Theme Song:
“Dead Easy,” by Rosa Shields. This movie is a confusing mess of Australian lingo and dimly-lit street scenes, but if nothing else, check out this awesome theme song. Seriously. It looks like Rosa Sheils (not the typo above as listed in the screen credits) re-recorded the song in 2008 and it’s on iTunes, but it loses that New Wave edge of the original.
“Georgie’s Song,” by Graham Matters. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it appears a main character in the film, Georgie Salmon, has his own theme song that absolutely comes out blazing toward the beginning of the movie.
Interesting Dated References: America’s interest in the films of Australia.
Best Line: None
Social Context: I don’t pretend to know a lot about Australia or why so many of their films were exported to the U.S. in the early ‘80s, but I continue to blame Road Warrior/Mad Max. Dead Easy only helps my case, as a poorly-made Road Warrior car is shoehorned into a grimey, double-crossing/who-cares-who-dunnit.
Summary: Goddammit, I couldn’t make sense of this even if I cared. A guy named John tells another guy to “put Georgie on it.” Meanwhile, Georgie goes to a massage parlor to talk to a guy named Jean.
Then some other shit happens, and there are fake murders and real murders, and Georgie opens a nightclub with some type of burlesque act, and then more people are murdered.
On top of all that, there are older mob-type guys with names like Saul and Lou and Oz, but all the names are interchangeable because the plot is fucking confounding. On a positive note, there’s good, scummy scenery of weird nightlife and adult movie shoots.
After what seems like hours, the protagonists (whose names I’ve never figured out) jump into the Road Warrior-looking car and chase one of the mob guys off a dock into the water and shoot a bunch of fire or something.
Look, if you’re into Australian films, this may be up your alley. There’s lots of street scenery that seems like it would be interesting if I cared about anything else other than trying to keep my barely-functioning life together.
Worth Mentioning:
– There’s a weird scene in a nightclub that tries to look all futuristic with lots of new wave dancing and music.
Poster and Box Art: This is not a very good VCL Betamax cover. In fact, this image is from a scene in one of the dingy nightclubs, which only lasts like 5 seconds.
There might be some foreign posters, but I just don’t care about this website anymore.
Availability: Used VHS.
Great review, great everything.