Swerve (2013)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Overrated

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Director and writer Craig Lahiff who also created another classic flick, Heavens Burning 19997 has created another gem in Swerve which is a remake of his other classic Aussie crime flick, Fever 1988.Starring Jason Clarke who has also starred in other classic flicks, Everest 2015, Terminator Genisys 2015, White House Down 2013, Zero Dark Thirty 2012, Death Race 2008, Rabbit-Proof Fence 2002, Better than Sex 2000 and Praise 1998.Also starring Emma Booth who has also starred in another classic flick, Tracks 2013 and a season of the classic Aussie TV series, Underbelly 2008-2013.Also starring David Lyons who has also starred in another classic flick, Storm Warning 2007.Also starring Vince Colosimo who has also starred in other classic Aussie crime flicks, Chopper 2000 and The Hard Word 2002 and other classic flicks, Daybreakers 2009, Body of Lies 2008, Scorched 2008 and other classic TV series, Fat Tony & Co 2014, Spartacus: War of the Damned 2013 and a season of Underbelly 2008-2013.I enjoyed the Australian outback scenery.If you enjoyed this as much as I did, then check out other classic Aussie Crime flicks, Animal Kingdom 2010, The Snowtown Murders 2011, Restraint 2008, Kiss or Kill 1997, The Square 2008, Storage 2009, Idiot Box 1996, Son of a Gun 2014, The Line 2007, Small Town Crime 2017, The Debt Collector 2018, Dragon Flies 1975, Small Crimes 2017 and Cut Snake 2014.

If you are going to rip off another movie it's a prerequisite that an effort is made to bring something new to the table . For a while at least Tarantino did it , making plagiarism an art form. When it fails all is left is a lame copycat - a la Swerve. Yes there are elements of U Turn here but mostly this is Nicholas Cage noir thriller Red Rock West revisitedYoung, honest but somewhat naiver ex army jobless drifter ends up in a rural backwater town he cannot escape. -Hooks up with a couple who happen to be a corrupt sheriff and his scheming femme fatale wife-A stash of stolen money-A hit-man in the town in pursuit -The film climax on the freight train carriage Sounds familiar ? Even tracking shots zooming in on the town road sign. Sigh. Sure there are some variations in the set up and script between the movies but the core of this film is a rip off. Add to that the cod Spaghetti western and coffee table muzak score. Not much to recommend Nic Cage at his peak, Dennis Hopper, J.T Walsh and Lara Flynn Boyle versus this lo brow Australian effort. No contest.

Why oh why is it always the script that's the weakest link in Aussie movies? Swerve could have been good. It looks like a real movie, but it descends into the usual Aussie weirdness where the script was too self absorbed and it all goes to crap. It had promise, it had a certain polish while keeping that Aussie grittiness that Australian movies do so well. Great scenery, some solid acting, (although some scenes like "WTF are they on now?") Usual good cinematography and some quirky locations, but as usual it disappears up its own arse. What did the publican mumble at the end? I didn't care, I was just glad it was over. I will never want to watch it again to find out.

This gets a 6 out of ten and that is ONLY for the photography. Sadly SWERVE actually crashes from sheer improbable plot points and absurd action moments that leave the viewer less and less enthusiastic as the silliness rolls on. The opening sequence is terrific and if you saw U TURN in 1997 you will feel this film is almost an Australian remake. Once the deceit and double deceit begins to overtake the plausibility of choices (oh I dropped my car keys down that well where we just dumped a body) and stunts (Cop leaps onto roof of speeding train nonsense) SWERVE careens out of control of the reality it strives to show. Good looking Aussie cast and very well realized production, SWERVE starts to ask too much of its audience when THE NARROW MARGIN sequence takes over and we are on a speeding train complete with every cast member who hasn't been whacked... and a few who have. The lead character really could just have gone home at any time leaving the femme fatale in the dust, and the most eyerolling moment comes when he retrieves his car and comes speeding back to town (why?) for a beer at the pub. In a previous scene all 4 tyres were shot out from the car and the window smashed. However after retrieving his keys he just speeds back into town car all fixed up somehow... especially when the car was damaged in front of the crime scenes on a property surely under investigation by now. Also magically their house has a second floor which is never seen from outside as every shot shows it as a single floor dwelling... but inside there is a stairway up to another floor. It all gets sillier and asks the audience to be really dumb and not think for a minute about what just happened and go with whatever is on screen exactly this every second. It copies a lot of U TURN ans some of NARROW MARGIN and wants to be NORTH BY NORTHWEST. It is none of those at all. The audience tolerance for the implausibility takes a u-turn when the chief cop rushes to the local railway station to catch up with his wife and our hero leaving on a train (like it is 1955) ...he gasps as the train rolls out of the station... all of which begs the obvious question: why did he not just radio ahead to the station ID himself and tell the stationmaster to hold the train?. SWERVE is another good looking well made film that will only appeal to morons, and those few who might rent the DVD one day in a weekly stack of 10 for $5. There is a character killed who we do not see previously: his body is found (in the mineshaft... yes the ol' silver mine) and they later discuss him as if we know who he is. At 83 minutes SWERVE did not avoid the speedy editing scissors either.