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The Wannabes More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 15 reviews in total |
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
I am not Australian and I laughed!, 29 June 2004
Author:
sevnofnyn from Minneapolis, USA
Hi! someone said non-australians wouldn't probably like it. maybe i have spent enough time in Australia but my boyfriend and I saw it up in Darwin and it was his first time in Australia. while it was not high brow intellectual humor, I thought it was hilarious and my boyfriend had a few chuckles as well. I thought it was silly and funny how it made fun of how a lot of kids stuff is really pretty dumb. At least that is how I felt when I was a kid and saw a clown or something (if I wasn't actually scared of the clown/mime, I felt them to be "talking" down to me). The Wiggles are big over here now and now I always think of this movie when I think of them although I believe this film was supposed to not have any sort of connection or reference to them.
7 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Reprehensible in so may ways, 17 January 2005
Author:
Tony from Sydney
Why do I hate this film? Here we go. 1. It's supposed to be a comedy, but it raises a faint smile a maximum of THREE times. All other attempts at humour are failures, and really obvious failures. 2. It features Russell Dykstra, who was fantastic in Soft Fruit. Even in this crap, you can see that he's talented, but who is ever going to take him on after he's been tainted by this excrement? 3. It's sexist. 4. It's racist. 5. It's homophobic. 6. It relies on a "cute" kid, who delivers his lines with all the plausibility of a hatstand, and for some reason calls undies "jocks," though he's supposed to be Australian. 7. It sets out to satirise the Wiggles, but is so feeble that any Wiggles video would outdo it easily in the wit stakes. 8. It has a cameo by Bert Newton. 9. It has a cameo by Rove McManus. 10. Rove McManus! And there was no warning on the cover, or before the film.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Oh, my stars, what a laugh riot! Loses a bit of steam at the end, but generates huge chuckles, mostly, 23 February 2011
Author:
Amy Adler from Toledo, Ohio
Danny (Nick Giannopoulos) took singing and dancing lessons as a child and made it to the Australian Gong Show at a young age. However, doing his John Travolta act, the sneering judge, Jimmy, not only gonged him but gave him a big fat zero and told him to take karate lessons. However, now an adult, Danny still gives dance lessons with his stage-mother mom, although his pupils are sometimes less than impressed. One day, Danny gets a great offer. Four men, unbelievably, hire Danny to turn them into the next "Wiggles" group, for they want to entertain at rich folks parties. Sizing up the talent in front of him, Danny realizes he has much work to do. However, slow-witted Dan doesn't have a clue as to the men's real plans. That is, they are criminals and they want to crack the safe of an extremely rich lady during her kid's party. Danny sticks with the plan, mostly because one of the men's sisters, Kirsty (Isla Fisher) is so pretty and engaging, with a darling son. Will the robbery happen? Will these tough-looking dudes really sing and dance, as the Wannabees? How about Danny, will he learn the awful truth before the performance? This is just a laugh riot of a film, from Australia. Giannopoulos is tremendous as the dimwit Danny and Fisher is charming, too. But, the rest of the cast is equally marvelous, from the thugs to all the others. Watching one of the men try to ape Eminem and another, James Brown, will have you rolling on the floor. Yes, the plot goes a bit haywire at the end and the running time is a bit too long. But, for the most part, viewers will hardly be able to contain their grins. One caveat, the language is just terrible so don't let the little ones near it. However, if you wanna be happy tonight, get the great Wannabees, which you may have to find under the title, Criminal Ways.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Weird, goofy, irreverent... FUNNY!, 16 November 2011
Author:
rooprect from New York City
I love checking out movies that IMDb bashes, just to see if they're as
bad as everyone says. I'm happy to report I freakin loved this one.
First, here's my take on Australian comedies (based on the two I've
seen: THE WANNABEES and RAZZLE DAZZLE: A JOURNEY INTO DANCE). They
don't pack as many zingers as Hollywood comedies, but even better, they
space out the gags & make you wait for them. The humour is more
situational, often not requiring a punchline. In a word: subtle. For
this, I'm sure many American viewers may be disappointed or frustrated.
