Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)

When their country is invaded and their families are taken, eight unlikely high school teenagers band together to fight.

Director:

Stuart Beattie

Writers:

John Marsden (novel), Stuart Beattie

Stars:

Caitlin Stasey, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lincoln Lewis

8 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Caitlin Stasey	...	Ellie Linton
Rachel Hurd-Wood	...	Corrie Mackenzie
Lincoln Lewis	...	Kevin Holmes
Deniz Akdeniz	...	Homer Yannos
Phoebe Tonkin	...	Fiona Maxwell
Chris Pang	...	Lee Takkam
Ashleigh Cummings	...	Robyn Mathers
Andrew Ryan	...	Chris Lang (as Andy Ryan)
Colin Friels	...	Dr. Clements
Don Halbert	...	Mr. Linton
Olivia Pigeot	...	Mrs. Linton
Stephen Bourke	...	Police Officer
Kelly Butler	...	Mrs. Maxwell
Julia Yon	...	Mrs. Takkam
Dane Carson	...	Mr. Mathers

Storyline

Seven Australian teenage friends from a small town go on a camping trip to be with nature. During their trip, they see military aircraft fly overhead. What they didn't know was their country was being invaded by another country. Returning home, they discover that they are at war. With no training, they band together to fight the enemy.

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Plot Keywords:

camping | teenager | small town | military | rat | 

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Taglines:

Where Were You When Everything Changed?

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 February 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Guerreiros do Amanhã

Filming Locations:

Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£85,841 (UK) (8 April 2011)

Gross:

£85,841 (UK) (8 April 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ambience Entertainment, Omnilab Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The language spoken by the invaders in the film is a totally made up language, sampled from many languages worldwide and then scrambled.

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Goofs

When Lee is getting worked on by the doctor his pant leg is cut off, but later as he climbs into the dump bucket he has a full length pant leg again.

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Quotes

Homer Yannos: What does your instincts tell you?
Ellie Linton: That it's time to go to war.

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Connections

References The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Don't You Think It's Time"
Written by K Mitchell
Performed by Bob Evans

User Reviews

Enjoyable but flawed

Based off the best selling Australian Teen novel of the same name Tomorrow When The War Began is the first in a series of books by John Marsden about a group of high school students who take a camping trip before school starts and return to find that the country has been invaded by an unknown force, and they make a stand to fight the enemy using guerilla tactics The cinematography and action in this film is fantastic, from the second the first gunshot is fired the adrenaline really picks up and boy does it deliver big time, the explosions in this film are great, and what makes them great is not their size but the debris and characters they send flying, I mean there were pieces of debris that missed characters by cm's and it really ads extra dimension with close calls if this film had been shot in 3D it would have been incredible to see the film just for that.

Unfortunately what drags the film is its script, the dialogue is extremely corny and clichéd, and the bulk of the characters are blatant stereotypes and this is apparent with the way the characters are introduced, in fact I can go though each of them right now, Ellie - Farmer's Daughter, Corrie - the lead's best friend, Kevin - The coward, Homer - The rebellious bad boy, Fiona - the pampered city girl, Robyn - The upstanding religious girl, Chris - The stoner, and the biggest stereotype of them all Lee - The Asian, don't believe me about the Asian? let me give you his character background: He's an expert piano player, his parents own a Chinese restaurant, he moves swiftly like a ninja as evident when he's climbing down a mountain, he stops a fast moving snake with a stick in one strike, he speaks one or two proverbs I mean I was half expecting him to bust out some Kung Fu with the way the filmmakers were treating his character thank god they didn't go that far.

On the topic of the characters the one that really stood out for me performance wise was the character of Homer, Actor Deniz Akdeniz handles his character really well being as charismatic and witty and probably has the second most character development out of all the characters next to Ellie.

To be fair though this is the first in a series of books so there is defiantly room for improvement if the next movie comes out. Notice I said "if" not "when" that's because being an Australian film it has to do really well domestically if it has even a chance of getting made, if it doesn't do well bye bye The Dead of The Night (the next movie in the series) Overall the film is enjoyable despite the poor dialogue, it defiantly needs a better script writer for the next film, though leave him doing the action, Stuart Beattie did that well and pretty good for a directing debut.

7/10