Movie Review: A Few Less Men

Published : March 03, 2017

A few more laughs for the Western Australian made film.

Words: Juanita Pirozzi

Fans of the Australian comedy, A Few Best Men were treated to a preview of its sequel, A Few Less Men at Event Cinemas on Tuesday 28 February 2017.

In her introduction to the audience, Tania Chambers, the film’s producer, appreciated the high turnout in the theatre. Tracey informed us of the Western Australian made production of the movie and encouraged us to stay until the end of the credits so we could watch the bloopers as well.

Directed by Mark Lamprell, A Few Less Men begins with an animated recap of the original during its opening credits. It then continues where the first movie left off with British tourists David (Xavier Samuel), Graham (Kevin Bishop) and Tom (Kris Marshall) looking for their friend Luke who had just fallen off a cliff. The guys find Luke alive only for him to be crushed by a boulder and killed instantly. After a frustrating overseas phone call to Luke’s deaf aunty and fearsome brother; David, Graham and Tom have the awkward task of taking Luke’s body back to the UK for the funeral. Whilst sitting in the cockpit of the private plane, Graham gets twitchy fingers resulting in the plane crash landing in outback Western Australia. The inevitable road trip to Perth ensues.

Most of the film’s hilarity comes from the ridiculous situations the British friends find themselves in and their amusing ways of overcoming these. You’ll notice in the A Few Less Men poster that Luke died with a...let’s call it a camping tent, which is a recurring theme throughout the movie’s crude sense of humour. This is the first of several incidents the hapless friends try desperately to resolve.

The movie was also a good showcase for Western Australia. There is landscape footage involving the British guys carrying Luke’s wooden coffin over the sand dunes in the Pinnacles. It was pleasing to see a country pub, an outback police station and locales in Perth’s metro area being used as a backdrop for relevant scenes.

The misadventures David, Graham, and Tom have upon meeting some quirky locals made their road trip complete in the eyes of viewers. The scenes that received the most laughs involved Maureen, an elderly amorous woman and Mungus (Shane Jacobson), a beefy bloke with a Norman Bates complex.

Male appendage, body function, and sexual jokes aside, A Few Less Men is primarily about friendship. Embarking on a road trip with their friend’s coffin in tow strains the bond between David, Graham and Tom. In a gender bias sense, the movie could be taken as an example of how male characters deal with external conflict with one another.

A Few Less Men is an entertaining film where the comedic aspects are equal to that of its predecessor.

A Few Less Men is rated MA15+ and will be released on 9 March 2017. Movie details are available on the Event Cinemas website.

Watch the trailer here