But if you like your comedies on the softer side (like the British
DEATH AT A FUNERAL, the Japanese KIKUJIRO or even the American DIRTY
ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, I think you'll appreciate this one.
The plot seems old (a bunch of losers band together to pull off some
preposterous heist). But as with many great films that share this
premise, the beauty is in how creative the story gets within its scope.
Here we definitely get a lot of creativity. The film is delightfully
predictable, yet surprising and engaging at the same time.
The humour is irreverent but not crass. In fact, I was surprised at the
R rating. True, the gags are sometimes "adult" (like the scene where a
guy mistakes a dildo for his throat- mic LOL!) but there's never
anything explicit or filthy like you might see in one of those American
Pie teen flicks. As for irreverent, this movie is not afraid to
stereotype people. I suppose it might border on offensive, if you've
got a pole up your orifice, but it's not nearly as bad as one of the
reviews made it sound. There are a few homosexual characters who act a
little queenie, and there's a hilarious Filipino(?) character who can't
pronounce the letter 'F'. But none of the gags are mean spirited. In
fact, I found it refreshing to see a movie that's not afraid to take us
there, sort of like the Sarah Silverman show might do. I think this is
the beauty of Aussie comedy. It even makes fun of Australians (or is it
making fun of Americans making fun of Australians?) so everyone is fair
game.
My only tiny criticism is the way the DVD box highlights Ilsa Fisher as
if she's the star of the movie when really she's just an equal co-star
with the rest. So if you watch the movie just for her, you may feel
unsatisfied. To me, the other performances steal the show. We have such
a great lineup of weird yet endearing losers, you can't help but love
every one of them.
I really enjoyed this movie, and the minute it ended I wanted to watch
it again. If you like subtle, offbeat comedies I'm sure you'll like it
too. Check out the movies I mentioned above as well as these other
lesser-known gems: THE MAIDEN HEIST, the Canadian ZEYDA AND THE
Hit-man, the French CRIME SPREE, and I've mentioned it already--you
must see RAZZLE DAZZLE.
5 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Easily the worst Australian film of 2003...., 1 October 2003
Author:
firehouse44 (firehouse444@yahoo.com.au) from Melbourne, Australia
Clever scripting, well crafted characters, side splitting humour &
wonderful
acting....you will find ABSOLUTELY NONE of those qualities within the
pathetic & smutty film "THE WANNABES" !!
After the local success of his last film, "THE WOG BOY", comedian (?)Nick
Giannopoulos has fallen into the trap of thinking his audience would
swallow
anything he made, and this poorly executed & terribly acted attempt at
comedy is full of immature toilet humour and lame jokes that make you grit
your teeth in pain.
The turgid script concerns a bunch of low brow criminals who enlist the
aid
of a third rate actor to create a Wiggles / Teletubbies type childrens act
as a cover for a series of heists. The film just lurches from one painful
scene to another as it sinks to the depths of boredom & stupidity, and I
can
see this film destined to end up in two places...(a) On the IMDB Bottom
100
film listing, and (b), In the $1.00 a week dump bin at your local video
library.
Steer well clear of this giant lemon !!
5 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Too much for the kids but too stupid for anyone over 10., 16 September 2003
Author:
conan-2 from Sydney, Australia
I loved Wogboy, Nick Giannopoulos' earlier hit. The Wannabes was a major
disappointment to me. Wogboy came from where the writer understood and
has
successfully used this genre over the past 15 or so years on stage and TV.
The Wannabes starts of with some badly drawn characters "the world's
worst
actor", cardboard cutout crims and the obvious bad girl with the heart of
gold for love interest. Needless to say, everything else follows the
formula.
Many ideas should and would have been discarded with re-writes, the
"Flashdance" reference is one and their big break where they are
"discovered" just left me confused for the mess that was on the screen.
Don't take the kids as it's language content is definitely not for the
kids
but can adults sit through guys doing a bad Hi-5 imitation without the
cute
girls to look at?
3 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
The worst film EVER made?, 13 August 2005
Author:
tclark-5 from Melbourne, Australia
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Ten minutes into this film, I realised that I was probably about to
witness the worst Australian film ever made. By the time it was over, I
was left with no doubt as to the fact that I had witnessed one of the
worst films ever made, anywhere.
