RED HILL

This film came with quite a good reputation as it had played at a number of recent international festivals before coming to Melbourne.  Unfortunately I only found it to be a by-the-numbers action flick.  The film is basically an “Australian Neo-Western” and has a very basic revenge plot at its core: an escaped convict comes home to “Red Hill” to get retribution from the townsfolk who wronged him. 

Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) himself plays the role of a new constable, transferred to Red Hill on that very day, who must decide which side of the battle he is on.  After two years of watching him on “True Blood”, it was odd to hear him speak with his natural Australian accent.  While the film does have some good performances (Kwanten, and a scene chewing Steve Bisley), I just found the film too formulaic with nothing new to add, and the use of flashback during the finale was embarrassingly bad.  Another major negative 

was the very intrusive (and loud) score.   

One interesting scene, though, deals with a favourite urban legend of mine, which is about the black panther that lives in the hills of Victoria.  I should note that I was exhausted when I saw this film and it appeared to play very well with the rest of the audience, so my tiredness may have contributed to my negative opinion of the film.

2 Stars - Viewed at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival