play from the 1990's, director Rachel Perkins screen adaptations features the deserts of NW Australia and a loony priest played by Geoffrey Rush.Though the idea is pretty creative, the film execution comes up lacking a bit. None of the songs are very catchy and the overall talent in the film is mediocre at best. Newcomer Rocky McKenzie in the lead role of Willie is pretty nondescript. Willie is forced to attend a school led by Geoffrey Rush in order to train for a life in the priesthood. Of course, Willie is a teenager and all he really wants is a life with Rosie ... they make flutter-eyes at each other. Sadly, Rosie falls under the spell of a honky tonk musician as Willie heads out to study God.Jessica Mauboy plays Rosie and has the musical highlight of the film as she belts out "Stand By Your Man". The downside is that the lip-syncing is so poor that I found it quite distracting. As expected, when Willie rebels and runs away from the cloth and towards Rosie, the fun begins. He hooks up with Uncle Tadpole (an energetic Ernie Dingo) and a couple of traveling hippies. One of the hippies is played by recording artist Missy Higgins. They are unknowingly being chased by the priest as they try to get Willie back to Broome (and Rosie!).Along the way they stumble upon a shop run by the great Magda Szubanski, who was so memorable as Mrs. Hoggett in "Babe". That's just one of the challenges they face along the dirt road. For the sake of comedy, there should have been even more.The film has bits of Bollywood, "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Grease", but the parts just don't add up to a full musical comedy. The colors and setting are spectacular and the words to the songs often reinforce the plight of the Aborigine people, but everything just falls a bit short of the target. Even the climactic scene where all the pieces of the puzzle come raining down doesn't compare to the similar type scene in "City Island". It's a sweet, simple enough film with just not enough to offer.

mmunier I went to see this film with great expectation on the strength of my "pome" mate's intoxicated account of how funny it had been for him; but also after what I read here about it - My wife said she did not get this impression from our Sunday paper's review... I still had to see it! Well it did not work for me, to put it plainly I had a very mild time watching it. Just now I had another peek at some comments and one did highlight exactly what I resented. Clichés, corny jokes, unnecessary stuff, etc. I ticked the spoiler box in the hope I spoil it enough for you to wait for it to come on the little box. Yes I did get a laugh or two but sometimes I did start to laugh because I needed to but the laughter fizzed to nothing in my throat as it did not happen. Yes, why Subanski, to sell the movie? Beside what you see of her (no, not how much) is what has been shown on Aussie TV for months. Perhaps the Kat'n Kim fans would get more out of it than I did, meanwhile she's found a new avenue with some "biggest looser" weigh watching commercials company - it was so gross and intended to be gross! G Rush is so over the top but obviously it worked for some. I did enjoy revisiting the like of what it was during my early days in school. When I read from someone that it had more than "Australia" about Australia it made me feel like I need to go on see my eye specialist in the very near future! I, may be wrongly, feel it does not really foster the Aboriginal cause, although I can appreciate it's a light hearted shot at it. Yes I have too seen many films with aboriginal theme of which Samson and Delilah was a little to heavy for me although I would think it was a better film I perhaps feel less aches with BND. Hmm to each its own!

Russ Stewart Bran Nue Day has its heart in the right place it just doesn't quite pull it off! Its basically a musical road movie but its just a bit too silly for my tastes. There are some good elements - it moves along nicely, there are some good performances (Jessica Mauboy for one, Ernie Dingo is OK too), reasonable songs, its bright & paints Australias Broome in an attractive light. Other parts really could have done with some work though. The Tom Budge character (he plays Missy Higgins hippie boyfriend) is a complete joke & Geoffrey Rushs character is over the top too. Some of the choreography & miming are so bad, characters pop in & out with little relevance & the finale is woeful. With all that it is a pretty reasonable excuse for a mindless popcorn movie, it thats what you are looking for, this is your film.

katzkin I'm beginning to lose faith in the IMDb reviews I read in here. People are being awfully generous scoring this film 10 out of 10 and calling it "the best movie I've ever seen".To me it's a flawed work of great unfulfilled potential.The trailer, on the other hand is excellent!I would have enjoyed this film more if: * It could have chosen on genre and stuck to it. * I could have understood the lyrics to more of the songs (I'm sure they were very clever, but the sound mix was not the best). * There was a reason for Magda's character to be in it. * They gave a reason why everyone was arrested. * The film maker could add some punchlines to some of the potentially funny moments. * They showed more of the country than just the one, dusty red stretch of road. Having said that, I do agree that it is still one of the better Australian films of the past few years.I just wish the film makers would spend more time in the editing room and less time on IMDb writing reviews...