Review of The Cup (1985) by Ryan L — 19 Oct 2011

Possibly one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. The plot is basically absent for the first 60 minutes all you get is the directors feeble attempt to build some sort of drama around a jockey training....yawn. The cast is wooden and wouldn't be terribly out of place in some dodgy soap. I think the pause. aww shit media puzzle is going to win pause aww yeah you might be right. Does not make for riveting entertainment. The dialogue is equally appalling and cringe worthy. Particularly Curry going to the hospital to be inspired by his footy hero that was injured in the Bali bombings. Which basically went along the lines of.

Curry: aww shit macca you got burnt.

Macca: aww your that jockey bloke, your great.

Curry: yeah me and me brother saw ews play at the mcg, you were great.

Macca: thanks mate.

Curry: so you got burnt then egh.

Macca: yeah,.

Curry: shit musta been awful.

Macca: yeah, I just went in to get more people, it's what anyone would have done, never give up.

Curry:

And thus the male bonding ended.

The final 10 minutes of the film are the horse race, which actually have any element of drama, but it's quickly lost when you already know that of course he won, the whole point of the film is he won. The point of films like these are to build up to that point and show the tragic struggle that took them to this point. I think the main problem was that the underlying material that the writer had to work with was not very interesting to start with and didn't really stretch to a whole movie s worth.

By the end I was just wishing that the torture would end and I could go and watch an episode of neighbours for some dramatic relief.