CHICKEN
A film review by David Zanetti
Copyright 1996 David Zanetti
New Zealand films have always been a bit unusual. Sometimes that unusualness creates something special - NEVER SAY DIE, GOODBYE PORK PIE, and ONCE WERE WARRIORS. Sometimes that unusualness, mixed with Hollywood-style scripts (complete with unlicensed guns and car chases), just doesn't quite work which is the case with CHICKEN.
Take one seventies pop icon, add a few wrinkles, years and failed comebacks and we have Serrento, who'll take any job to pay the bills, or another shot at his lost fame. In this case it happens to be an advertisement for "Chik N Lik". As part of the gig he's got to actually turn up to the new store and serve customers. Along for the opening are a number of protesters, dismayed at the treatment of chickens (and other animals).
Add one slightly disturbed individual (who lives with chickens) intent on destroying the chicken-serving (and therefore murdering) Serrento, one bodyguard who happens to be at the new store when trouble strikes, and a daughter who's looking for her long-lost mother. While you're at it add in Serrento's manager and his son, and a plan to revive Serrento's lost stardom by faking his death.
The problem this film strikes is none of this actually seems to fit New Zealand, and the whole daughter-seeking-her-past subplot is buried and is thrown away in an epilogue. The humour, while at times is there, seems to play secondary to the 'action'. Unfortunately neither comes off that well. Those action sequences are hampered by the telegraphing of the plot to the audience, and the sheer lack of bang in them.
For those familiar with New Zealand actors you'll see a few familiar faces here, my favourite appearance (although short) being that of John Leigh, aka Lionel Skeggins from the New Zealand television soap SHORTLAND STREET. At times however, it plays like a who's-who of current New Zealand cinema and television. We'll forgive it for that, there are just not that many professional movie/television actors around here worth mentioning. Those that do appear to offer support do so pretty well.
All in all, CHICKEN is a film I doubt will be seen outside New Zealand and Australia, but it might show up in a collection of films from the land of the long white cloud. For a much better Hollywood-script-in-New-Zealand film try NEVER SAY DIE, featuring Temuera Morrison (before his stint in SHORTLAND STREET) in his film debut. Well worth digging out!
Rating (-4 to +4): 0 for NZ, -2 for the rest of the world.
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