The Rover (2014) Online

Just like the mud and the dust on the characters in the film, the excellent The Rover gets under the skin and remains there, long after the screen went black.

The story takes place in the Australian outback in the near future after a collapse. A bitter loner sees his car stolen by a gang and tries to get it back at all cost with the help of the wounded, simple brother of a gang member, left behind after a disastrous robbery.

Slow and intense The Rover sucks you into the desert, you can almost feel the heat and the flies in your face. Few words are used, more is said by gunshots. Here are no action heroes who at the end clean up the mess, restore the order and peace and let you leave theater with the feeling that you were nicely entertained. The people in The Rover are desperate to such extent that they've almost become indifferent towards life. They try to survive, period.

The bizarre relationship between the angry loner Eric and the naive, dependent Rey is wonderfully brought on screen. Both Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson deliver brilliant performances. Guy embodies perfectly the bitter,rude, inner wounded Eric with his body language and the intense gaze . Robert disappears into Rey, a damaged rather innocent soul who IMO has been taught to blindly obey and not to think for himself, in a way that will blow people away. The tics and blinks belong to Rey, you see them disappear when he feels more at ease, reappear in situations of stress. The supporting actors are amazing as well.

Although the film is dark, the mood is not cold IMO. Under the surface of alienation and cruelty there's a palpable emotional layer of vulnerability and fear. Michôd created a world frighteningly realistic and raw, a world we, civilized people, in fact don't want to face. With his second movie David shows again how incredibly talented he is.

I was eagerly anticipating The Rover and it met all my expectations. The performances alone is pure enjoyment together with the beautiful landscapes and the amazing music score. Some scenes are quite funny like Rey trying to do his best to be a good partner, or when he's singing.

There's also a lot to think about after watching The Rover. What collapse can cause such situation? How far are civilized people willing to go when there's nothing left to loose? Is Rey mentally disabled or is he the product of a very unfavorable education?

And why did I think about Animal Kingdom after The Rover had finished? See the movie and you'll know.

Sorry for mistakes, English isn't my native language.

What a bleak future this film portrays.

Felt like an apocalyptic Western meets old school Road Warrior. Filmed in the Australian desert, I think they could have financed this film from loose change at starring actors Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson's houses.

Without a doubt the best performance from Robert Pattinson I've seen. Granted, I've not seen too many Pattinson films but he does a really good job of playing the half wit brother of one of the dudes jacked Guy's car.

Mysterious drifter shows up at the filthiest, dingiest outback pub in Australia just for a glass of water. Three shot up dudes in a truck crash outside the pub, steal his car and he will stop and nothing, nothing to get it back.

It's a wonderfully dreary world in which this film is set. Everyone is so dirty. They should get an Oscar for make up when all the actors did was not shower for what looks about three months.

Lots of long shots, tension filled chords supply the majority of the soundtrack.

I really dug it. Most folks are gonna hate it. Very gritty. Very dirty. Very violent. Very non-Hollywood.

It's a nice piece of cinema. And there's a midget.

As soon as I saw how slowly this movie moved in the beginning, I knew I was going to like it. It's a serious film that doesn't care about having popular appeal.

The writing, directing, and cinematography are all great, but the acting by Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson is flawless. They do a tremendous job, together, of showing what causes each subtle change in their relationship that leads to a much larger shift in their feelings about each other.

I have to admit I am the mom of a special needs kid, which may have made me really focus on the great job Robert Pattinson did of portraying Rey. The way he showed Rey's desire to be liked by someone who didn't want a friendship with him brought tears to my eyes. And he was so real when he showed Eric (Guy Pearce) and the audience that Rey was much more capable than he seemed. I keep thinking about his speech problem, and that David Michod (the writer and director) and Robert Pattinson were so accurate when they initially allowed us to view him as more disabled than he was because he couldn't express his thoughts.

