Tomorrow, When The War Began

Richard Dower

First time hearing about this Aussie movie, it's their version of a US blockbuster, $29 Million AU budget (big money), anyone seen it?...snooping the net it seems a bit "buzzy".

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tomorrow_when_the_war_began/

Is it that hard to put up a trailer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_KhErNyiq8

It looks pretty interesting.

aidan_walsh

I vaguely remember getting this book as a kid. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find it.

Cantona's Collars

Kind of a Red Dawn vibe off it,must check it out.

johnny_ultimate

They had this film when I was on a long haul flight recently, first I had heard of it and didn't get around to watching it.

I like the idea though, will check it out if I get a chance.

Richard Dower

Just finished watching it, i know it's based on a popular series of teen books, and even though it's cast are and all look mid twenties....the script and dialogue is Tween to the core, some very cheesy and cliche stuff, cardboard characters.

Ellie/Catilin Stasey is by far the best actor in the movie, i remembered her from The Sleepover Club. Yeah it's quite like Red Dawn, it's not a mega budget blockbuster like the US, but for an Aussie movie the stunts/action wasn't all that bad.

I'm not recomending it though, it was all a bit too cheesy imo.

davebloggs

meanwhile , in Australia

expectationlost

so who's attacking little ol australia

Richard Dower

expectationlost wrote: »

so who's attacking little ol australia

It's never explained in the movie or books, but it appears it's a

coallition of smaller neighbouring countires, in the film it states 500,000 trops have landed through sea and air, they all looked South East Asia types, they took over by taking the airports and sea ports, taking smaller towns first, they ariived by using container ships and cargo airplanes...so they took people by surprise...apparently

Biggins

Stuart Beattie (writer of "GI Joe" and "Pirates of the Caribbean") is returning to write and direct the second and third installments of "Tomorrow, When the War Began," the Australian action movie that has become a hit at home. The sequels will reunite the director with the original cast and producers.

"Tomorrow" is based on a popular Australian book series by John Marsden and tells the story of a group of high school students who return from a camping trip to find their hometown invaded by a foreign army. In "Red Dawn" fashion, they begin to wage a guerrilla war on the invaders. The film had the largest opening for an Australian movie behind "Happy Feet" and "Australia."

At this point no deals have been made and the movies, which will be shot back-to-back, have not been officially greenlit. It is, however, expected that everything will become finalized in the next few weeks.

Source: http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=18968#ixzz18xFZUCsa

expectationlost

Richard Dower wrote: »

It's never explained in the movie or books, but it appears it's a

coallition of smaller neighbouring countires, in the film it states 500,000 trops have landed through sea and air, they all looked South East Asia types, they took over by taking the airports and sea ports, taking smaller towns first, they ariived by using container ships and cargo airplanes...so they took people by surprise...apparently

considering theres actually far more australian military action in neighbouring south east asian countries thats seems a particular choice.

Voodu Child

Saw it the other day, watched it on spec without knowing what it was or that it was based on childrens books. Its definitely aimed at a younger audience, I thought it was crap.

expectationlost

watched first five minutes the characters seem to act young for their age, the voiceover leftover from the book is terrible, its so cliche.

this guy sums it up http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1456941/board/flat/175738737

jaybee747

Watched this last week, God awhful movie. Was hoping for it to be better.
Similar story to Red Dawn but not half as good. The plot is all over the place and some of the scenes/story was a bit random.

Wouldn't recommend it but if you've nothing else to watch,it could kill and hour and a half.

seiphil

Must say, it looks incredibly bad.

don ramo

expectationlost wrote: »

watched first five minutes the characters seem to act young for their age, the voiceover leftover from the book is terrible, its so cliche.

this guy sums it up http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1456941/board/flat/175738737

yeah that review would sum up probably 300 films, its a fantsay film, its chronicling events that havent happened, did you watch it, or did you watch 5 mons of it ?

i dont see why it needs more "street cred", giving out about the dune buggies is just stupid, theyd also give out if it was a 20 ton tank, also i didnt realise war had a timer on it, apparently it should just be action, action, action, there is no time for recovery,

ive seen worse films, and will probably see at least 4 more films worse than this over the next month alone, i thought it quite enjoyable for what it was, it probably is old school, but i like old school, and i am looking forward to the 2 sequels in 2012 and 2013

expectationlost

well i wasn't talking about the miltary details, its clearly aged from the time the books were written, its too young for me and too young for the age of the people there supposed to be playing.

paulosham

saw it yesterday, the worst film I've seen this year It was a piece of crap.

Richard Dower

paulosham wrote: »

saw it yesterday, the worst film I've seen this year It was a piece of crap.

We're only two days into the year, 363 days to go to form a true opinion!

don ramo

expectationlost wrote: »

well i wasn't talking about the miltary details, its clearly aged from the time the books were written,

how so, ive read this a lot but i dont see what would be differnt from when the book is written to now,

S.M.B.

Is the Girl from Tomorrow in it then?

