By Clint Morris

Australia doesn’t make blockbusters – well, they do but films like ”The Matrix” and ”Ghost Rider” are by-and-large U.S products that merely squat on our soil. These films are largely staffed by Yankees, play like Yankee films, and are set, most of the time, anywhere but Australia.

The types of films Australia is more renowned for making are those dictated by financial and structure restraints – small Indy dramas, quirky comedies, and low-budget crime flicks. So what gives? Why isn’t Australia capable of moulding and consequently making it’s own Aussie-set blockbuster? Are there not enough local yarns that lend themselves to such a large-scale production? Or, again, is it the money factor?

Stuart Beattie, the Australian export behind the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Collateral” librettos, has gone out of his way to convince the world that Hollywood’s not the only camping ground encompassed with electricity. With a large bag of cash (though not nearly as large a bag as say The Wachowski’s came to Australia with when they shot “The Matrix” here) some talented but affordable actors (besides Colin Friels, who has an all-too-brief supporting part, they’re all unknowns) and some master photographers, the tyro filmmaker has crafted what’s undoubtedly Australia’s first true blue dyed to the wool blockbuster.

Based on the best selling novel by John Marsden (which, a few years after I graduated high school, was introduced into the school curriculum as mandatory reading), “Tomorrow When The War Began” is the story of a group of kids (Caitlin Stasey playing involuntary ringleader Ellie) who, upon returning home from camping, discover an invading army has overtaken their quiet country town. It’s now up to this team of rag-tag teenagers to take the town back!

Yes kids of the ‘80s, it’s “Red Dawn” Down Under!

Slick. Suspenseful. Tight. Delicately edited. Just a few words to describe how surprisingly – and only surprising because were not renowned for making such movies – effective this teen-thriller is. Having obviously learnt a lot working on the Big Hollywood movies he has written (like “Collateral”), Beattie keeps proceedings lively, captivating and predominantly, slick — so slick in fact that you’ll swear he had at least $100 million, not $12 million, to make it with.

The acting is, as you’d expect from a bunch of actors who are either new to the game or refugees from our local soapies, a little wonky at times with lines being delivered with as much enthusiasm and effort as a roundtable reading session in the classroom. And then there are other times when the talent, particularly Stasey, really impress. With a further 6 films in the “Tomorrow” book series, I get the feeling they’ll get the chance to improve on their game.