In an interview, Robert Pattinson pointed out that Rey couldn't do anything without someone telling him to, meaning that Rey couldn't function in a practical sense without another person. I think he is so close to the character he created that he doesn't see how complex he made him. The feeling I had was that Rey could function in a practical sense alone, but emotionally, he couldn't function without companionship. And that's a big theme in the movie.

I'll admit I don't watch a lot of Australian cinema. I'll also admit that I didn't really care a whole lot for Michôd's previous film Animal Kingdom—certainly not as much as the rest of the world seemed to. So it was with some amount of skepticism that I went to see The Rover. But I am really, truly glad that I did.

This is an astonishingly good film, built around a wonderfully nuanced and rich, but extremely sparsely specified post-apocalyptic Australian outback setting. We follow Eric (Guy Pearce), a taciturn but brutal loner, who goes on some kind of personal rampage after his car is stolen on a remote road. Along the way, he finds Rey (Robert Pattinson), who he forces to assist him.

The world-building in this film is astonishingly good. Michôd creates a very bleak environment for his very bleak characters, and hints at the disaster that left the world in this way—people only accept US currency, for example, but the reasons are left tantalisingly absent. The dusky red cinematography of the outback creates a beautiful backdrop for the sense of desolation.

Moreover, the performances throughout are superb. Pearce is dangerous but distant, creating a character who seems to have lost the same vestige of humanity as has the society in which he now lives. But I was even more blown away by Robert Pattinson's co-dependent Reynolds, whose violent actions belie his heart-rending naïveté and fragility—one scene towards the end of the film where Rey and Eric seem to open up to each other a little more around a campfire is truly affecting. I'm really pleased to see Pattinson taking on these sort of roles—he's a truly great actor, and I'm so pleased that the Twilight franchise didn't ruin him for the rest of us.

Overall, this film was a truly remarkable and wonderful piece of cinema. Even though I doubted Michôd after Animal Kingdom, this film assures me that I will continue seeing his films going forward. This was an absolute highlight for me, and I hope more broadly marks a resurgence for Australian cinema on the world stage.

Australian director David Michôd returns to the screens with 'The Rover', his follow-up to the stunning debut 'Animal Kingdom'. Set "Ten Years After the Collapse", somewhere in Australia, we see the dead-eyed Eric (Guy Pearce) sitting in a road-side bar seemingly waiting for the world to end. His story collides with a group of men in a real hurry, Archie (David Field), Caleb (Tawanda Manyamo), and Henry (Scoot McNairy). They leave behind others, including Henry's brother Rey (Robert Pattinson). The barely alive and unwitting Eric soon bursts into life when the men steal his car, starting a new journey filled with violence and a good deal of soul-searching.

Left for dead, Rey tries to find his brother and gets caught up in Eric's mission to get his car back. The pair slowly become allies, you continually question their behaviour as both often behave irrationally. Why does the car mean so much to him, to go through so much just to get it back? They live in a world where little exists anymore, nurturing a dog-eat- dog existence where you get what you can by any means. But Eric has gone beyond that, you can just see in his eyes that he just doesn't care whether he finds a bottle of water or eats again. The simple-minded Rey just wants some answers from his brother. The pair make uncomfortable viewing, the world-weary Eric barely speaks and the much younger and eager to please Rey just doesn't know how to. There's a despair and finality to both men, for very different reasons which only briefly comes to the surface, but still only giving you mere crumbs of what they have done in the past.

Guy Pearce is excellent as usual, he must now be one of the most reliable and adept actors working in film today. Pattinson will get all the headlines, and rightly so because he can act. Many may be annoyed by his mumbling and barely audible southern accent, but he's made this character his own and comfortably sits beside the far more experienced Pearce. Antony Partos creates another blisteringly eerie score, peppering the silences with shrieks, wails and tribal drumbeats to enhance the the post- apocalyptic nightmare that 'The Rover' is. Perhaps not as good as his debut, this film will only enhance Michôd's burgeoning reputation. 'The Rover' does require a lot of patience, but for those willing to persist you will be rewarded by the conundrum that is Eric.