Richard Dower

don ramo wrote: »

how so, ive read this a lot but i dont see what would be differnt from when the book is written to now,

You gave it 8/10 ffs! :rolleyes:

don ramo

Richard Dower wrote: »

You gave it 8/10 ffs! :rolleyes:

i asked what it is people didnt find realistic richard, not for you to go on an expedition to look at my previous posts:rolleyes:,

what can i say im easily pleased, thus why im baffled as to what it is poeple didnt like about the film, it didnt promise much, just an invasion, and thats what happened, you think 20 year olds in the outback of australia dont know how to use a gun, you dont think that 7 people who grow up in an area couldnt formulate a plan by themselfs, michael collins more or less invented gurella warfare, its pretty damn effective, just ask the yanks in iraq and afganistan,

youcancallmeal

From what I understand the whole story in the books is supposed to be mainly focused around the characters and how they deal with the situation. Hence why little detail is given to who the invaders are, its just a plot device. Fair enough I thought. Then when I go to watch this film I am greeted by characters and dialogue that look like they were written by a teenager? I just couldn't get my head around the ridiculous stereotypes!?

What baffles me even more is the good rating it got on Rotten Tomatoes

I'm not sure if it was meant to be funny but I thought it was hilarious when the 'Religious' girl shot the soldiers at the end

Richard Dower

^ RT counts AU and NZ reviews, those reviewers supported it because it's an Aussie movie, bit of pride going on....misplaced imo, i also can't fathom the numbers. It cost nearly $30 million AU, but only made half of that at the box office.....and it's still considered a hit?????

I'll give the movie some credit, the explosion at the end was pretty well done.

Richard Dower

Richard Dower wrote: »

^ RT counts AU and NZ reviews, those reviewers supported it because it's an Aussie movie, bit of pride going on....misplaced imo, i also can't fathom the numbers. It cost nearly $30 million AU, but only made half of that at the box office.....and it's still considered a hit?????

I'll give the movie some credit, the explosion at the end was pretty well done.

I'm fairly certain that its considered a hit due to the fact that it made half it's budget back at the Australian box office, not including Blu Ray and television sales and has already been sold all around the world where it's worldwide takings are sure to return a very healthy profit.

youcancallmeal

zerks wrote: »

Kind of a Red Dawn vibe off it,must check it out.

On a side note there is a remake of Red Dawn out this year :eek:

dreamers75

Watchable movie, the whole talking part is a bit crap but i will watch the next one just to see how it goes.

paulosham

Richard Dower wrote: »

We're only two days into the year, 363 days to go to form a true opinion!

My opinion is true.

Shark Sandwich

johnny_ultimate

Got around to watching this, a good idea hampered by dodgy acting and dodgy writing. It's a high gloss teen drama with some (occasionally diverting, I will admit) action sequences and ideas thrown in. Unfortunately, the characters were so angsty it was hard to care for their plight. Also, they were very stupid people fighting very stupid enemies:

if you have an entire army, why would you only send to vehicles out to stop a giant truck? And blowing up a tractor when there's a tonne of enemy troops outside lacks subtlety, although luckily the enemy seemed too stupid to follow the rather telltale warning sign.

With more credible action and less angst, this could have been decent. As is, it's Dawson's Creek with some tacked on guerilla warfare.

Richard Dower

It's broken DVd records sales!

http://if.com.au/2011/01/12/article/Tomorrow-When-the-War-Began-breaks-DVD-sales-record/FEYKQBPMHL.html

Tomorrow, When The War Began now holds the record for the biggest first week sales for an Australian independently produced and financed film after selling almost 105,000 DVD copies since its release on December 30.

Tomorrow, based on the popular John Marsden novel, was the highest grossing local film at the box office in 2010, taking almost $13.5 million. Its first week of DVD sales would rank in the top ten releases of 2010, according to Paramount Home Entertainment Australia.

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia still holds the biggest first week DVD sales record although Tomorrow is outperforming it based on the industry measure of sales relative to box office takings.

The previous record was held by George Miller's animated Happy Feet, which sold about 95,000 copies in its first week in 2007.

Paramount Home Entertainment Australia managing director Paul Muller said the result was "extraordinary".

"It dispels the notion that Australians do not like to watch Australian movies – it just proves that they want them to speak to them directly and be unashamedly adrenaline fuelled and entertaining," he said in a statement.

The film, backed by local conglomerate Omnilab Media, was named ‘Best Film’ at the 2010 Inside Film Awards and also won ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for writer-director Stuart Beattie at the 2010 AFI Awards.

The film has been sold to several overseas territories although a US distribution deal has yet to be announced.

Omnilab Media’s executive producer Christopher Mapp said the fans reaction to the DVD has been most encouraging. "I have been reading the posts on our Tomorrow, When the War Began official Facebook site, which currently sits at almost 90,000 fans and the passion and hunger for the property is inspiring.”

US review? http://www.movieweb.com/movie/tomorrow-when-the-war-began/REBpyR2K1kiPEJ/REBpyR2K1kiPEJ

oztots

I quite like it, i grew up reading the novels in oz. Its nice to see it turned into a film.
And the cast are all around 20, so its not that age distorted as alot of films.

Galvasean

expectationlost wrote: »

so who's attacking little ol australia

The Helghast by the look of it.

Saw the trailer in the cinema today. Good lord it looks absolutely terrible. And yet I can't really tell what it is that I think looks so bad. OTT action set pieces? Ah sure why not, its a popcorn film so that's not my problem... I dunno, maybe all of the characters managed to wreck my head (which is impressive considering the trailer was about a minute long!).

Richard Dower

It's being released in the UK/Irl?...yup, 8th of April: http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/2011/02/22/tomorrow-when-the-war-began-movie-gets-a-uk-release-date-at-last/

Sequel starts shooting in September: http://if.com.au/2011/02/26/article/Tomorrow-When-The-War-Began-sequel-to-shoot-in-September/GWBYJZSZBV.html

I'll watch the sequel, but only for Caitlin Stasey....who is by far the best actor in the movie.