TL;DR – Snippets of chaos that never come together as a whole

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Double or Nothing Review –

We are currently in the midst of the Brisbane International Film Festival, or if you are friends, BIFF. It is a cozy festival where I always find a gem or two every year. Today, we are looking at a small Aussie movie filmed in my backyard (metaphorically) about what happens when you get trodden on over and over again.

So, to set the scene, Turbo (Andrew Ian Pope) and Nick (Rowan Howard) are cousins who never quite can get their luck together. Turbo always owes people money, and Nick is just trying to get through his parole without rocking any feathers. But they both need money to survive, and this means doing jobs for their boss, Col (John Jarratt), of a more explosive nature. But when there is a shift in management, the boys find themselves up a certain creek without a paddle.

Now, unfortunately, I didn’t connect with this movie, and we will get to why in a moment. However, there were still some exciting moments throughout. I liked the worldbuilding in this film, and you constantly felt like there was a bigger world out there living its life with all its moving parts, and the boys are but cogs trying not to get ground to dust. Also, from a production point of view, this was a beautifully shot film at times, which I appreciated, especially in the night scenes.

However, while there were these nuggets, it just didn’t come together for me. Part of that is just down to the budget. It is clear that this film was working on a shoestring, and they do so much with so little. While that is all true, you can also see the parts where that lack of funds hurt the film, and while I said see, actually, the better verb was heard. There were times when it was hard to listen to what the cast was talking about because the audio mix was just not quite there. In addition, the ADR was off in some places, and the musical score was often lacking.

While these didn’t help, it was the narrative that really held the film back. The first half of the film is a really slow burn, which I get because you are trying to build the layers of mess that the boys will have to try and get themselves out of by the end. The one issue with that is that you need to care about the duo to buy into this slow burn, and I don’t think I really cared about them until the end. You really needed to build that in the foundational part of the movie.

Then there were the issues with the chaos and landing the tone. Double or Nothing is a movie that dips into the absurd too often to play it straight, but not enough to make it the chaotic romp that they were going for. In the second half, there are moments when they get that tone right, most notable in the horse yard exchange. However, those are islands in the ocean of the film that not even an Executive Decision level event can bolster.

In the end, do we recommend Double or Nothing? Unfortunately, not. There were moments when the film came together, and you were having a blast. But these were too far and in between to hold the narrative together. If you liked Double or Nothing, we would recommend to you Bring Him to Me.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Double or Nothing?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Double or Nothing
Directed by – Dru Brown
Written by – Dru Brown
Music by – Jacquie Joy
Cinematography by – Timothy Carr
Edited by – Kit Sivyer
Production/Distribution Companies – Friday Talkies Motion Pictures, Brown Python Films, Blood Reflex Entertainment & Radioactive Pictures
Starring – Andrew Ian Pope, Rowan Howard, Vince Colosimo, John Jarratt, Robert Rabiah, Steve Mouzakis, Erin Connor, Kaushik Das, Trevor Vanstone, Nicole Payten-Betts, Carolyn Dante, Matt Domingo, Matthew Scully, Ray Sinclair, Tracie Filmer, Jack Henry, Shaun Barry & Jeff Campbell
Rating – Australia: MA15+;