Get Rich Quick (2004) User Reviews

mad mad black comedy

[ptb-8 · 11 August 2004]

IMDb update: sad news is that Sam Genocchiio auteur of GET RICH QUICK was killed in a car accident on Sunday Sept 12 on Bondi Road Sydney. Sam was hit by a car as he crossed the road. His funeral was held Friday Sept 17. he was just 43. Married twice, he had a young son Max aged 10. Terrible news for independent film making in Sydney. Vale Sam xx.

Recent years have seen the low budget Aussie crime caper successfully launched in several variations across movie screens. It is essentially the low budget look and the very bent Aussie sense of humor that marks part of the appeal of this genre. This idea coupled with other revived hybrid ensemble themes like Rat Race (ex Mad Mad World) and Pulp Fiction have made their way into a loopy violent farce ironically called GET RICH QUICK. Made on a shoestring budget around Sydney and beaches by a large ensemble cast of fairly new 20-something Aussie actors, and helmed by Writer/Producer/Director Sam Genocchio, Get Rich Quick, offers ratbag crime buff comedy audiences several very loud bad taste laughs amid the criminal mayhem. The set up is from a robbery in reel one that sees the cash subsequently stolen, re stolen and misplaced, passing through practically everyone's grubby fingers. Acting statesmen like Malcolm Kennard and Marshall Napier are suitable scary as godfather heavies, with Paul Newman lookalike Jason Clarke a standout amid the appalling and funny goings on. Criminal misadventure and a full cast of dishonest characters make Get Rich Quick a bit Ealing-Aussie and a lot Corman-esquire. It is about as silly and dangerous as the distilled bastard child of all the above genres could suggest.

I can't imagine Australians actually liked this garbage. Why should the rest of the world be subjected to it?

[MBunge · 3/10 · 14 July 2011]

An Australian crime drama that resembles a series of one act plays that get progressively worse as they go along, Get Rich Quick is visually energetic and that's about all it has going for it. None of the actors get a chance to do anything but mouth poorly written dialog and since this thing is from Down Under, that dialog is occasionally unintelligible. It's supposed to be one of those stories where all these disparate threads come together in an explosive ending, but the threads are all badly frayed and the ending is as combustible as a wet rag in a hurricane.

The film starts out with an insecure gambler who dies of autoerotic asphyxiation, segues to a neverending scene about the gross phoniness of modern art, pitches over to a take off on those funniest home video TV shows, veers off into a tale of a trusting German tourist and an indecisive drug addict before finally winding down by splicing together a meditation on Bonnie and Clyde with an international conspiracy to fix a cricket match. Topping it all off are the intermittent appearances of a computer generated midget with a green top hat and a Hitler mustache.

As I review the preceding paragraph, I fear I've made Get Rich Quick appear too appealing, like it's some sort of zany, trippy voyage into low budget Aussie cinema. Well, it is low budget and Aussie, but this movie stinks like a 3 week old shrimp on the barbie. The only character on screen long enough to even try and be something more than a stereotype is a moronic junkie who starts stupid, continues stupid and ends stupid. The most commonly used words in the script are "a", "the" and "f**k". There's no nudity and the violence is staged about as well as the sword fights in a junior high rendition of Hamlet.

I can't imagine Australian audiences had much interest in Get Rich Quick. The rest of the globe should follow their example.