BIG NIGHT OUT

SYNOPSIS:
Jake (Telen Rodwell) and his gorgeous girlfriend, Catherine (Tarja Rolston) break up when he tries to combine his two great loves—making love with Catherine and winning on his home video game. Three months later, he still hasn’t got over it. To try and snap him out of it, his four mates decide to take him out on the town. There’s Mick (Gerard Boyle), who can skull beer at will, Gollie (Matt Doran), a nerd with a soft centre, and Darren (Josh Sliwka), who always seems to be inciting something. They are led by the self-obsessed Matt (Damen Stephenson), whose main aim in life is to participate in a menage-a-trois. Along the way, the lads run into the school nerd Steve (Angus King), who suffers from the mistaken belief that he is cool. But when Catherine turns up at the nightclub and Steve starts to make a move on her, things start to really heat up.

"In trying to defend this movie, no doubt you would have to point to the fact that the film was shot in 15 days by a crew with an average age of 22, led by 23-year-old writer/ producer/ director, Tim Boyle. The budget was just $100,000. And yet the film suffers from a problem which is not unknown to multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbusters—a lousy script. All the characters are paper-thin and any semblance of development is lost in a tediously juvenile plot. It is not helped by a generally ordinary cast. It is hard to say whether the actors are trying too hard or not hard enough. The only glimmer of hope is Matt Doran as Gollie, and possibly Tarja Rolston as Catherine, but even they suffer from insubstantial material. The Big Night Out is an attempt to explain or parody the rituals and rules of modern dating, but it never moves beyond simple cliche. The danger is that women may think that this is how men talk to each other when a group of boys get together. It’s not. The dialogue and situations rarely reflect reality. And if it is supposed to be a comedy, it doesn’t show. Tragically unfunny scenes abound, and they are milked for every last drop of potential, though unrealised, humour. It would be nice to recommend The Big Night Out , given the undoubted effort put in by the inexperienced crew and actors. But unfortunately, even the low-budget efforts need to compete. It’s difficult to see this movie as the start of something big."
Anthony Mason