Bad Eggs

Written and directed by Tony Martin and re-uniting his early '90s Late Show buddies, Mick Molloy and Judith Lucy, from their 2001 hit Crackerjack, this film did quite well at the box office (AU$2.3m on a budget of AU$3m) thanks, I assume, largely to Martin and Molloy's comedic reputation in radio and television.

Although there are moments when a feint smile is deserved, overall the combination of familiar police corruption story and typically Aussie laconic comedy doesn't catch fire, I suspect because the distastefulness of the former is too far removed from the geniality of the latter, the ongoing buffoonery feeling oddly incongruous with the plot's "serious" side. 

Martin demonstrates himself to be a competent director and, given its largely small screen provenance,  the film is surprisingly well-made, his connections giving him access to many iconic Melbourne locations from The Daily Planet to State Parliament (you decide which one is the brothel). The peerless Judith Lucy manages to lift the film in her scenes (although she may well be embarrassed by its final moments in years to come) but otherwise there is nothing that really stands out from the standard issue Australian larrikin comedy.

 

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