Chopper (2001)

So much average

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

If there's really anything to take away from the movie "Chopper", it's Eric Bana's extraordinarily gripping performance.Based on the late Australian prisoner Mark "Chopper" Reed, he had became a very prolific author through autobiographies and fictional crime novels throughout his lengthy sentence. But saying that, well that's just it. The movie simply follows Reed's inevitable descent back into the shady underworld, and his obviously well known prison sentence. The supporting cast do a terrific job, and the very dim lit area's help bleed atmosphere into the lens.Final Verdict: It's a hard sell, one which will ultimately grip you thanks to Mr. Bana's hard man mannerisms and sinful likability. But as far as movies based on prison life and criminals go, this is one you'll wont come back from entirely smarter or all too satisfied. 6/10.

This is basically the movie that pretty much made Eric Bana, and while it has been suggested that it is not supposed to be a comedy, there are quite a number of parts where you just cannot help but burst out in laughter (such as the scene where he shows some woman him member in the bar), even after having seen the movie at least four or five times previously. In fact, it is one of those movies that even though you know what is coming up, the scene itself is still very amusing.I am sure everybody in Australia knows who Uncle Chop Chop, or Mark 'Chopper' Brandon Reid is, but for those international people who don't believe that there is anything of relevance outside of their borders, he was basically a Melbourne standoverman who pretty much made a packet (legitimately) by writing a series of books while he was in prison. As he says in the movie, he is a best selling author, and he can't spell, so there are probably a bunch of university graduated English majors who are fuming. My thoughts are more power to him, particularly since what he writes about (and shame on me for not actually having read any of his books) are things that people actually want to read.The question really is whether the events in this movie are true or not. Well, to be honest with you, as Chopper says himself, the movie is 100% true and 100% rubbish. The one thing that crims, especially those like Chopper Read, is to take a true story and embellish it so much that nobody can actually use the story itself to prove that what actually happened is true or false. Mind you, most of the scenes in Pentridge (with maybe the exception of the stabbing murder of one of the Painters and Dockers leader) are probably true, namely because there are corroborative sources, but then most of those scenes do not implicate him in anything anyway. Still, the murder probably did happen as described, but then again we will never know.However, there are parts of this film that are not true to form. Granted, Bana plays his role brilliantly, right down to the fact that you can actually believe that he is some paranoid, drug crazed, standoverman, however Chopper actually took offence at the suggestion that he actually beat up women. To be honest, there are aspects of the criminal world that would not stand for that type of behaviour. They say that there is no honour among thieves, but that saying is actually as flawed as some of the stories in this film.As is suggested, Chopper never went after or assaulted an innocent person, and this is very much the case among the professional underworld. They are not interested in innocent people. Those who commit muggings and break and enters of random houses then to be young street kids, those that the professional underworld considers expendable. The professionals actually don't care about these people, namely because there are more important fish to fry when dealing with the underbelly of society. Mind you, while the criminal underworld intrudes into every aspect of our lives (you can be assured that the local pub is probably paying protection money to somebody) those of us who are not involved in it, probably don't need to worry about having some professional killer come gunning after you.

You don't see Eric Bana playing the protagonist, instead you see a maniacal mad man with a twisted sense of humor and a sadistic approach towards life in this biopic of Australia's notorious Mark Reed. Bana made the character his own only occasionally mimicking the half giggle half laughter that generates so much fear and hostility. While most people who knew Reed and author himself has already claimed that truth was never allowed to come in the way of a good yarn, the writers cleverly placed Reed's habitual lying trait into the story that evokes even more unpredictability confusing the audience as to what to believe as a fact and what is not. It would have made Indian film makers proud or even inspired by the attitude of the protagonist in an initial ambush scene.Chopper is loosely based on the autobiography 'From the Inside' written by Mark Reed when serving time which is again loosely based on events in his life. This is not a Shawshank's redemption kind of story about survival in the harsh prison conditions for a crime you have never committed, but about one of Australia's notorious criminal who embraces the prison life often being the troublemaker. He claims more crimes than he is accused for, made more enemies than friends (an understatement) and still in the end came out the winner.Eric Bana must have worked a lot to get his mannerisms right since it does not come naturally to him based on most of the other characters he has played where he comes off as a mild mannered, less talky serious person. Here, he wouldn't shut up. Always up to something, doing bad for someone and habitually lying on every event that takes place. Though the gore and graphic violence is pretty frightening and plays as an advert to stay off prison, the screenplay is very mixed - a lighthearted exchange is followed by an intense cruel episode. A sequence when Reed and some of his acquaintances get high was innovative unlike similar scenarios dealt in other movies. All supporting actors do an excellent job. The cinematography is quite inventive as the visuals are dark and bright at the same time.An Eric Bana show playing Australia's most notorious showman.

In telling the story of Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, one of Australia's most famous criminals, the script combined Read's own autobiographical bestseller with what actually happened, which makes for an interesting, sometimes confusing blend of reality and invention. That mix makes for a very interesting watch, even if there's not enough material for a satisfying film; it could have been a thirty-minute film and achieved about the same level of success, and it doesn't leave you with any clear notion of what you saw. Chopper doesn't quite work out as a biography or even a character study, but it's an intriguing document on violence and violent people, and about what makes the same people land in trouble again and again.On top of that, it's also pretty entertaining. Eric Bana is terrific in the lead. Not being from Australia myself, I first became aware of Bana as a leading man in American mainstream films like Troy and Hulk, where he always struck me as dull and uncharismatic, but finding out that he was a successful comedian is his native country first makes a lot of sense after seeing his disturbing, layered and very funny performance as Chopper. It's difficult to call it a comedy - don't expect a crime farce like Snatch, because there's very little of that going on. But Chopper's character is outrageous enough to be entertaining throughout.