A Couple of Best Males

A Screen Australia, Arclight Films, Quickfire Films and Screen NSW presentation of the Parabolic Pictures and Stable Way Entertainment production in colaboration with Unthank Films, Story Bridge Films, Ingenious Broadcasting and Auburn Entertainment. (Worldwide sales: Arclight, Beverly Hillsides/Sydney.) Created by Shane Stallings, Laurence Malkin, Gary Hamilton, Antonia Barnard. Executive producers, Dean Craig, Josh Kesselman, Todd Fellman, Mark Lindsay, Ian Gibbins, James Atherton, James M. Vernon. Directed by Stephan Elliott. Script, Dean Craig.With: Xavier Samuel, Kris Marshall, Kevin Bishop, Tim Draxl, Olivia Newton-John, Laura Brent, Digital rebel Wilson, Jonathan Biggins, Steve Le Marquand, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivier Torr.Helmer Stephan Elliott strongly goes where very little one wanted him to visit again -- toward "Thanks for visiting Woop-Woop's" no-brow scatology -- while "Dying in a Funeral" scribe Dean Craig recycles that hit's ideas in "A Couple of Best Males," the type of bottom-feeding yuckfest in which a character's slip in dog poo inside the first minutes sets the tenor for the following 90 approximately. Of course, that causes it to be no dumberer than many recent mainstream comedies. But without their star energy, this tale of immature Englishmen mucking up a higher-well developed Aussie wedding looks destined mainly for home formats beyond Oz and also the U.K. Getting met throughout an idyllic tropical-island holiday, university students David (Xavier Samuel) and Mia (Laura Brent) are mind over heels and headed toward the altar. Orphaned while very young, your daughter's groom must first announce this surprise news to his best mates: Obnoxious, arrogant Tom (Chris Marshall), bumbling Graham (Kevin Bishop), and self-pitying Luke (Tim Draxl), lately left by his g.f. Despite their less-than-magnanimous reaction to the wedding, with Tom particularly irked by David's "unfaithfulness," all accept fly from London to Sydney for that large day. Improbably, that event may also be the very first time David meets the in-laws and regulations, a wealthy clan having a rambling Nsw estate. Mia, her pretend-lesbian (simply to upset Father) sis Daphne (Digital rebel Wilson), as well as their proper mother, Barbara (Olivia Newton-John), have lengthy resigned themselves to residing in the controlling shadow of patriarch and political kingmaker Jim Ramme (Jonathan Biggins). But Father is positioning the naive Mia as his public-office successor thus, the marriage is virtually a condition affair, made to woo his allies into accepting a dynastic future. A combination of chance, ineptitude and outright maliciousness soon starts lounging siege towards the dignity from the event, including bachelor-party antics that leave Jim's mascot, "Ramsy," a wonderfully horned male sheep, in a number of highly jeopardized positions, and then leave a paranoid drug dealer (Steve Le Marquand) gunning for top males he assumes have conned him. You will find good quality sight gags including sheep, in addition to a massive runaway floral arrangement. But mostly "A Couple of Best Males" is simply oafish, finding its metier in scatological jokes and verbal diarrhea. Pic makes "Dying in a Funeral" seem like Noel Coward, lazily changing that film's titular event for any spousal affair, changing its hallucinogen interlude having a longer, rougher booze-and-coke one. Perhaps worse is the fact that after a lot crass and mean-spirited nonsense, the pic pulls a maudlin about-face in direction of unearned sentiment. It is really depressing to determine the director of "The Adventures of Priscilla, Full from the Desert" leaning so heavily on gay-stress humor. Contributing to the overall air of witless self-satisfaction is really a soundtrack cluttered with limply remade bubblegum hits by prefab functions such as the Monkees, Archies, Partridge Family, etc. Making fun of these musical flotsam is much like shooting seafood inside a barrel -- exactly the amount of comic sportsmanship "Males" reflects throughout. The very best it's possible to say concerning the thesps is when their material were better, they'd have actually risen towards the occasion. Packaging is clever, beyond a couple of apparent background f/x going to tart in the landscape's natural scenic beauty with heavy CGI facepaint. Attention-deficit editing frequently shortchanges the payback for that couple of midway decent jokes here.Camera (color, widescreen), Stephen Windon editor, Sue Blaney music, Guy Gross music, Warren Fahey, Michelle P Vries production designer, George Liddle art director, Hugh Bateup set decorator, Rebecca Cohen costume designer, Lizzy Gardiner seem (Dolby Digital/DTS), David Lee supervisory seem editor, Andrew Plain re-recording mixer, Gethin Creagh assistant director, N Antoniou casting, Christine King, Gart Davy, Anne McCarthy. Examined at Mill Valley Film Festival (World Cinema), March. 14, 2011. Running time: 91 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com