The Hard Word (2002)

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Glad I ran into part of this movie on TV and enjoyed enough of what I saw to stop and get the entire movie to watch. It's a romp in that some segments are a bit cartoonish and comic in nature and the violence in it isn't anything emotionally jarring or tramautic.Fans of Pierce and Edgerton will probably watch this while going through their catalog of films and I think they won't be displeased although my favorite character was the sausage making good-natured and lovable 3rd brother Mal played by Damien Richardson.For those still skeptical, just give it a watch and see if it doesn't catch you in the first 20 or so minutes.

Tough and profane, THE HARD WORD is a nasty little gem filmed in Australia during the criminal caper comedy run of production themes from 1999-2003. Like DIRTY DEEDS the same year, it was harshly judged and slid at the box office, but on a big screen it was quite enjoyable in its deliberately mean way. With an excellent cast including Guy Pearce and Rachel Griffiths, it also features a hugely silly putty nose stuck on Pearce's face. God knows why. Also in the cast are two of Australia's best character actors... the gorgeous Rhondda Findleton (see her also in LOVE IN LIMBO) and the adorable hilarious Torquil Neilson (from the equally maligned farce LET'S GET SKASE). Both these support actors would be big stars if on TV overseas but they just never get big release parts here in Australia... bit like the superb he man Jack Campbell from THE NOSTRDAMUS KID and charming Nicolas Beaumont. THE GUARDIAN star from TV Simon Baker ( of L.A. Confidential)seems to have taken all the roles for these guys in one career. THE HARD WORD is a wannabee heist caper with some nasty behavior. Sam Genocchio's 2004 micro budget crime calamity GET RICH QUICK also attempted the same Aussie genre with genuinely disgusting and hilarious results. Wait until you see how Rachel Griffiths greets Guy Pearce peering at her from behind the glass prison visiting room window in THE HARD WORD.... I hope she wasn't sitting next to her Mum at the premiere for that scene to unfold. Rachel! what a thing to agree to be photographed doing with that smile on your face! John Waters would have been thrilled.

It started as, what seemed to be, a fresh new heist flick. Instead I got a dragging anticlimactic, film that missed it's opportunities to wow audiences and secure itself in many action libraries. Much of the "clever" tidbits, such as butcher speak, that alone would give the film a good platform, cause confusion and make the film seem stagnant. I almost couldn't wait for it to be over. The end is sadly predictable, but could have gone farther with its female characters without losing the bond between the brothers. Also Guy's nose looks weird throughout the film, like Nicole Kidman's in The Hours, it made me a little bothered. I couldn't tell if it was fake or if he had had some work done.. Watch the film if you must, but I wouldn't subject it to friends.

In a time that has seen so many crime movies and romances, a movie must present something original to be memorable. While everything about this movie is solid, it is underdone, unoriginal, and pretty much forgettable.