I was disturbed to find that there are people on IMDb defending it
because of its humour and light touch. For a start, to find this filth
even remotely amusing, you would need to have lived in a cave all your
life, never communicating with anyone. Staring at a blank screen would
have brought me closer to laughter than this dreck. And to suggest that
the film has a light touch is utterly ludicrous. The amount of
unnecessary swearing in the film leaves a deeply unpleasant residue,
and drags the tone of the film down lower than it already would have
been.
Nick Giannopoulos is easily the most repugnant screen presence I have
ever come across. And he's meant to be the hero? A scene in which he
dries himself after a shower brought me to the brink of vomiting. When
later he was masturbated by a sperm-hungry Asian vixen, I wondered if I
would ever be able to eat again. I find it difficult to believe that,
after this absolute train wreck of a production, Nick Giannopoulos
could ever work again. The sexist, ageist, racist, homophobic and
UTTERLY NARCISSISTIC undertones in this film would make me question his
values as a human being.
And Michael from Melbourne, you are absolutely right. The fact that
government agencies put money towards this thing is an outrage. I know
it helped that Nick had a couple million stashed away to put towards
it, but to put tax-payers' money towards this sort of insidious,
hate-filled slop is insulting and corrupt. The fact that this film was
made raises questions about the dire state of the policies of
Australia's film finance agencies.
The only consolation I can take is knowing that the film was a
financial disaster. I can't help but think that everyone who put money
towards it got exactly what was coming to them. If they couldn't see it
from that script (which, at times, simply does not make sense) then
they should think about changing careers.
0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Some cheap laughs but no substance.... Australian film HAS to be better than this!!, 17 February 2008
Author:
Avalanche_33 from Australia
I just saw this on late night TV this evening and was exceptionally
glad that I was doing some brainless work whilst watching it, otherwise
this would've been an absolute waste of time. Admittedly, there were a
few cheap laughs and a few funny moments, but not an incredible amount
of substance is on offer in this film (which is quite a shame
considering there is a reasonable amount of talent amongst the
credits). To be fair, there were a few interesting twists that were
thrown into the mix which kept the audience guessing a bit, but the
cheap attempts of humor run quite dry after a while.
The support cast actually seem to be the stars of the show in this
feature. The character of Stewie provides a human element to being a
criminal and was acted to the best of ability by Tony Nikolakopoulos.
Adrian (Costas Kilias) and Hammer (Ryan Johnson) provided a few funny
moments, and Marcus (Russell Dystra) keeps the film grounded, whilst
Kirsty (Isla Fisher) provides a little eye candy. Nick Giannopoulos -
what are you doing?
Seriously, Australian film has GOT to be better than this - I can't
believe that this film actually won an award of any sort!!
2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Gotta love it..., 1 January 2004
Author:
Kimbaz from Victoria, Australia
'The Wannabes,' in my opinion was one of THE best comedies of 2003. It had me in stitches laughing for most of the movie. People are saying that 'The Wannabes' was a disappointment, well I say... they are totally wrong! I loved the movie. I highly recommend 'The Wannabes' but just a warning... don't take anyone under the age of 12. I saw it at 11, some parts were inappropriate for an 11 year old to see but overall, I enjoyed it. I give 'The Wannabes' 8.5 out of 10.
2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Entertaining comedy entirely shot in Glen Waverley, 11 September 2003
Author:
Stuart (stufab) from Australia
"The Wannabes" sees Nick Gianopoulas' character Danny get pulled into the
world of organized crime with hilarious results, a strong cast of
characters
saves
what could have been a huge disappointment, not the greatest acting in the
world but thats not what you look for in light hearted comedy, this film
lives up to
Gianopoulas' early work and almost surpasses "the wogboy".
Some great comedic performances ensures some big laughs especialy from
Ryan Johnson as Hammer the Eminem "wannabe". People will say this movie is
pure crap but its entertaining and delivers what you would expect from the
Nick
Gianopoulas.
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