Reckless Kelly (1993) User Reviews (16)

unfunny wacky comedy

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 5 May 2015]

The Kelly gang is a longtime Robin Hood bank robbers. However the family business has changed over the years and only Ned Kelly (Yahoo Serious) is in the bank robbing division. He is taken by bank teller Robin Banks (Melora Hardin) during a stickup where he deposits money into the accounts of the poor. Sir John (Hugo Weaving) is angered and British Major Wib is assigned to hunt down Kelly. Then the bank sells their Reckless Island and shipping it to Japan. The Kellys need to raise $1 million to buy back the island. The problem is that any money the Kelly Gang robs in Australia must be given to the poor of Australia. So Ned Kelly decides to rob banks in America.

Yahoo Serious used to be a thing for two seconds. He was funny for about just as long. He's trying to be wacky but he's not wild enough. The comedy is not smart enough. There is an oddity about his comedy that may not be translating. I don't find any laughs in this although I do appreciate him giving his all. It's stupid but not the funny kind.

A surprisingly decent Aussie film

[keith_xyz · 5/10 · 13 December 2009]

I discovered this film on "Telefutura" entitled "El Temerario Kelly"; I was channel surfing & was about to nap. But once I saw the, um, bloodless & campy bank heist scene, I got hooked. (Incidentally, Telefutura usually shows bloodier action films; this is where I get my Van Damme or Steven Seagal fix; I wouldn't even know he's doing a realty show as some U.S. Marshall or something.) I Googled this Yahoo Serious film, I mean, I Yahooed this film (pardon the pun); I had 2 'cause Yahoo was the default search engine on the Wii. Somehow the one link to this article was Melora Hardin in a "b4 they were stars" moment (sort of.) I discovered in the search results for "El Temerario Kelly" that the actress who had a recurring role in "The Office" {US} as Jan was the lead opposite! & I did the math. She wasn't a teenage starlet when she made "Reckless Kelly" at 26 before playing a m!ℓ╘¥ corporate executive of Dunder Mifflin. (She's 42 as I type.) 4 those of you "Office" fans like me, you won't recognize her. Her dark curly coif makes her look like Lara Flynn Boyle or Sherilynn Flynn from "Twin Peaks." & I also learned that this movie followed "Young Einstein," until then the only Yahoo Serious movie I knew.

"Reckless Kelly" was surprisingly entertaining & charming w/ it's corny humor. By the way, watching Ned Kelly or any airplane passenger play w/ his firearms is now strictly dated in this 9/11 era (or perhaps the notion that a trigger-happy foreigner is coming to America.} So if you don't LOL when you see that scene, it's all right. I think Yahoo Serious playing a gun-toting renegade hero like Ned Kelly, inspired by a Aussie historical figure, is akin to the roles Sasha Cohen Baron plays that push the envelope as well (although that envelope was pushed far enough once Brüno showed up.} & it's almost hard 2 believe the movie looked so 80s while you can see above it's from 1993 (so don't expect anything that looks like "Reality Bites"). But maybe that could be 'cause this movie has a non-American perspective; I remember something on "How I Met Your Mother" about how Canadians are one decade behind in style using the example of a 80s music video filmed in the 90s. (But that don't mean I'm slamming non-Americans; I'm filling out paperwork to apply for ambassadorship as I type!) But I digress, the campy humor, such as shooting flies, Ned's outfit, or shooting victims shake their hands in pain instead of dying bloody, quick deaths have that "Police Academy" charm. U'no, the type of comedy you notice upon channel-surfing & stopping on a channel like Telefutura, Azteca America, or Univision {I don't have Telemundo or Galavisión.) If you don't prefer the gross-out, raunchy comedy of "Superbad," "The Hangover," or any other movie in the 00s, you'll like "Reckless Kelly." I'm just fortunate I saw it, as I never knew this movie existed. I won't say it's spectacular or groundbreaking, though, thus the 5 rating. But again, the word I use is "charming." & it's a good thing I also took 4 years of high school Spanish to understand some words & it was probably more entertaining then it would be in English. & again, this movie also stars Melora Hardin long before she'd appear on "The Office" as Jan, Michael's second girlfriend on the series.

You know you're in for some inspired silliness

[staffba3 · 15 March 2003]

For surreal Australian silliness you can beat Yahoo Serious' recent film Reckless Kelly (1992). From the opening shot, a high speed helicopter shot heading over the ocean towards the land (a classic film cliché, made interesting by being shot upside down--cause this is the Australian coast, mate!), you know you're in for some inspired silliness. Yahoo plays the grandson of legendary bank robber Ned Kelly (played by Mick Jagger in an earlier film). He lives on an island paradise--a rundown pub in the middle of a national park--with his extended family, and still dabbles in the redistribution of wealth. When a villainous bank president threatens to sell his island to the Japanese, Ned must travel to America to raise the money to pay off the mortgage, and in the process become a low budget film star. With Alexi Sayle (The Young Ones) as Major Wibb and an assortment of Australian character actors and other marsupials doing their own accents.