A disheveled loner (Guy Pearce) trails a trio of thieves who stole his car. Along the way he picks up the slow-witted brother (Robert Pattinson) of one of the thieves. Dystopian future or post-apocalyptic movies kind of blend together after you've seen a lot of them. So when one comes along that feels fresh like this one, it deserves praise for that alone. The acting is excellent. Guy Pearce has long been an actor whose work I enjoy but the big surprise here is Robert Pattinson, who ensures with this performance that he will be remembered for more than the Twilight movies. Taut direction with quality acting, writing, and music. It's a good movie but not for everybody. Dark, gritty, often slow and certainly violent. But it's also very rewarding if you're wiling to give it a chance.

The Rover is an anti-blockbuster mainly because of its rhythm : it is very slow, therefore preventing many people to stick to it while watching it.

What you get here is not some amusement but rather gives material to think. We're not escaping from existence, like with e.g. Gravity, Hunger Games or whatever acclaimed propaganda. And it is quite disturbing as the more we go on watching the movie, the more we confront with some reflections about our time : there's no more gods, no more laws and we're getting increasingly isolated. Just the gruesome reality. People are striving to survive and protect what is theirs (always material things), though remains some hints of optimism - and Pattinson is playing quite well on this regard.

I was very motivated to watch this movie because I truly admire Pattinson as a full on artist. I had the feeling his performance was going to be good,but I honestly didn't expect "great", and I was so taken over by it! I'm happy he had this chance to show he it's not "just a handsome face". After this performance powerful yet subtle and mighty professional, Pattinson shows what he is made of. I hope after this he gets more roles and invitations to work for serious movies. He reminds me of both DiCaprio and Pitt at the beginning of their careers. Guy's performance was off the charts. Don't miss his expression on th last 10 minutes of the movie. It's of the best I have seen him deliver. I believe this movie will never be a crowd pleaser because it is way too artistic to be popular, there a many symbols and allegories to losses that will be missed... It's a work of art though. Perseverance pays off Mr. Pattinson. Keep up the good work and good luck.

I LOVED this film ! It is a dark, bleak, mature , violent film yet it is uncompromising and unflinching in the way it tells its tale.I found it to be a blend of Mad Max, Drive, Apocalypse Now, and Of Mice and Men. Guy Pearce portrays a man as a feral drifter; a wounded, rabid animal; a monstrous creature who has lost everything. He does this to perfection. Rob Pattinson plays a slow, bullied kid from America's South to a tee! He was simply superb in his nuances, facial tics, stuttering , and accent to portray a scared, fearful , dependent yet ever-so- hopeful kid. He is the glue to the film. He is the soul . It is these two and their journey that IS the film. It is the anarchy of the souls. Amongst all the bleakness of the post-collapse world, it hints of the elements of hope, faith, and love. …. the need for human connection. If you like seeing good strong, smart films with quality acting, then go see this incredible movie ! The cinematography and musical score are very unique !

A visually stunning and surreal film which left me perplexed and amazed. Guy Pierce is a marvel, who knew anyone could do so much with a script that is about ten words long, 'Under' acting at its best.

I never really thought much of Robert Pattinson up until now but he is also surprisingly excellent in his risky supporting role.

Very original, very Australian and definitely not a film for the masses, it's certainly open to interpretation. Shockingly violent,dark,gritty, confusing and awkward. But it's the best thing I've seen in years.

If you are bored with the ten a penny 'Blockbusters' that Hollywood churns out by the dozen then I would thoroughly recommend this thought provoking and refreshingly different film. Ten out of ten.

"The Rover" is one of those productions that remind me of everything I love about movies.

The director is a master of his craft, providing us a very captivating story with a slow narrative. The visual composition impressed me a lot, along with the great atmospheric soundtrack.

Guy Pearce plays the lead character so well. He deserves to win all awards that he will be nominated for. But the overall acting is top- notch, with Robert Pattinson giving a very good performance, totally immersing himself into his character.

