Tomorrow, When the War Began

This grammatically-interestingly-titled offering from Down Under is adapted from a best selling series of books by John Marsden (8 books so far and counting). (The tense-bending title seems to come from a line that's in the trailer, but not the actual film). The story follows 7 Australian teenagers who go on a camping trip to the enticingly named Hell, only to discover on their return that their part of Australia has been overrun by the evil invading armies of The Coalition (the political jokes here are too obvious, so I'll pass over them) and decide to become guerilla fighters in the Outback.

The Characters are more stock-types than fully-fleshed individuals - think The Breakfast Club goes to War. And the character arcs are equally predictable - you know the posh girl is going to end up falling for the rebel, who in turn will respond well to the crisis and become a leader and you know that at some point the Christian who refuses to kill will at some point pick up a gun and mow down everything in front of her.

However, where the film succeeds are in the action sequences - a genuinely thrilling car chase around the town and the climactic attempt to blow up the bridge are handled as well as many a Hollywood blockbuster with a much larger budget. Its when things slow down and get talky that you start to notice the patchy acting talent and the leaden script (at one point a character really does say "what's the worse that can happen?" without a hint of irony). Still that doesn't stop the whole being rather entertaining fun. Part 2 is already in the works.

Overall - 6/10 Counter-intuitively for what is a low-budget take on a Hollywood staple genre, the action scenes rock, but the talky bits drag. Not bad though.