The Australian Movie Vs the TNT Series

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Here!

[atomationage]

I'm watching the movie now.  It' pretty impressive.  Sullivan Stapleton plays Craig.  Jay, who narrates a little in the beginning,  seems almost slow or special.  Baz shows him how to wash his hands and use the air dryer in the restaurant.  There are some identical scenes and dialog.   Geez, Baz didn't last 24 minutes before a cop killed him!   Jay says to his girlfriends' parents that he hardly knows Baz.    Pope is telling Daren that he dresses gay.   Pope was acting like he's Smurf's  husband and father to the kids.   The gang/family ambushes two cops after Baz's funeral.  Jay gets arrested with Pope and Daren, although he wasn't part of it.   The actor playing Jay is very tall, 6'2".  Guy Pearce plays a police detective, with a moustache.   The mother doesn't seem to be a mastermind, like in the TV series.  The uncles only seem to be questioning Jay after this, when he's being questioned by the police for much longer than they, and he goes to his girlfriend's home instead of back to his gran's.  Daren and Pope go there to get him, then bring him to their lawyer.   The lawyer is the one who doesn't trust Jay, or his girlfriend.  Craig gets killed by the cops at 55 minutes.  Well, it's a movie instead of a series.  I don't know if this is spoilery or not since they're not following the same plot so far for TV.   The lawyer is doing coke.  I'm spoilering this part because I think it might happen later in the series. 

Spoiler

Pope shoots up Jay's girlfriend Nicole with something in a syringe and then chokes her out in front of Daren and kills her.  Guy Pearce's character takes Jay into protective custody and talks to him, since he wouldn't say anything in front of his lawyer.  When he still won't cooperate, he brings him back to his family.  He lies and says he was with Nic.  He finds a piece of her jewelry on the dirveway, and calls her.  There is no answer.  He runs and Pope chases.  He ends up at Nic's parents.  The police seem to have them all under surveillance.  Jay goes out in the car with Nic's dad and Pope smashes right into them.  Jay runs again, this time to the police.  They find Nic's body and arrest Daren and Pope.   Mum tells Pope not to let anything happen to her baby Daren in prison.  Pope starts getting mad at this point.  Mum wants the lawyer to "do something about Jay".  Jay has turned on them.  He's dead to her.  She's only concerned about her favorite Daren.  She's using her contacts to locate Jay.   Evil cops or cop impersonators or the drug squad are closing in on the guys protecting Jay.  He runs again, and shows up at his gran's.  Gran is acting friendly.  Jay only distrusts his lawyer.  There's another lawyer involved, a lady.  Then he's back with the cops.  We don't know who he should trust.  Nicole died from a heroin overdose.   Gran is still acting like she's on Jay's side.   Jay and the lady lawyer are trying to settle on a story.  It's looks like she might be setting up Jay.   One of the cops escorting Jay points a gun right at him.  He doesn't react.  Daren and Pope are acquitted and their mum does a tv interview and later confronts Nathan (Guy Pearce).    Jay comes back home, and his gran is still acting friendly.  Pope is acting friendly too.  Daren, not so much.   Jay goes to his bedroom.  Pope follows him.  Jay shoots Pope in the head, hugs his gran, and looks at Daren, who might look relieved.  THE END.

After watching the movie, I'm almost afraid to watch the tv series.  Now I know what people were talking about.

Edited June 20, 2016 by atomationage

[Artsda]

Quote

2016 Oceanside, Calif. VS 1980's Melbourne, Australia

Not sure if it will be spoilers for the tv show, but to be on safe side I spoiler tagged this post. 

 

I recently saw the movie and noticed they were interesting differences. The main one, is by the end of the movie there's barely any of the family left. LOL

Baz, Craig, Pope all end up dead. Which I really doubt will happen on the tv version. I  do think if any story follows the movie it will be the Nicky death. They've already introduced Pope looking at her, her having the watch plus her drug use.

Was great seeing Ben Mendelsohn as Pope, he was so good. I love him on Netflix's Bloodline.

Baz is a family member, a brother on the show where as the movie he's just a friend of the family.. I'm glad they made him more important on the show. May be getting Scott Speedman to play the role is the reason they did that. Baz is married in the movie too where as on the tv show he's just got multiple girlfriends.