While "The Rover" may not be everyone's taste, I believe anyone who enjoyed "The Road" or "No Country For Old Men" will like it. And for me, this is certainly up there with those two films.

I will admit that The Rover is not the kind of film that will be admired by mainstream audiences, but those who like to have their films to be deep, gritty, tense and yet meaningful will find this an incredible Australian drama to rank alongside not only Animal Kingdom, but America's The Road and No Country for Old Men.

The story takes place in the Australian outback (around South Australia in its hot and blistering atmosphere) in the near future after a collapse. A bitter, silent and loner Eric (Guy Pearce) sees his car stolen by a gang and tries to get it back at all cost which has value to him. Asking various civilians (who are fighting to survive in this world, Eric finds a wounded and yet simple brother of a gang member named Rey (who was left behind after a disastrous robbery) putting both Eric and Rey in a intense trip.

What I really enjoyed about The Rover is the fact that the director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) chooses to tell a story that appears to be so realistic that it could happen, I felt that the Economic Crisis would have been a major backdrop to the story's setting. Character development and emotion is truly present in this film and both of the leading actors deliver that to excellence. The use of music too is raw in some scenes but when music is played it's not the average orchestra score, it consists the use of sound and deep tones. Lastly as well what makes the film truly beautiful despite the subject matter is the cinematography, the out-lands of South Australia are a sight to behold and the camera shots give a detailed look of the collapsing characters and their environment.

Summarise, The Rover is indeed a beautiful but dark Drama that will be only be seen by those interested in the concept and I hope that the film will go on to win some awards for the efforts of its cast, amazing direction and quality.

The reviews for this weren't exactly bad, or even mixed. But it did seem to get a lot of negative ones, and a lot of neutral, unpassionate ones. To my surprise, this is a fine film. Sure, not all that original, but the directing is really strong, as is the acting, Robert Pattinson, in particular, really shines and the best I've ever seen him be. Who knew he had this sort of performance in him, I certainly didn't, and it makes me interested in what he can accomplish in the future. Guy Pearce was strong too, with a pretty subdued, but very intense, character to play. The rest of the supporting players give some nice work too. Overall, I recommend this.

The Rover begins with some wit and energy, as three men fresh from some bloody crime get into a ridiculous argument and crash their car right in front of Guy Pearce's character's car. They steal his car and our very quiet lead character simply wants his car back and goes on the hunt. He quickly crosses paths with one of the men's injured mentally limited brother and they journey through a rundown landscape and form some sort of bond. This bare bones narrative has a nice set up, but becomes a monotonous series of detours that usually end in ugly ways. It's an ultimately pointless and empty exercise in sparse filmmaking and one note performances. When the resolution is reached the end result feels almost like a comedic punchline. The Rover is well shot and makes good use of its locations, but does little else and barely has a pulse.

By definition a rover wanders without a fixed destination. Likewise, this movie just meandered about for an hour and a half and abruptly ended.

The whole thing starts when three people steal Guy Pearce's car and he goes mad crazy and starts hunting the guys that did it. Early on he comes across one of the culprits' brother, Robert Pattinson, who had been wounded and left behind in a robbery gone wrong. So Pearce uses him to find his car. Along the way they kill several people. They get to where they're going and they kill some more people, Pattinson dies, and then we find out why Pearce went murder crazy to get his car back: because his dead dog was in the trunk and he wanted to bury it.

Now this whole story takes place 10 years after "the collapse." We never really find out what the collapse is, but its clear from watching the movie that the biggest change is that people don't bathe anymore, because everyone in this movie had a perpetual layer of grime on them. No doubt this was to make things "gritty" but honestly if a society is still using paper money to buy and sell things then mankind can't be that far down the tube, right?

