Rikky and Pete (1988)

Saw this long ago, and the movie has stuck with me, partly for it's feel, and partly for the crazy inventions that I wish I had thought of. Been looking for it for years, and can't find a copy anywhere. One thing about the crazy inventions- they all had to be made to work in the film. Pete makes a machine that folds newspapers into the shape of paper airplanes to chuck them at people's houses to make his paper route more efficient- the giant paper airplanes get flung from the machine itself and really fly. He gets himself run out of town for playing one revenge prank too many on the local constable, destroying the entire squad car fleet, because the constable, years before, accidentally ran down his mother in a crosswalk and crippled her. So he and his sister go on the run to the outback, and, helping her work as a geologist, he decides to make a mechanical horse so they can drill 6 holes into the rock at once instead of just one, and you can see him operating/riding the horse, and you can see they really had to figure out how to build one of these things to make it work. Overall, the whole movie reminded me of similar movies form Down Undah, like Red Dog, where the Aussie vibe really comes through.

Like most Americans, I think I have a deep respect and even envy for all things Australian. I think it reminds us of us of the days before we became politically correct. Australia is not only an original, but an aboriginal. We long for the rough and ready good old days, and the Aussies remind us of them.This movie is no exception. Pete is a loose screw who has a grudge against the local plod, and a genius for building indescribable gadgets that seem to do the impossible. Rikky, his sister, is the only family member that either understands him or cares about him. When Pete gets himself in a fix, she hustles him off in the family Bently and heads from the big city to the great Outback. Their adventures and misadventures along the way, as well as the breathtaking location scenery rounds out the story. Some of this stuff is really hilarious but not silly. This movie has a heart.Rikky, played by a very appealing Nina Landis, is an aspiring country and western singer who becomes a troubadour to help finance the trip out to the wilderness. They arrive at a desolate mining camp hoping to hide out from the coppers till the heat dies down and hook up with a bunch of losers in a mining venture.The country music was terrific tho I was a little disappointed to find that Rikky's voice was dubbed by a pro named Wendy Mattews. Just when I was falling in love too. Nina Landis made this movie, and I was sorry to find that I was 15 yrs late in discovering her. My chances of finding another Nina Landis movie are slim at best. Take my advice. If you find one - don't miss it.

Australian cinema has always captivated me. Their cinema is refreshing. "Rikky and Pete" would revive memories of the young rebel in one's life. As a film, you cannot compare it with great cinema of top directors--yet it is charming because it captures the non-conformist in all of us. The mechanical genius Pete invents a gadget that uses the childish paper-plane concept to deliver a newspaper. The brother sister bonding is well portrayed. The jabs at soft-headed evangelists are also well done. The anti-establishment note of the film is the refrain throughout the running time--with one realistic line "I am afraid" coming from the jailed Pete after contemplating the willfully open jail door.While the film is about cars, inventions, inefficient cops, Eartha Kitt, loonies--the work appears disjointed and immature. Yet some of the minor characters are superb. Examples are the two ladies--the young Tetchie Agbayani as Flossie (Pete's girlfriend at the mine) and Dorothy Alison as Pete's rich mother.The element of satire that runs through conversation and actions lifts up the product to a level of above average cinema.

I saw this movie years ago, and I can still remember most of it. The newspaper delivery vehicle was great! For some reason, this movie has stuck in my memory as a movie I really enjoyed (versus the thousands of movies I've seen and either can't remember, or worse, want to and can't forget!) I hope I can catch it some time and get it on tape, as it apparently is not available at retail. In the years before the IMDb and Amazon, I can remember checking every video store I saw to see if they had a copy. Except for the non-dubbed version of "Mad Max" (which I got!), no other movie has inspired me to look for it so diligently. The Internet in this case is good and bad - good that it tells me the film is not available, and bad that it tells me the film is not available!