Reckless Kelly-Revised

Director Yahoo Serious  Staring Yahoo Serious, Melora Hardin, Alexei Sayle. Rated PG  Score 4.5/6

The large Kelly family run a pub on Reckless Island, and also operate the Kelly gang of bank robbers. Though this only consists of Ned it is highly effective as he has built up a high tolerance to bullets. Unfortunately the bank company fights back by offering the island for sale. The Kellys suddenly need a million dollars, and as all the money they rob in Australia goes to the poor, Ned sets off to California to rob banks there. Or become a movie star. Whatever.

Ok, I last took a look at the work of Yahoo Serious (also known as Greg Pead) back in 2020. This revisit occurred because I noticed that Reckless Kelly popped up in the Free to Watch section of YouTube movies (those of you headed to YouTube keep in mind the free to watch section is ad supported). I loved the opening shot of the movie and the use of Djapana (Sunset Dreaming) by Yothu Yindi. Though the flipping of the shot to show the audience they are in the southern hemisphere (even if not for comedic purposes) is an old joke. Even by 90s standards. Reckless Kelly is the type of movie where certain liberties where taken for the sake of a decent enough story, I thought the line about police shooting actors in Hollywood was hilarious. Now, yes this certainly is a silly movie but it makes valid a point about the importance of Native Title and posed an interesting what if scenario about the Australian flag should Australia ever become a republic. Huge Weaving gave the kind of performance that was well within his wheelhouse. I found that I enjoyed Kathleen Freeman’s performance as Mrs. Delance. John Pinette gave an a good performance in what was his third feature film. It’s interesting seeing the attitude Pinette’s character Sam Delance took with Shakespeare’s work being taken with other works coming out of copyright.




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