Anyways, the movie is very well put together, with some good cinematography and a decent performance from Guy Pearce. But there's really nothing at the center of the movie. There is absolutely NO character development for Pearce. We get no insight into his actions throughout the film because we don't know where he's been and we don't know where he's going. All we really know is that he really wants his car back. I think the ending with his dog is supposed to signal that he lost the last thing on Earth that mattered to him and he now has nothing left to lose. But if you're really willing to risk your own life and kill a half a dozen people just to bury your dog then there's some deeper problems there. Lastly I have to say Robert Pattinson's performance nearly killed me. He way overplayed his character, which I think was just supposed to be a little slow, but Pattinson played him like he was missing a chromosome. And if he was supposed to be a mentally challenged character then I wonder why he was given a gun in the first place. Long story short, Pattinson's character was just plain annoying and he somehow made a deep connection with Pearce's character. I really couldn't tell you how or why that happened, It just kinda happened and I suppose the audience is just supposed to accept it.

Overall I rather hated this movie. Still, it's probably better than half of the other movies playing at your local cinema. But I would recommend you just stay home and watch (or re- watch) Animal Kingdom, which is a much better film.

Given the post-collapse Outback setting, comparisons to MAD MAX are inevitable. But THE ROVER has more in common with THE PROPOSITION; it's a distinctly brooding affair, gritty and somewhat nihilistic. We aren't given a background for "the collapse", but society's definitely a shambles. And that loss of morals is embodied by on-the-raggedy-edge Guy Pearce, who appears shockingly gaunt and emotionally beaten. He's the reason why I sought out this movie, and the reason why anyone should; it's a seethingly intense performance. The movie doesn't offer any reason why Pearce is gunning for his stolen car until the very end - and though I do like the reason given, this is a very bleak movie. It'll be a while before I ever come back to this one.

5/10

And loses the plot completely.

Technically this is a good film - sound, lighting, location, actors gave it their all.

But it's a dud.

Constructive criticism: Anything set in a post apocalyptic scenario, especially in the Australian Outback, will be compared to Mad Max 1 & 2. Joel Edgerton old buddy, you can't write films - stick to acting. If you produce a film in this genre, it has to add to the noir, not copy it.

All stories need a beginning, a middle and an end - you MUST take the audience on a journey. If you don't grab the audience and hold them, attention wanders and pretty soon feet fidget, mobiles are switched on and messages are read - also opinions posted. I kept thinking all through this film "that's from Mad Max" "The Proposition" "No Country For Old Men", in fact anything by Cormac McCarthy, who has mastered the art of keeping a viewer compelled to watch.

Australia is a unique setting - use it. This movie is a transplant of a US road wander, The Book of Eli, The Road and many others. There were barely three lines of Australian vernacular, everything else was US based, including the senseless American brothers characters, and the silly obsession with US currency (what's wrong with Australian money - it's all just worthless effen paper !) - a cynic would simply conclude it has been inserted to gain favour for US release. Neither they nor the rest of the world is that dumb. Seen a few movies guys ? So have we...

The rest of the criticism is standard fare - stupid stunts, characters walking past perfectly serviceable weapons and vehicles, not collection spare ammunition, leaving automatic military weapons while sticking with 9mm pop-guns, suddenly producing cash when needed, "crazy" characters spouting supposed profound comments, the list goes on.

Don't make the public think you're just cashing in on the word Australia - it's worth far more than that.

It's very hard to give credit to anything in this movie, even where it might be do, when just about everything that happens involves people behaving like idiots.

This nonsensical mess goes on and on but manages to be so off the charts bad that you are kept from leaving early.

And then you receive your "reward" for waiting, an ending that will make you lose the mental brake that keeps you from spouting words at random at an elevated volume that convey to others the impression that you've just been had and feel a considerable amount of displeasure about the fact.

"10 years after the collapse"? Of what, brains? Animal Kingdom at least made some kind of sense.

With a some interest based on critics' and internet buzz I saw The Rover June 21's afternoon. I don't get it. Basically, it's a story of guy (Guy Pearce's character) seeking his car because it was stolen by a trio of bad guys that committed an unknown crime prior to the car's theft.

Explanations are missing: no story for the earth's and humans' condition, Guy Pearce's character, and the trio of bad guys' crime prior to the car's theft. Maybe I'm an intellectually inferior movie-goer??? Give me a decent story, please......

