By Guy Davis
There’s nothing especially wrong with ”Charlie & Boots”, Paul Hogan’s first big-screen outing since the 2004 comedy ”Strange Bedfellows”. That said, however, there’s really not too much to it either.
A perfectly amiable road trip to the top end of Australia with some very likeable company, the movie moseys along at a relaxed rate, taking in the lovely scenery as its two main characters make the journey from Warrnambool to Cape York.
These characters are the recently widowed Charlie (Hogan) and his estranged son ‘Boots’ (Kenny’s Shane Jacobson), and even though their relationship is a frosty one Boots can see that his dad is doing it tough.
So in a moment of inspiration, he packs up the Kingswood and convinces his dad to accompany him on a fishing trip. He doesn’t mention, however, that their fishing spot is thousands of kilometres away.
As they pass through an array of Australia’s rural and regional towns on their journey, they encounter a variety of interesting new faces, including a young country singer (Morgan Griffin) and a tattooed female truckie with designs on Charlie.
But mostly father and so get to know one another, as some of the painful moments of their past are brought to light and hopefully put to rest.
Hogan has reunited with ”Strange Bedfellows” writer-director Dean Murphy for ”Charlie & Boots”, and Murphy’s work here is perfectly fine but pretty slight. The tension between the two leads and the individual problems each has to wrestle with are potentially interesting but never really explored.
Indeed, without Hogan and Jacobson, this would hardly be a trip worth taking.
Luckily, though, both actors do a terrific job, individually and as a double act. There’s a real ease between the two that makes you hope they’ll reunite on another project soon.
With his understated turn as Boots, Jacobson shows that he has range as a performer and that the likeability and knockabout charm he displayed as Kenny was no one-off, while Hogan remains…well, Hoges, the quintessential good Aussie bloke who’s never less than good company.
Extras
A smorgasbord of extras on the DVD – an informative and fun commentary by Paul Hogan and Shane Jacobson, a mass of behind-the-scenes featurettes, a tribute to the late Reg Evans (who features in the film), the 60 Minutes interview with Hogan and Jacobson, Red Carpet Footage, and a few other bits and bobs! All-in-all, Paramount have done a terrific job on the DVD!
