Director: Paul Maloney
Cast: Mick Molloy, Bill Hunter, Samuel Johnson, Judith Lucy, John Clarke
Distributor: Roadshow
Classification: M15+
Running Time: 89 Minutes

A long time fan of Mick Molloy from The Late Show through to his radio days on Martin & Molloy and even his ill-received variety show I was somewhat sceptical about this movie and waited well into DVD release until I saw it. The premise of a movie about lawn bowls didn’t do much for me, especially in an Australian setting. Fortunately Crackerjack was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Mick Molloy stars as Jack Simpson, a Melbourne help-desk worker, who has been using a fake membership at a local lawn bowls club to park for free in their lot, and selling a few to his co-workers and friends. When the bowling club is short a player for their tournament they go through their membership and find Jack on the role. The members of the club force Jack to play for them so he can retain his parking spot. See, the club needs to win the prize money on offer in the tournament as they are in risk of the club being taken over with pokies to raise revenue.

Of course after a few matches Jack decides that its not all that bad at the club, where the drinks are cheap, the food is free and you can smoke as much as you like. The old folks then enlist Jack to help with their cause to save the club. Who would have thought?

As you can see the movie isn’t exactly about the plot line but about the characters old and young. Mick Molloy pretty much plays himself, a beer drinking, chain-smoking Aussie and does a good job of it. He is genuinely funny and really carries the tone of the movie. Samuel Johnson, from The Secret Life of Us, plays his best friend, a stoner who is taking quite a liking to the game of lawn bowls. Comedian Judith Lucy is unbelievably underused. She’s no actor but she is hilarious in most of her scenes. I don’t think there’s another person that can swear as well as Judith Lucy can. The lawn bowlers at the club, including veteran actor Bill Hunter (it isn’t an Australia film unless he’s in it), also get laughs however Molloy relies too much on tired stereotypes for the most part. Finally John Clarke from ABC’s The Games is the ruthless businessman trying to introduce the pokies to the club.

One of the major problems with Crackerjack is it is very flat throughout the first half. Molloy relies too much on clichéd and tried humour, such as getting the old people stoned accidentally. The film doesn’t really find its feet until near the end with quite good-natured and old-fashioned humour. That said, Crackerjack ultimately is feel-good and it will be interesting to see Mick Molloy’s future films.

The DVD has quite a few interesting features. First of all the commentary from Mick Molloy and his brother Richard, with Judith Lucy, is pretty entertaining and quite relaxed and different from the usual commentaries on DVDs. The second commentary from the director and producer, however, is more a technical look at things and you would have to be a pretty dedicated fan to listen through this one. The deleted scenes are pretty funny, with commentary from Mick Molloy and his brother. The usual fare is included with the behind the scenes features and trailers etc. The gem of the special features on Crackerjack is the swear jar, which got more laughs than the movie! It is a quick montage of every time someone swears in the movie with a meter of the jar filling (again watch for Judith Lucy!!).

Special features: Deleted scenes, Theatrical trailer and TV spots, 2 Audio commentaries, Featurette: Swear Jar, Photo Gallery, Behind the scenes footage, Alternate ‘Flippers’.

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