I stuck out the entire movie thinking the plot would've been explained. Glad I paid matinée price......................

Excellent acting and marvelous photography are wasted on a script that has no focus and a musical score that suggests aboriginal influences which are not otherwise present. Literally every actor in this film delivers excellent performances, even the people with minor parts.

As a post-apocalyptic film, the script offers very little new, and there are many inconsistencies that may be attributed to the Australian location. But this is no "Mad Max", and that's a shame.

One of the core problems of the film is that there isn't anyone to root for, apart from a few transitory characters. The main characters are bad, very bad, and pathetic.

Another problem with the film is the long ECUs. Generally speaking, long ECUs can serve a useful purpose, as they do in Leone's films. But less is more, and in this case, more is less.

I watched it in a cinema in the Philippines where there was only one other patron. He walked out. People in the Philippines do not kiss 141 pesos goodbye lightly. He shuffled out half way through and I would have followed except I wanted to write this review. I was also strangely fascinated to see if it could get any more pretentious and if the screenplay could possibly continue to get more and more vacuous. There are no redeeming features in this lazy movie whatsoever. The only reason we knew it was some years after some unspecified apocalyptic event was that the screen told us in the beginning. You could have told the same story without the apocalypse. It tried to mystify the audience but it did not fool me. It was an indolent film. I think the only reason they set it post apocalypse was so that they had an excuse to explain the many loose ends and to get away with conning the audience. It would use sudden brutal shootings to get your attention but these shootings had no real reason for happening. They seemed to be there to imitate Tarantino but I assure you David Michod who wrote this pretentious drivel is no Tarantino. It was just dumb and unconvincing while masquerading as an art house movie. It was a South Australian movie. I was brought up there so I had a stake in liking it. It was filmed in a very unattractive looking part of the outback so you didn't even get the beautiful scenery of Australia's stunning outback (where I now live incidentally). It looked like northern South Australia just south of where it starts to get incredibly beautiful. I don't know what the long freight train was doing in the movie except I guess it saved a lot of cost to film it. If it was post apocalypse the number of carriages in it were far too many. It was going somewhere with an enormous amount of cargo. Some apocalypse. It just did not add up. It was a low budget movie it seemed with low outcomes entertainment wise. Many other things didn't add up just take your pick. Pearce mumbling in a thick Aussie accent- one I have myself actually- did not cut it with me. It was not exotic to me just prosaic. But that would be OK if it meant something or added to the movie. It did not. In fact it is one of the worst screenplays I have ever encountered. Guy would just ask a vapid question; the interlocutor would not answer it and so Guy would repeat it. The person would repeatedly refuse to not answer it and around it went again with Guy trying to look like a macho man. IT WAS PATHETIC WITHOUT THE PATHOS. This happened over and over. I mean some lines were so pathetic I nearly laughed out loud (with derision). Some guy points a rifle at the unarmed Pearce in the middle of nowhere and Pearce says something like if you don't give me my car back I am going to sit in that truck until you do. Guy Pearce mumbles in an incomprehensible (even for me who knows the accent) "strine" slang. Then Robert Pattinson (who did his best with this atrocious screenplay) mumbles back in deep southern USA slang which I understood better than my own accent from Pearce. Robert did try. He would be fine in a half decent movie. The appalling proposition put by the grandma (Gillian Jones) was not only disgusting and despicable but utterly irrelevant to anything preceding or following it. I suppose it was supposed to be edgy and arty. But really it was just repulsively irrelevant. There was nothing to be relevant to. Her prosaic delivery made it even worse. How people can have the nerve to serve up this reprehensible drivel is beyond me. The presence of the Chinese people seemed disconnected to any semblance of a story. The two indigenous outback people (I work with traditional Aboriginal people so I know what I am talking about) was pure cinematic tokenism. Both of them appeared individually in scenes. In the remote bush one rarely sees indigenous people wandering around alone; possible but it did not ring true. The premise of the movie was the protagonist trying to get his stolen car. He kept asking people out in the middle of nowhere where the three men with his car were. How would they know? Honestly folks if you lived there you would understand just how stupid this was. Its a bit hard to explain if you don't know the area. There was no suspense at all in the movie. None at all. This is down there with one of the worst movies I have ever seen and being South Australian I really wanted it to be good.

