Movie Review — You and Your Stupid Mate
Posted by Administrator on February 9th, 2006
This is Dumb and Dumber, Australian style, and while Angus Sampson and Nathan Philips are no Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in the acting stakes, they serve a plateful of Aussie humor so thick that it will probably be incomprehensible anywhere else.
The film opens with scenes from the childhood of best mates Jeffrey and Phillip, accompanied by the repeated refrain of “You and your stupid mate..!” It’s a bit heavy handed but we get the point. These two could be living next door to anyone.
Jump a few years and Jeffrey and Philip are settled in a lifestyle that is nothing short of idyllic, living in a user-friendly caravan park on the dole, eating beans and watching their favourite soap, Sons and Surf.
It looks like nothing can get these two lovable slackers off their behinds and out into the world in search of real jobs. Phillip is deeply involved with the Gang Show, a Scout revue that takes place once a year, while Jeffrey devotes himself to maintenance of the Sons and Surf fan website.
Naturally, a combination of events catapults the pair out into the jungle – Sons and Surf is cancelled, and they get a new case manager at the Jobs 4 U job agency.
The writers, two stand up comics from Melbourne called Mark O’Toole and Dave O’Neil, obviously intended this to be an hilarious look at life in modern Australia, and strangely enough, in spite of production values that came out of a carton of breakfast cereal, they do succeed. You and Your Stupid Mate is like your best mate – he’s a bit of dill, but you can’t help liking the mongrel.
Angus Sampson plays Jeffrey as an innocent boofhead who doesn’t realize when he is being given the flick by a TV soap star, while Nathan Phillips capers happily as the gang Show-obsessed overgrown boy scout Philip.
Some strong supporting performances help the pair keep a grip on the material. William McInnes plays the case manager Peter Rossiter, whose efforts to get the pair employed finally drive him to madness; Tayler Kane, who played the dumb security guard in The Dish, gives a nice performance as soap star Evo, who befriends the boys.
Surprisingly, one of the highlights is leggy Rachel Hunter as Karen, a hippy earth mother type, surrounded by children and playing the harp outside her caravan. Clearly, Karen is a goddess and we are left in no doubt of that.
Madeleine West as soap star Emma obviously relishes the funny side of soap stardom, mugging her way through the Sons and Surf scenes, and sweetly learning that even her dumbest fans have more merit as human beings than TV executives.
All right, it’s not Shakespeare, but it delivers some real belly laughs and some genuinely inspired moments. But, if you are not Australian, don’t see it without an Aussie in tow to explain the gags.