[sugarbaker design]

Quote

The main one, is by the end of the movie there's barely any of the family left. LOL

Right, not a great recipe for a TV drama with hopes of multiple seasons.  I can see losing one of the brothers per season.  If Deran, Craig, Pope or Baz bit the dust at the end of Season 1, it does open up different dramatic possibilities for Season 2.

[atomationage]

Although Baz died first in the movie, I can't see them killing off a character played by Scott Speedman.  Craig is the most expendable to me, and the most self destructive.  Pope will probably live on to stare intensely for another season.  Deran has a whole story arc going.   After Craig, I would get rid of Jay if they wanted to go in a completely different direction from the movie.   I really didn't like Jay much in the movie. 

[sugarbaker design]

I would prefer if the TV producers were faithful to the spirit of the original screenplay and had J be the sole survivor.

Edited July 8, 2016 by sugarbaker design

[atomationage]

Jay, Daren and Smurf all survived to the end.

[sugarbaker design]

Thanks, I remember the movie, I remember cheering at that final scene with J and Pope.  I didn't count Smurf because MovieSmurf is so much different than SanDiegoSmurf, and I didn't count Deran because, quite honestly, I didn't remember him.  :)

[Gsallo]

On 07/08/2016 at 0:55 PM, atomationage said:

Jay, Daren and Smurf all survived to the end.

Indeed. I'm new here, an avid follower of the show, and making a case that the TV series is better than the movie. It has more depth and better direction, plus the actors fit their role. Big fan of Hatosy too! So underrated!

Edited September 1, 2017 by Gsallo

[magdalene]

My guess would be that the TV series will have a similar death count than the movie. Eventually.  I don't see anybody but J and Smurf surviving the final season.

[link417]

On 9/1/2017 at 4:58 AM, Gsallo said:

Indeed. I'm new here, an avid follower of the show, and making a case that the TV series is better than the movie. It has more depth and better direction, plus the actors fit their role. Big fan of Hatosy too! So underrated!

Same. I watched the movie recently because of this thread but much prefer the series. It’s not Animal Kingdom without Finn Cole, Ellen Barkin, and Shawn Hatosy in my mind.

[iMonrey]

I finally caught this movie on Amazon. Wow. I don't think I would have understood it, at all, if I had not watched the TV series. Everything just happens so fast. A TV show is actually better suited to this material because it has time to really establish plot and characterization. One thing that really struck me is that Shawn Hatosy bears more than a passing resemblance to the guy who played Pope in the movie so that had to be a factor in his casting. And the movie version of J definitely seems a bit slow - it helps me understand what they were doing when they cast Finn Cole, who plays it less slow but still inscrutable. 

Strange that Smurf doesn't play as prominent a role in the movie but again, a TV show has more time to do things with its characters. I think Craig and Deran are both wildly different characters on the TV show. 

Overall I don't think I would have been that excited about the TV show if I had seen the movie first.

[Morlock]

I'm Aussie and don't normally like Aussie films but really liked Animal Kingdom. It was like an old school Aussie crime movie, really dark and gritty. Also some trivia it is based on a real life crime family and the shooting of two cops similar to what you see in the film. 

I didn't mind the first couple of seasons of the TV show but I got bored with it in the end. Also in the film you can see the family are pretty lower middle class, they may have some money from crime but they are hardly living it up. In the TV show they are living the high life. I think that kind of jarred me a bit and also watching that old hag mother try and still pass herself off as sexy. 

In short I think the American one is too glamorous, surf shots, expensive homes and cars etc. 

[Craigcodybazhate]

Isn’t the whole TV cast Australian except Pope? I’m talking about the male characters. 

[sugarbaker design]

On 8/22/2022 at 6:13 PM, Craigcodybazhate said:

Isn’t the whole TV cast Australian except Pope? I’m talking about the male characters. 

Not one Australian in the TV show cast.  Robson and Cole are British, more specifically English.  Robson's from Newcastle, Finn from London.  Weary is American, his mom is soap icon Kim Zimmer.  Speedman and Hatosy, of course, are American.

[Triviatrish2]

As to the movie...did anyone else get the impression that J was strangling Janine, at the end, when he embraced her, and her arms, fell, slack?