OK, I'm 54 years old and what am I doing watching a movie like this... Remember how as a kid you liked to watch more adult-themed movies so you could fantasize about what it would be like when you grew up? Well, I sometimes watch a film like this so I can fantasize about what it was like when I was a teenager. It's one of my guilty pleasures. The only thing I don't miss is the teenage angst. Fortunately this movie didn't have too much of that, it was just fun.
The BMX sport which later became a craze was just getting started when I was in high school, and it was interesting to watch here. The film is not Oscar material, and some would consider it a hokey teen exploitation movie. Thankfully there wasn't any noticeable bad language or explicit sex. One reviewer said it fits into the "so bad it's good" category. Maybe, but for me anyway it seems a little better than that.
Also, as an American I found it more interesting to watch because it's an Australian-made film. I bought it in a five-movie collection DVD I found in the bargain bin at WalMart, and I wasn't really paying too much attention to who was in it when I popped it in to relax one evening. As I was looking at the girl, I thought, "She looks kind of familiar with her Aussie accent... hey wait...could it be? It's Nicole Kidman!" Her presence made me keep watching to see how she handled her earliest film role.
The criminals in the movie start off as real badasses, with ominous music playing in the background (which later becomes amusing). A couple of them quickly degenerate into "Home Alone" style bad guys ineptly chasing the two dudes and Nicole all over the city (including going down the tubes of a water slide!). The teenagers could now identify them, and had taken the walkie-talkies (remember them?) that the crooks needed to tap into the police band radio frequency to stay ahead of the cops. In the police station there is a police woman who seems willing to be sympathetic to the teens. I thought she was hot. When the chief's back is turned, she bites one of her fellow officer's ears. I envied him.
All in all, I enjoyed this movie, and if you don't expect too much from it, you might also. The scenery is really good to look at, and the sunny seaside city really lifted my spirits. The exuberance of young people having a good time did, too.
