Pluskylang Great Film overall

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

bregund Caught this film on TV the other night, since I'd never heard of it and the description looked interesting. It was released by UA so I thought it would be entertaining, since a major film company has some standards. Pete is a misfit who wears exactly the same facial expression throughout the entire film, while Rikki is an improbable combination of singer and geologist, the latter part of which comes in unusually handy halfway through the film. They drive into the outback in mom's old car and somehow become rich while Pete invents stuff and then his mates try to break him out of jail. It's as dull and uneven as it sounds. The songs are just okay. There is an attempt to liven things up with quirky characters but they never go anywhere. The great Bill Hunter is the only saving grace, at turns exasperated or scheming, and in the film's only truly hilarious scene, is driven to madness by a non-stop proselytizer as he angrily joins him in singing hymns. He looks like he's going to snap any second.

Woodyanders Shrewd and spunky geologist Rikky Menzies (a radiant and excellent performance by Nina Landis) aspires to be a country and western singer/songwriter. Rikky and her willful and mischievous mechanical genius brother Pete (a fine and likable portrayal by Stephen Kearney) decide to get away from their disapproving and overbearing wealthy father (a perfectly hateful Don Reid) and hit the road in search of a new life. The siblings wind up in a small remote rural community where they purchase a mine and start their own business. Director Nadia Tass and screenwriter David Parker concoct a disarmingly low-key and quirky charmer about living life the way you want to live it sans compromise that ambles along at a relaxed, yet steady pace, wins the viewer over with its amiably aimless tone and unpredictable rambling narrative, and offers a wondrous wealth of amusingly flaky incidental details (the babbling religious loony with the runaway car that goes only ten miles in hour in particular is a complete riot!). Landis and Kearney make for very appealing leads; they receive terrific support from Tetchie Agbayani as Rikky's sweet and perky girlfriend Flossie, Bill Hunter as vengeful ramrod police sergeant Whitstead, Bruno Lawrence as the hearty and rugged Sonny, Bruce Spence as the friendly Ben, Lewis Fitz-Gerald as smitten nerd Adam, and Peter Cummins as sleazy mine boss Delahunty. Moreover, Pete's wacky inventions are very cool, Nikky's songs are extremely catchy and tuneful winners, the outback scenery is often breathtaking, the characters are a colorful assortment of endearing oddballs, and the movie concludes on a lovely upbeat note. The bouncy and harmonic score by Brain Baker and Eddie Raynor further adds to the considerable irresistibly breezy'n'easy charm. Parker's sparkling picturesque cinematography delivers plenty of strikingly beautiful images. A thoroughly pleasant and satisfying delight.

Jugu Abraham Australian cinema has always captivated me. Their cinema is refreshing. "Rikky and Pete" would revive memories of the young rebel in one's life. As a film, you cannot compare it with great cinema of top directors--yet it is charming because it captures the non-conformist in all of us. The mechanical genius Pete invents a gadget that uses the childish paper-plane concept to deliver a newspaper. The brother sister bonding is well portrayed. The jabs at soft-headed evangelists are also well done. The anti-establishment note of the film is the refrain throughout the running time--with one realistic line "I am afraid" coming from the jailed Pete after contemplating the willfully open jail door.While the film is about cars, inventions, inefficient cops, Eartha Kitt, loonies--the work appears disjointed and immature. Yet some of the minor characters are superb. Examples are the two ladies--the young Tetchie Agbayani as Flossie (Pete's girlfriend at the mine) and Dorothy Alison as Pete's rich mother.The element of satire that runs through conversation and actions lifts up the product to a level of above average cinema.

George Parker "Rikky and Pete" are thirtyish Aussie sibs who leave Melbourne to escape a dictatorial patriarch and Pete's problems with a local copper and to seek their fortune in the outback where they take up with silver mining and a bunch of quirky characters. "R&P" is a fun little Aussie comedy romp which wanders without clear purpose through it's marginal plot conjuring up moments droll, offbeat, and awkward humor and little else. Worth a look for those into Aussie flix.