We all remember the 80s. It was a fun time for movies, you had raucous comedies, great action, dodgy special effects, but that all made them entertaining movies that left an impression upon us and cinema in general. One in particular I remember is Crocodile Dundee.
It was a huge movie, and I liked it. I’ve been lucky enough to go to Australia, twice, and I did love it there. The people are great, the landscape is impressive and all of the wildlife wants to kill you, even the cute ones.
Back in the 80s the star of Crocodile Dundee, Paul Hogan, was a bit of a national treasure in Aussie-land. He had a big TV show on and everyone knew of him. On a visit to New York he had the idea about a Northern Bushman in the city and how would he cope. Mick Dundee was born.
After Crocodile Dundee 2 Hogan had some “tax issues” and kind of faded away to obscurity. He did make Crocodile Dundee 3. Yes, that did happen, you didn’t dream it. He made a few more appearances but nothing internationally major.
Jump forward to 2020 and Hogan seems to be happily retired. Then someone came up with the idea of making a comeback movie in the style of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It was entitled The Very Excellent Mr Dundee.
I found it, at random, and with my fond memories of the original movies I thought I would try it.
My short review is – “Utter Shit!”
This was just horrible to watch and embarrassing for everyone involved. As I have said, I like Hogan in the original Crocodile Dundee, but this was just so bad. Basically the story is:
Paul Hogan is reluctantly thrust back into the spotlight as he desperately attempts to restore his sullied reputation on the eve of being knighted.
What then follows is a series of “sketches” where Hogan means well, but ends up being accused of being a racist, ageist, sexist, and every other -ist under the sun.
The new Hollywood producers would like him back as a star and in a new movie they want Will Smith to play his son. Hogan has an issue with this and is labeled a racist. This is just one example. It just carries on like this, with Hogan getting into more and more trouble as the movie progresses.
It was poking fun at woke Hollywood, which is fine, but it was not doing it in a very clever way. It was effectively just saying: “Look, Hollywood is woke” over and over. This isn’t funny or clever. A better script might have got you thinking more, but this didn’t.
At the end of The Very Excellent Mr Dundee everyone learns what’s important in – life, family, friends etc. and the movie doesn’t just try to pull your heartstrings, it rips them out and tries to strangle you with them. It was puke-worthy.
Not only does Hogan get dragged down in this cesspit of crap, but there are also others, like John Cleese, Olivia Newton-John, Reginald VelJohnson, and Chevy Chase in there as well, plus a few more you will feel sorry for. It honestly broke my heart to see John Cleese, ONE OF THE PYTHONS, reduced to this crap!
They even managed to get archive footage of Mel Gibson talking about Hogan, which was all faked, and I can’t think of an explanation as to why he was in this movie. Maybe they threatened him or something?
The Very Excellent Mr Dundee is a perfect example of how Hollywood will not take a chance on anything new or original, but would rather drag an ageing, mostly forgotten actor back to rehash some piece of nostalgia shit to try and make a buck. The entire thing was horrible!
If, like me, you have a fond memory of Crocodile Dundee, please do not watch this. You will hate yourself for it. Remember the fun version of Hogan. The guy who said:
“That’s not a knife!”
I kind of want to revisit the original movie… not the sequels obviously. After viewing this I think I’m going to leave it in my memory so I still enjoy them. I give The Very Excellent Mr Dundee 0 stars! It’s on a par with my review of Home Sweet Home Alone. Just one of the worst things I’ve seen this year.
If only that crocodile had killed poor Mick Dundee, none of this would have happened.
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The post A Review: THE VERY EXCELLENT MR DUNDEE appeared first on The Last Movie Outpost.