Let's Get Skase (2001)

LETS GET SKASE is actually a very funny very well made film. Clobbered by the sneering media upon release and sinking without a trace - or a Skase - this film had the unforgivable fault of bad timing. The real Christopher Skase of the title actually.....died. And did so unpleasantly....so did the film at the box office. Now all that aside and separated from the media clutter upon release what do we have: a great looking film with a hilarious caper mentality beautifully filmed with a fun group of well cast males. Even the Skase impersonator is astonishing. Lachy Hulme (who?) stars and writes and heads a cast with a few great surprise performances: especially the normally seriously dramatic Alex Dimitriades offering a genuinely hilarious droll turn along with handsome lifesaver/commando Craig MacLachlan. The real delight for me was the absolutely charismatic and goofy Torquil Nielsen who has one of the great faces in Australian films. He is hardly ever seen ...maybe needs a better agent to get more profile. Like the equally disastrous timing of another comedy release DIANA AND ME (Princess Di was killed) which starred Toni Collette heading to London to meet you know who SKASE is overshadowed by the real demise of the real character it was lampooning. The Title comes from the bounty idea actually proposed one night on National TV. I remember well sitting in a deserted cinema laughing uproariously and wishing there was a big crowd equally delighted at discovering what a clever and well made comedy this film is. The media of the day did their very best to off put the entire population of Australia and unfortunately they listened instead of finding out for themselves. But I did and so should you.

First time I had ever seen an Australian comedy movie that I liked. The characters were really funny, with great action sequences and an interesting storyline (that I wondered if it was true or not) that made the film something to notice.

Oh, how I avoided this film. I finally sat down to watch it and I'm glad I did. Because at the end of the day, despite the apparent cheap shots that could have been taken, this is a well crafted comedy that has it's tongue so firmly planted in it's cheek that it is obvious here that the intent is to laugh at the absurdity of the original chase for Skase and Australia's single mindedness at returning the 'scoundrel to justice.' That was never going to happen. So what is Let's Get Skase?The next best thing. Two hours of nonsense looking back at the saga, with all the right liberties taken storywise. In short, this films go right over the top, culminating in a Rambo style raids on good ol' Christopher's island fortress in Majorca, by Dellasandro and his team of merry idiots. Excellent performances, great script and true understanding of the genre by the director. One of Australia's better attempts at comedy. I only wish it was true.

Let's Get Skase is a comedy/Action Adventure about the real life chase for the fugitive Christopher Skase. The film is well put together with great performances from the Lead actors. A solid script and taught direction make for a solid piece of entertainment. (Not sure exactly how much of this actually happened, but I'm sure liberties have been taken). 70/100