After not seeing each other for some 7 months, me and the girlfriend had our Christmas the other week, and went on holiday, which meant I finally got to receive my 4 month delayed Christmas presents! And amongst them was a suspiciously light, suspiciously DVD shaped festively wrapped oblong containing a brand new - shrink wrapped copy of Nice Package! A 2013 Australian "gangster comedy" that promises to be "Pulp Fiction meets The Hangover". I have no idea where she got this from, what influenced her to pick it, other than her knowing my horrendous taste in bad movies - I like to point out we watched the first x3 Pirates of the Caribbean back to back over x3 nights whilst on holiday so I do also watch good movies sometimes - but it looks and sounds like something that belongs on my blog so here we go!
Frostie (Dwayne Cameron) is a Magician turned Professional Thief working for his 'Agent' Terry (Renaud Jadin) who sends him to obtain a "package" from within a fellow lawn green bowlers house. But moments from making his getaway, he is interrupted by Babysitter and family friend, Michelle (Isabella Tannock) who catches him red handed. Having no other option than to take her hostage, Frostie and Michelle drive to Brian's (Leon Cain) house; Frostie's very obviously gay best friend. Whilst Frostie tries to figure out what to do next, and debate breaks out amongst the 3 about whether or not they should just split whatever is in the package and go their separate ways, Terry calls in Reeco (Ashley Lyons) and Cogzy (Ben Weirheim) to retrieve the package for him. Stuck at a crossroads with what to do next, Brian decides to throw a hostage party and the trio get drunk and stoned, with Brian, unbeknownst to Frostie, posting the event on social media... In the morning, Terry pays a visit to "The Boss" (Ron Kelly) who wants to know where his "package" is, whilst Frostie takes Brian and Michelle (after the pair bonded over a magic trick the prior night) to his place to find it's been trashed by Reeco and Cogzy and after wandering off Michelle is taken hostage by Reeco and Cogzy who are still in the house. Cogzy opens the package to discover it's nothing but shredded newspaper... and in a rage Reeco and Cogzy leave with Michelle, recognizing Michelle's necklace as a former steal they missed out on and it transpires that Michelle is also a Professional Thief and knows why the package was empty, offering to tell Reeco and Cogzy for a split of the cut but Reeco refuses, instead calling Terry insinuating that Michelle is of greater value turned over to "the boss" than whatever was in the package. Terry then phones "the boss" and lies, telling him Frostie is demanding "a million" to turn over the package. Reeco and Cogzy, whilst waiting on Terry to come back to them decide to use Michelle to lure Frostie to them, asking for the package in exchange for Michelle. When Frostie and Brian show up, a fight breaks out which results in Frostie shooting Cogzy, Michelle running off with the package and Reeco going after her. Michelle tosses the package into a bush, which Frostie and Brian later recover, but is then kidnapped by Reeco. Reeco takes her to Terry who phones Frostie and asks him to meet at the Docks with the package. Frostie and Brian break into the Docks and into a Yacht to discover "the boss" is waiting for them and he offers them 'a million' in exchange for the package and... his daughter! Michelle is the bosses daughter! But the exchange goes badly when Terry and Reeco burst in, double crossing "the boss" for the money, but just as Terry is about to grab the money, Reeco shoots him in the back, wanting to take the money for himself but Michelle breaks free and in a moment of panic, when Frostie can't bring himself to shoot Reeco, Brian grabs the money and runs, with Reeco giving chase. Another fight breaks out, Frostie rescues Michelle and the pair finally kiss, Brian gets shot but together with Frostie's help they overcome Reeco and send him falling to his death. Michelle reunites with her father and reveals that she had gone to the house to steal the package herself to prove to her father that she can do the job. They then tie "the boss" / Michelle's father up and leave him to take the fall for the murdered gangsters. It transpires that all along; the package contained a numerical combination code to unlock a locker at the bowling club which contained a set of lawn green bowls... however Brian's liveblogging pursuits have made the trio overnight celebrities and they emerge from the bowling club to a crowd of cheering supporters.
This was pretty much what I expected going in; it was cheesy, it was corny, one of those "bad, but intentionally bad" kind of movies, but they didn't overcook it in the same way I've seen done before and they didn't go too over the top with it, at least trying to stick to a constructive narrative and sensical plot. It was clear within the first 5 minutes that the movie wasn't taking itself very seriously and there are spells where it becomes a spoof of British gangster movies like Snatch, Layer Cake e.t.c but it still played out and developed like a.. proper movie for want of a better phrase and didn't go all silly and goofy like it could have done.
The stereotypes are properly cranked up here. Reeco and Cogzy are the stereotypical meatheads, Michelle is the eye candy role, Brian is so painfully over-the-top camp and gay, "the boss" is the stereotypical well-spoken overlord, but they are all played up for effect - so much so that it's not even subtle and I feel everyone did a pretty decent job of really thrashing out their stereotype; Renaud Jardin (Terry) in particular was pretty good - so over the top in his role as the dodgy 'connections' type but good none the less. Again, nothing was supposed to be taken mega serious and they were almost parodies of the roles you see in uh... proper gangster movies.
It was clear everything was done on a modest budget, and done mostly competently throughout. There are moments where they cut corners and the cheapness of the budget becomes obvious, but for the most part I think despite having a modest budget the movie plays out perfectly fine. It skimps on locations and big set pieces and there's a bit of padding going on but it still manages to hold and play out the narrative without burning away the viewers interest. There were funny gags; mostly anatomical references to "the package" that come from Brian... and some clever puns that got a snort out of me and they at least went down the route of making a proper comedy rather than just trying to be over-the-top slapstick funny for the sake of it.
This... was alright actually. It played out more like a parody of gangster movies rather than trying to be an original gangster comedy in it's own right, but it had enough original about it to at least make it interesting and worthwhile. There's some deliberately cheesy dialogue, some corny trailer-bait script writing and some dodgy intentionally over-the-top acting going on but it was entertaining enough to be enjoyable. Not quite creeping into the "so intentionally bad it's good" territory but rather going down the route of a film that obviously doesn't take itself seriously and plays itself up for comedic effect but tries to paint itself as a so bad it's good film. It's an easy watch though and I'd probably watch it again to be fair. 3 out 5.
