Review of Charlie & Boots (2009) by Johnny T — 23 Jul 2011

A road movie that offers a series of simple but singular pleasures, most of which stem from the way in which Charlie and Boots begin to relax in one another's company. Murphy's straight-forward direction and the genuine charisma that's drawn from Hogan and Jacobson's characters, make this film fun. It's a superbly relaxed and good-natured film. Murphy loves those big open vistas of sunny Australian skies, sheep-studded plains and verdant hillsides, Dorothea Mackellar's wide brown land. We travel through a string of NSW towns - Hay, Forbes, Tamworth, Tenterfield - before moving into Queensland. The story's minor crises are never overplayed for crude laughs, and the small parts are filled by a host of veteran actors who seem to have enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

VERDICT: "Full Price" - My second highest rating (Positive to Mixed reaction). This is a rating to a movie I view as very entertaining and well made, and definitely worth paying the full price at a theatre to see or own on DVD. It is not perfect, but it is definitely excellent.