WELCOME TO THE WOOP WOOP
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. MGM/Goldwyn Entertainment Director: Stephan Elliott Writer: Michael Thomas Cast: Johnathon Schaech, Rod Taylor, Susie Porter, Paul Mercurio, Rachel Griffiths
What's it like to get a new identity and to be situated in a place that would keep you well hidden from those who are out to get you? If you're a city mouse and you're sent to another urban center far away, you're probably in luck. If you're an urbane con man accustomed to slick dealings with a sophisticated clientele, the last thing you'd want if you're in trouble with mobsters is a change of venue to L'il Abner country. The latter fate befalls Teddy (Johnathon Schaech) in Stephan Elliot's new comedy, "Welcome to Woop Woop," which obeys the cardinal rule of anarchic buffoonery--which is to be totally off-the-wall--but whose intentions (whatever they might be) are not realized. The movie with an alliterative and pleonastic title embodies outrageous episodes of mayhem and irrationality but the picture simply does not gel despite Rod Taylor's zany impersonation of a tough, tattooed cult leader named Daddy-O and a deft performance by Mr. Schaech, who progresses through his outback adventure in a perpetually bemused state, wondering why his relationship with a gorgeous, sex-obsessed bimbo does not make him the luckiest man alive.
Opening his film in New York's Times Square where Teddy is busy selling smuggled Australian cockatoos to well-heeled bird lovers, director Stephan Elliott swiftly puts his leading character through paces as he escapes from the clutches of two gangsters and is forced to flee the country to elude capture by others of their ilk. After his Qantas flight, he proceeds by van to the Australian outback when he is waylaid by a stunning antipodean, Angie (Susie Porter), who exhausts the poor man with her libidinous demands and who soon thereafter finds himself unwittingly married to her and under the iron thumb of her father-in-law, Daddy-O (Rod Taylor). Taking up residence in the godforsaken town of Woop Woop which, according to the town's absolute ruler is "not on the map as far as the 7 o'clock news is concerned," his fancy turns eagerly to thoughts of escape. Teddy is unimpressed with his father-in-law's one-man rule, which forbids desertion from the hot, fly-infested desert of inbred imbeciles but places no ban on the shooting of dogs and defectors.
"Welcome to Woop Woop" is cut from the same cloth as Stephan Elliott's 1994 burlesque, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," about two drag queens and a transvestite who journey to a remote desert gig on a bus named Priscilla, though in this case the traveler is a reasonably balanced individual who wants only to return to the benefits of civilization. In a picture which would hardly be promoted by the Australian Tourist Commission, Elliott tries to be offensive as well as comic, but succeeds in being neither. Scenes such as one involving the pumping of gas by a blind man (Barry Humphries) are derivative and, in fact, a good deal of the time the off-the-map town may remind you of similar locales in Kevin Costner's "The Postman."
Johnathon Schaech, who resembles Peter Gallagher, does his best with the script as a lucid fellow in the company of the demented, Owen Paterson does a fine job in designing a production with houses built of beer cans and bottles, but the best thing about "Welcome to Woop Woop" is the nostalgic soundtrack of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs. Some enchanted evening this chop suey is not. Not Rated. Running time: 101 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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