Australian cinema has a long tradition of cultivating, odd, fascinating genre hybrids, films that mix traditional movie elements with aspects of the local culture to create a unique blend. Russell Mulcahy (after his various Europop music videos, and before the singular atrocity of HIGHLANDER 2) directed RAZORBACK, a smart, garish monster-on-the-loose saga that remains a particular highlight of his career. Simon Wincer, prolific director of family friendly fare such as FREE WILLY, crafted the appealingly nasty slasher movie SNAPSHOT with Sigrid Thornton and a menacing Mr Whippy (a popular ice-cream franchise signalled by a white van continually playing a friendly jingle). George Miller's repeated odes to local car culture, samurai ethics and post-apocalyptic barbarism are other obvious examples. One of the most fascinating local examples of this tendency in recent years is THE 25TH Reich, a WWII men- on-a-mission saga that blends soldiers in combat, time travel, and everyone's favourite foe from recent German political history. The result is a witty, engaging mix of eccentric SF ideas, low-budget craft, chutzpah, and sheer cinematic balls. You probably haven't seen anything like this in a long while, or possibly ever. (THE 25TH Reich does play off an alternate vision of the present and future - viewed through the lens of resurgent Nazism, to alternately comedic and horrific effect - ala Philip K. Dick's THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE and FATHERLAND by Robert Harris, two SF novels that also examine the trope of Nazis triumphing during the second World War to different ends).
American soldiers circa WW2 hunt a rogue puma in the Australian outback, then stumble across mysterious events that will transport them through time. An alternate reality presents them with an old foe that has re-armed itself with spectacular new technological advances. The soldiers must fight numerous battles - some with their newly discovered enemy, others closer to home - to succeed in their mission and possibly save the world. THE 25TH Reich holds a number of surprises for viewers, many of which are best not revealed in this review. Like the characters on screen, the filmmakers wield high-tech technology (the film was shot in widescreen HD on the RED camera) and more down-and-dirty methods (the movie takes place in the middle of the arid Australian bush, and the outback locales are spectacular throughout) to craft a fun and amusing story. Some nasty, violent mutant critters make various appearances, and the Nazi's sinister advances with robotics have to be seen to be believed. (The fate of one major character captured by a mechanical adversary is a grotesquely funny highlight). Some initially cornball characters eventually gain enough depth to stick in the mind after the film's conclusion, and the movie carries its wild ideas - conveyed through punchy action scenes and some nutty but slick special FX - to a clever and creepy conclusion with a minimum of fuss. All up, THE 25TH Reich is a nice change of pace in this time of cautious, corporate filmmaking by numbers, and is well worth both seeking out and checking out.
