Chopper

[Guest Nanks]

As The Hulk prepares to hit cinemas, I thought I'd ask if Eric Bana's film debut performance had been released in the US/Canada/Wherever you're from. This is a SENSATIONAL Aussie movie documenting the life of Mark "Chopper" Read's life as a gun-for-hire and general criminal. Bana shows some good acting range that wouldn't have been obvious in his muscle-bound loner Marine role in Black Hawk Down and may or may not shine through in Hulk given a lot of the time Hulk will be CGI.

 

Do yourself a favour, find Chopper if you haven't seen it. The other Aussies around the place will back me up on the quality of this flick.

 

I might add that Bana is actually a sensational comdedian who is the master of dozens of piss funny characters and celebrity impersonations.

[Guest converge241]

yes its available in US most blockbusters have a single copy for rent

 

i doubly recomend it

[Guest Nanks]

FINALLY, a response. Chopper is one of my favourite movies. Definitely one of the best Aussie movies. Hugely critically acclaimed and all that. It's a winner. It's piss funny and a good story. The man himself is a crack-up too.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Is the movie better than the book? I bought the book and was actually a little disappointed with it. I felt like there were just too many stories started and then wrapped up in like 2 sentences. I'd have preferred a book with less stories, but longer more detailed versions of each. I'll definitely check out the movie one way or another, but just don't want to get my hopes up if I'll just end up disappointed.

 

(And is the movie only about the first book, or are their parts of the other 2 Chopper books in it, too?)

[Guest Nanks]

The two books are autobiographies. They're written by Chopper himself. He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. I'm not surprised it's a little disjointed. The movie uses some stories from his books but he has nothing to do with the making of the movie and they used a lot of other sources to put together the stories. The movie pretty much spans Choppers whole criminal life. There's very little to be disappointed about with the movie. Go out and get it. Now.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

I think that I mis-worded my question, so let me try to rephrase ... I've read the original Chopper, and that covers most of his life (at least up til the time it was written) but I've seen a second and third one in stores, and a peek at amazon.com shows that he's up to SIX volumes. So, I'm curious if the movie is based on just the original book, or if it's 1-3, or them all, or somewhere in between. (I try to avoid seeing a movie until I've read the book first - otherwise I just mentally picture the movie that I'd already seen and it detracts from my enjoyment of the book)

 

And I can say that reading the book gave me new admiration for how many bad-asses are in OZ ... he makes it sound like a scaryass place.

[Guest Marshall]

Chopper > Lock Stock

 

Thats all I have to say.

[Guest Nanks]

The movie is not an adaptation of the book. It's not like a Jurassic Park kind of thing. I've never read any of his books. Obviously the movie would contain some of the same content as the book, but Chopper is not the movie of the book, so to speak. And Australia isn't scary at all. Of course there are nutters, there's nutters everywhere, Chopper actually does a pub circuit now with a bloke called Mark "Jacko" Jackson who used to play AFL and is just a funny bastard. They're just a pair of larrikins really. Obviously Chopper's totally mental, as is evidenced by his "children's book", Hookey the Cripple!! I'm disappointed at the lack of response to this thread, everyone should see this movie.