Watched half of this movie - waiting for something to happen and nothing did! Just dude looking for his car! And Edward was not shining - maybe that's what is good about this movie :-) One episode liked - where Guy got his gun - that was interesting turn of events!!! The rest: well maybe somebody understood the movie, but for movie theater these days it's just slow and there is not one point in the start where You get caught in the movie and wait for something or start following script! There was nothing - watched half of the movie only because of the actors! Australia looked like old mad max movie - maybe they wanted to make some post collapse movie but ten years after collapse You are driving good condition vauxhall and You look like someone out of the job market for five years! See for yourself and get back to me if there is some deeper meaning in this, maybe the meaning of life (I am sarcastic) :-)

YES, THERE ARE SPOILERS GALORE IN THIS REVIEW!

WARNING: THIS MOVIE HAS SERIOUS DWARF ABUSE!!! (You'll have to watch the movie to see how)

Here's a quick three-word summation of the movie & Pearce's "performance".

Movie: bleak- gritty- violent.

Pearce: grizzled- menacing - violent.

There's a lot to find fault with in this movie.

Namely a very thin plot. Basically Pearce goes on a violent rampage to get his stolen car back. The reason: his beloved dog was in the trunk.

And this brings me to the stream of logic disconnects.

If Pearce's character liked his dog so much then why would he leave him in his car trunk out in the broiling sun while he gets drunk in an outback bar?

Why would Pearce confront the three violent thugs on the open road about them stealing his car? Did they just expect them to hand his car back over?

You would think the dog would be howling while he's in the trunk when Pearce confronts the thieves.

Of course Pearce gets knocked out. Then the thieves leave his vehicle unmolested and Pearce magically, almost instantaneously finds his truck keys that were thrown in the bush by the thieves.

Why would Pearce leave the revolver with the thief's brother in the motel room? That is too big a risk to take.

When Pearce is at the outback hospital why did the nurse's guard go straight up to two strange vehicles that drive up without warning? Didn't he realize that in post-apoc Aussie-land everyone is a potential killer? Duh!!!!!!

And at the police station where the "kid" rescues Pearce. Why didn't they take the guns off the dead cops and walk off with a truck load of free gas? I could go on but I'm tired of wasting keystrokes on a pointless movie.

I COULD HAVE WRITTEN A BETTER SCRIPT IN MY SLEEP!!!

I have never felt the urge to write a movie review before, but after watching this movie I felt that I needed to warn those interested. Great actors, very poor writing. Guy Pearce isn't human, not in a good way either. Completely lifeless and emotionless acting. Robert gives a good effort, but there is not background or meaning to make you care about it. There is no plot, or anything meaningful about this movie. It is inexplicably bad on every level that a movie is judged on...fair warning. Pick a back up movie for when you walk out, it doesn't get better. Well I guess I need to write ten lines worth of a review. Hmmm not much else to mention.

This is a profoundly nihilist, poorly written and illogical film. To list every gap in logic, far fetched plot element or bit of poor writing would be beside the point. Wait a minute, this must be ten lines long. So here goes. 1: Why did not just move the tires, instead of wasting time stealing a car? 2. Why not just give back the Car for the more useful truck. 3. WHY LEAVE THE GUN? $;.4, What the hell happened to the once proud Australian Army? 5.Why are US Dollars still accepted currency ten years after "The collapse"? 6. How did two mentally challenged rednecks make it all the way y to Australia.I know, this movie has people shouting "profound", " gritty" and "superbly acted". I saw none of this. All I know is that I and a friend just wasted five dollars-and worse, over two hours of our lives.