Crooked Earth

I saw the impressive trailer for Crooked Earth in the cinemas and had heard many different reviews.When I finally rented it I was pleasantly surprised.

The cinematography is stunning, catching many rugged but beautiful landscapes of New Zealand. The land issues thing is definitely tired but overall the film had a good mix of shoot-me-ups, drama, romance, stunts, drugs and violence, if not a little too Americanised but that's ok.

The overall cast was very good. It was refreshing to to see Temuera Morrison ("Once Were Warriors") playing a good guy for once and I thought he was pretty good at playing Wiremu, especially in comparrision to many of his other films. There were standouts from Jaime Passier-Armstrong ("Jubilee") who delivered a strong performance playing the daughter of Wiremu and from Quinton Hita (from Mai Time)who played the rugged country boy with a cool horse! I liked the guy who played the cop and Nancy Brunning ("What Becomes of the Broken Hearted") is always wonderful to watch.

I think Crooked Earth is worth seeing as its got lots of great stunts, chopper shots and theres a good mix of humour to break up the drama. An action flick that is home grown!

Although important in highlighting cultural divides still prevalent in New Zealand, I couldn't help but feel this drew too much from Hollywood Westerns. So many of the the storylines and sub-plots have all been done before, albeit in different settings.

I went to Crooked Earth to see a piece of New Zealand. What I found was a badly scripted and badly acted echo of the people I know.

Great moments between characters – including many of Temuera Morrison and Lawrences Makoares scenes together – were often ruined by long and wordy monologues that the actors were forced to stumble through. Beautiful and ill-fitting phrases rattled away from Lawrence in particular as if he were the new Maori Messiah at his pulpit of beer crates.

When watching any film with Maori actors, I've found that I can always pick a half dozen characters that remind me of someone in my life. With Crooked Earth I struggled to find one key character that rung true for the entire two hours. Most – including Wiremu and Peka – wound up saying or doing things that I didn't understand and couldn't connect with. By the end of the movie the writer had succeeded in alienating the audience where the Maori weren't able to relate to it and the Pakeha were therefore given license to dismiss it. My feeling is that the movies message – or at least the main one of several that was being lobbed at the audience – is important enough to avoid using character extremities. Unfortunately, no one who read the script before it was filmed thought to pass this piece of advice on.

The soundtrack was invasive, and, as irritating as that horrible `bing-bong' noise that they laced through `Eyes Wide Shut'. The audience was not so subtly auto-cued to laugh, cry or be angry when the music changed. It reminded me of Darth Vader's entrance music in Star Wars: obvious and mildly amusing.

I think that there are some people out there that might enjoy this film. It's funny in parts, has a fair amount of action and has some really powerful scenes. Calvin Tuteao and Quentin Hita did bang up jobs as well. As a whole though, I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I know I should have. Barb Wire, Speed 2, The Island of Dr Moreau and Crooked Earth look like they're going to be Tem's quartet of crap.

I was not expecting much out of this film and upon leaving the cinema was pleasantly surprised by how much I had enjoyed it. Temuera Morrison gives a performance that is in my opinion at least as good as, if not better than the one in Once Were Warriors. The musical score in the film was quixotic, not knowing exactly what type of film it was supposed to be for. The photography was good showing off the kiwi landscape. It is quite a decent attempt at trying to transpose the most american film genres The Western into NZ and it is mostly successful in doing so. At the start I was quite scared that it was just another promo film for the NZ tourism board with loads of rolling hills and sheep, but thankfully the film took a different direction. Basic plot: Chief dies, he had two sons one stayed and became a drug dealer the other left and joined the army and he comes back for the funeral after he is kicked out of the army and the younger brother who stayed wants to be chief and the older brother who would left doesn't want it. By the time the film is over the battles have been fought and their are all sorts of minor intrigues and western cliches that have been reinvigorated with the unique setting. The supporting cast was also very good with a standout being the girl who played tems daughter. Overall it is the best Kiwi film since Once Were Warriors and is a thoroughly enjoyable one also.

Id never seen this movie and yet it was popular with the rest of my family (grown up kids). I find the plot very realistic about what is happening in New Zealand to Maori and the conflicts they face trying to hold onto their cultural ties to the land, their identity and living amidst the umbrella of colonization, westernization and the concepts of westernization being individualism and materialism Vs Tribal sovereignty. It shows the adaptability of Maori to their circumstances. That they can produce, act and put together this drama for others to realise their dilemma - show great creative flair and an ability to reach across cultures to ask for others to understand their plights and trials. Loved it, loved the acting and the deeper issues that face off between cultures of conflict expected to live harmoniously. It brings out the pathos of Maori and their warrior spirit to survive the political BS. I think this movie - should be resubmitted for another global distribution now that china, Russia are in the democratic race for global expansion. Will highlight the plight of what is to come for other indigenous peoples.