A Man's Gotta Do (2004)

Eddy earns an honest living from his fish trawler but leads a double life as a "standover" man at night to keep his aspirational wife, Yvonne happy. His relationship with his feisty ... See full summary »

Director:

Chris Kennedy

Writer:

Chris Kennedy

Stars:

John Howard, Alyssa McClelland, Rebecca Frith

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Howard	...	Eddy
Alyssa McClelland	...	Chantelle
Rebecca Frith	...	Yvonne
Gyton Grantley	...	Dominic
Rohan Nichol	...	Paul
Helen Thomson	...	Tina
Rowan Jackson	...	Nigel
Amie McKenna	...	Delores
Vasa Gavrilovska	...	Svetlana
Lynne McGimpsy	...	Josephina (as Lynne McGimpsey)
Joanne Cahill	...	Sylvia (as Jo-Anne Cahill)
Tony Barry	...	Dr. Savage
Grant Bennett	...	Police Officer
Manuel Terron	...	Rudi
Nicholas Brown	...	Young Doctor

Storyline

Eddy earns an honest living from his fish trawler but leads a double life as a "standover" man at night to keep his aspirational wife, Yvonne happy. His relationship with his feisty daughter Chantelle, whose Russian fiancé has disappeared, is at crisis point and he decides to read her diary or rather get his new sidekick, Dominic to do it. Eddy's gotta do what Eddy's gotta do to keep his eccentric family together.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

---

Details

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 2004 (Australia)

Filming Locations:

Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Eddy: Don't get an Italian car, get a German one. In this line of work, when you put your foot on the accelerator; something's gotta happen.

---

Soundtracks

On Top of the world
Written and performed by Jordan Best

User Reviews

Movie length sketch comedy

I stumbled on this film accidentally after it had started, so there may have been some running points that I'd missed during the run of the movie. The film felt to me like a feature length sketch comedy show. The storyline is shown to us in intersecting segments, like a sequence of anecdotes, each with their own amusing or heartwarming finale. Most importantly though, there are enough characters and side plots to keep it from getting too stale.

The writing and acting (especially John Howard's) is all well done and had me laughing out loud many times throughout the show. So in my mind, it does rate high. Personally, I think it could have benefited if the story was told a bit smoother, rather than the usual CutToTheNextScene without having to build a brand new joke out of it.