A Few Best Men (2011)

A groom and his three best men travel to the Australian outback for a wedding.

Director:

Stephan Elliott

Writer:

Dean Craig

Stars:

Laura Brent, Xavier Samuel, Kris Marshall

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Laura Brent	...	Mia Ramme
Xavier Samuel	...	David Locking
Kris Marshall	...	Tom
Kevin Bishop	...	Graham Vincent
Tim Draxl	...	Luke
Solveig Walking	...	Coconut Mist Girl
David Sullivan	...	Airport VIP Security
Elizabeth Debicki	...	Maureen
Olivia Newton-John	...	Barbara Ramme
Rebel Wilson	...	Daphne Ramme
Jonathan Biggins	...	Jim Ramme
Oliver Torr	...	Kal
Steve Le Marquand	...	Ray
Angela Bishop	...	Channel Ten Reporter
Alan Cinis	...	Eddie Marshall

Storyline

After meeting and spending ten days together while on separate vacations in Tuvalu, twenty-somethings Londoner David Locking and Sydneysider Mia Ramme fall in love and decide to get married, the wedding to take place on the clifftop estate outside of Sydney of Mia's parents, Jim and Barbara Ramme, the former an Australian senator. The plan is for David to move to Australia after the wedding. But first, David, who has been away for six months, has to go home to tell his twenty year best mates Tom, Graham and Luke, who have been his family in the absence of having no blood relatives of his own. The four best friends are to arrive in Sydney the day before the wedding. Each of David's three "best men" have the potential to derail the festivities based on who they are and what they are currently going through in life. Luke is nursing a broken heart as his girlfriend Sarah broke up with him. He is not as much upset about the break-up as he is about the rumor, if true, of a fundamental ...

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Plot Keywords:

comedy of errors | groom | male objectification | embarrassing male nudity | embarrassing nudity | 

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Taglines:

Australia! Haven't you seen Wolf Creek?

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Australia UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 January 2012 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Bernvakaris Australijoje

Filming Locations:

Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,955,734 (Australia), 29 January 2012, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Australia,Quickfire Films,Screen NSW

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Writer Dean Craig enjoyed greater success with the similarly themed Death at a Funeral (2007).

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Quotes

Jim: So what do you do, Luke?
Luke: I fall in love with women who then shit on me from a great height.
Daphne: You shouldn't put them on a pedestal.

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Crazy Credits

After the end credits, a short piece showing what happened to the ball after it rolled off the edge of the cliff is shown

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Connections

Featured in Projector: A Few Best Men (2012)

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Soundtracks

Ballroom Blitz
Written by Nicky Chinn (as Chinn)/Mike Chapman (as Chapman)
(c) Published by Universal/MGB Songs
Administered by Universal Music Publishing Group

User Reviews

Excellent performance make familiar material seem fresh

"A Few Best Men" meets my first and primary criterion for a comedy film, that it offers many laughs. Comedy takes many forms and not every joke is right for every audience. Some will doubtlessly find the scatological humor offensive. However, the film offers a wide range of humor from burlesque physical comedy to comic irony. The filmmakers employ a range of comic techniques including running gags, 1-2-3 punches, pratfalls, sarcasm, sight gags, etc.

Much of the film is familiar. It doesn't break much new ground that hasn't been explored in similar films such as "I Love You, Man," "Wedding Crashers," "The Wedding Ringer" and other comedies. But the cast approach their roles with such vitality that the material seems fresh.

There are numerous similarities to "The Hangover" and its sequels. We don't actually witness the bachelor party. A tight group of four friends is threatened by the marriage of one. One of the best men is a sybaritic mischief-maker who introduces drugs into the equation. The protagonist and his three sidekicks must repair the damage they caused without the bride or future in-laws becoming the wiser. There are complications with criminal elements and identical bags are switched. But the cast and filmmakers manage to make the material seem fresh. As long as the laughs keep rolling, one doesn't stop to analyze similarities to other films.

While the humor is raucous, ribald and uninhibited, it also seemed more restrained, particularly compared to the Hangover films. Some scenes felt as if they could have been pushed much further. The initial encounter with the drug dealer became weird, but could have been much weirder. A large rolling object creates havoc, but much of it is offstage and it only rolls once. We see some bare male backsides, but no other nudity and only one outfit is destroyed, although it is subjected to multiple humiliations. It would have been nice to see outtakes during the credits.

Production values were more than adequate. Performances were solid with particular kudos to Kris Marshall.

It would be easy to dismiss the film as derivative, but whatever it lacks in originality is more than compensated for by the energy of its performers.