An attempt to make a big budget commercial film for the international market presumably along the lines of The Man from Snowy River only aimed at a younger audience - I wonder why they didn't put an international star in it, or have a couple more subplots. I also wonder how they managed to blow over $5 million on a film with only a couple of characters that was set in the present day. (Well it's not a mystery - they blew it on building a house for the family to live in and a massive nightclub set which wasn't crucial to the plot. It was a waste).
The movie doesn't work but can't be dismissed because at heart it has a great family dynamic - a frustrated former iron man (Nick Tate, over acting too often but he looks fit as hell) has a favoured son Adam (Colin Friels very good), ignoring the younger Steve (Joss McWilliam in a decent debut) despite the fact Steve clearly has talent. This is good drama, very identifiable, and is played out well enough.
Where the film falls over is in subplots - the character of the mother feels as though it needs another beat or some back story despite Robyn Nevin's fine work; Steve's character never feels defined - he kind of wants to be a martial arts guy, and a rock band manager, and an iron man; they introduce Steve wanting to go up a level in martial arts, he's not ready, then he is because he doesn't want it anymore; the part of his martial arts coach seems to be important, Steve asks him to coach... but he says no (why have him in the film); Steve romances a cute ballet dancer, but she doesn't seem to add anything to his journey (wouldn't have been hard to do - she gives him a lesson on professionalism, training tips etc but he ignores her during his training section). There are too many scenes with no drama - watching a band play, people dance. It's frustrating because these things would have been easily fixed in another draft but they're not.
What admittedly could never have been fixed is iron man racing - which on the big screen simply isn't that exciting. It's people running along in little swimmers and hats - hard work but not great cinema, certainly nothing like brumbies going over mountains or boxers slugging each other.
McWilliam has a good look and does some nice tortured sensitive youth - he deserved to be a bigger name than he became. Josephine Smulders is a debit - she seems really nice, moves wonderfully (they keep her moving a lot), but can't handle too much dialogue. She and McWilliam have a really sexy love scene which I remember making a major impression on me as a teenager but her character should have been used more.
It also looks stunning - the Gold Coast has never looked more beautiful on screen, with banana plantations, acqua blue seas, gorgeous sands. This isn't the dud many people remember it, there's lots of good stuff, it's just a shame they couldn't have tightened up the script and spent less money.
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