Cheap The Hard Word (DVD) (Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton, Damien Richardson) (Scott Roberts (II)) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Hard Word

The story is familar, but not bad. The three brothers Dale, Mal, and Shane are doing time at the prison in Melbourne. According to Shane, Guy Pearce's Dale is intelligent, Mal is kind, and he is just a messed-up one. Anyway, with a help from oily, corrupt lawyer Frank (Robert Taylor, one of the "agents" in the first "Matrix"), they are assigned to do the heist job while out of jail. And their no killing" policy assisted by the professional skills again worked, or it seems.

If I write like this, you might think that "The Hard Word" is what you call "heist movie" featuring the expert jobs of robbery. Not exactly. The film's forcus is on the relations between characters -- among the brothers, and between them and surrounding ones like lawyer, cops, and so on -- and if you expect actions, you will be disappointed. The film is more about the mildly comical moments generated by the interations between them, which are peppered with strangely engaging humors.

But the most striking character is not a male one; she is Carol played by fabulous Rachel Griffith, whose acting at one place will easily out-Stone Ms Sharon Stone of the now famous scene in "Basic Instinct." Oh, don't forget, now she is blonde, too. 1,000 miles away from her portrayal of the understanding wife seen in Dennis Quaid's "Old Rookie," she is simply great -- the only thing we regret is her comparatively short screen time.

The film is often edited badly (the heist scenes are most lamentable condition, with too many jambled shots), and the story looks as if going on and on, never knowing where to stop. The film shows "Melbourne Cup" and you will think that is the place where the film is heading. In fact, you will see much more and more. And strangely, there are good scenes (see how the brothers run with huge black bags on the shoulder) scattered among those parts which, in purely dramatic point of view, are obviously superfulous. Too bad the film doesn't know what it wants to be.

derivative crime drama
**1/2 The Australian film, "The Hard Word," is little more than a wan cross between "The Usual Suspects" and "Oceans 11." In it, Guy Pearce, almost unrecognizable beneath a scraggly beard, plays one of four criminals discharged from prison in order to help mastermind a heist at the famed Melbourne Cup horse race.

There's very little that's original or new in this film, with all the generic cliches falling dutifully into place: the release from prison, the inevitable double crosses, the unfaithful wife, the trigger-happy outsider who almost bungles the entire operation with his impetuosity and brashness, and the innocent bystander who, sensing the excitement of life on the dark side, helps the robbers with their getaway. Surprisingly little time is spent on the planning and execution of the heist, and an inordinate amount on getting the men out of prison (they get out once and then, inexplicably for plot purposes, get sent back in again).

The performers are good, but their thick Australian accents make much of the dialogue virtually incomprehensible (for non-Aussies that is). That doesn't do much to enhance the clarity of the film. The real problem with "The Hard Word," though, is that we've seen it all countless times before, only better.

This is not a remake of Ocean's 11!
after reading some of these reviews its obvious that some of you are missing the point entirely. This is not a preposterous diamond heist film such as 'entrapment', nor is it one of these garbage hollywood films made to a formula involving an inordinate number of double, triple and quadruple crossings. the only american film which i would really compare it to at all is the similarly gritty and blackly comic classic 'reservoir dogs'.

first of all, the three main characters are not brothers, although it seems a blurb somewhere must have said this. the reason they speak the butcher's tongue is due to their time in the slammer.

secondly, i feel the way that the guys KNOW theyre going to get screwed over by their lawyer ADDS to the suspense. the fun is in seeing how he tries to do it, not "is the good guy a bad guy or a good guy pretending to be a bad guy so he can double cross the bad guy who is actually playing for both sides whilst sleeping with the good guys wife etc. etc."

also, i felt the robberies were very realistic. whats more likely to come off, robbing a bunch of intoxicated bookies after all the security guards have gone home (on a side note the melbourne cup is a hugely significant sporting event on the australian calendar, a nuance perhaps missed by our american friends), or breaking into a bank, disabling the security system with non-existent electrical equipment and lugging 50 tonnes of gold bars away from a 12-inch thick lead vault?

enough of that, the idea behind the film was to illustrate the human qualities of these flawed characters - after all, are these theives really any worse than shady politicians or mass tort lawyers? ive gotta agree that rachel griffiths looks a bit she-malish, but if theyd got liz hurley theyd also have got her acting ability! the role called for a tart not a glamour model.

all in all, i thought it was a very original and emotionally involving film, certainly one of the best crime thrillers of the past few years, with especially fantastic performances by joel edgerton and guy pearce