Bloody awful

[tramsbottom · 3/10 · 5 May 2003]

I turned over to find this showing during the small hours, and started watching it out of curiosity. Young Einstein had a certain amount of wacky charm, whereas Reckless Kelly merely attempts to be wacky and ends up being self-indulgent and painfully dire.

If this was supposed to be a satire on Hollywood and how we should all 'save the animals', Yahoo Serious is about as subtle as a kick in the groin. But that's what you get from a man called Yahoo Serious.

Okay, so the bank shootout was actually quite good fun, but it's all downhill from there. Watch out for Agent Smith himself (Hugo Weaving), starring in yet another awful Aussie film before the Wachowskis gave him the 'Travolta' (read: career resurrection).

Embarrassing

[hitchs · 2/10 · 7 October 2002]

This was so bad I felt embarrassed watching it. Young Einstein looked very amateurish, but Serious seems to have regressed a long way since then. The jokes are exactly what you would expect from a teenager's home movie. What is Hugo Weaving doing in a film like this?

A waste of everyone's time and money

[MrTeenie · 1/10 · 9 April 2020]

When your biggest contribution to comedy is changing your name to something wacky, just give up. This is embarrassing. If I had worked on this, it would never show up on my CV. Greg Pead (I'm not going to play his game) must not have anyone around him to tell him no, it's not even infantile as infants can make you laugh sometimes. Thankfully he seems to have gotten the message and hasn't polluted the cinemas since 2000. Stupid comedy can be funny. This is just stupid. I wouldn't even recommend this as an April Fool's joke, it would be going too far. Seriously, I couldn't say anything too bad about this movie that wouldn't have been totally earned by it.

Seriously, what happened to Yahoo Serious when he made such entertaining films?

[inkblot11 · 7/10 · 20 December 2017]

In Australia, there is a legendary true Robin Hood like hero named Ned Kelly. His descendants still live on their own special island where the "newest" son is also named Ned (Yahoo Serious). A master of gunshots, Ned can and does shoot down flies if they bother him. He's also into bank robbing, where he meets a beautiful, Shakespeare reading bank clerk (Melora Hardin). She doesn't care for him. In addition, the bank head, Sir John (Hugo Weaving) detests Ned and is out to stop him. Soon, John has located a Japanese firm to buy the Kelly's island out from under them. Since Ned's bank heists in Australia must go to the poor, Ned sets off to rob banks in America. Along the way, he is asked to shoot a movie, using his skills as a shooter and a motorcyclist. Will Ned return in glory to re-buy the lsland with a boatload of money? This funny film is one of the few made by Yahoo Serious and it is highly entertaining. Just as its star, the movie has an offbeat charm and humor that has to be seen to be appreciated. Also fine are the supporting cast (Weaving is hilarious), the exotic scenery, the clever script and the fast-moving direction. What fun it is, seriously, to discover the gems of past movie making, Aussie style.

Not a lost cause

[CharlesD-2 · 7/10 · 16 September 1999]

I have just watched this movie for the first time. I have long loved Yahoo Serious' first film "Young Einstein" and as such I had high expectations for this picture. The movie does have a few very funny moments but it seems hacked up and undeveloped. The American release is 23 minutes shorter than the Australian version and I'm wondering if many of the unsatisfactory issues in this movie might be resolved in that vast cut. I have no clue why the American version is missing 1/5th of the entire film or what that footage consists of but it lends hope that the entire 103 minute film might prove of more substance. As it stands now I give Reckless Kelly a vote of 7 which is under Young Einstein which I gave a 10.

A must for daft comedy fans

[thehumanduvet · 8/10 · 13 July 2000]

Serious humour may well be a bit of an acquired taste, it's cheesy and juvenile (not in a Farrelly brothers sick kind of way, more just silly really, with lots of rock'n'roll'n'motorbikes thrown in) but I laugh like a crazy man every time I see this. It is a bit disjointed in parts but overall is a worthy successor to the great Young Einstein, particularly the visuals which in parts are quite stunning, I'd love to see this in a cinema or at least in widescreen on a really massive TV, it's quite beautiful really. Serious again plays a lead who aims at supercool but comes over more as cute, in a cute-little-puppy kind of way, Alexei Sayle and Hugo Weaving (of Matrix fame) make good villains and our hero's trip to Hollywood is magnificently over-the-top. A real treat for the initiated, others should give it a go, you might just end up loving it.

Not as good as YOUNG EINSTEIN

[Jakeroo · 7/10 · 21 August 1999]

We still got some laffs outa it but not as much as EINSTEIN. We rated it a 7 versus a 9 for the other. Still, Yahoo, is always interesting to watch. He tries some original stuff - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Like finding a diamond encrusted needle in a flaming haystack!

[Ryan-Gleeson · 10/10 · 10 February 2005]

Picture the scene. Four drunk, bored students are trawling late night television, desperately looking for something that isn't teaching us how to take GSCE maths or speak rudimentary french. Then, all of a sudden, we turn on to a particular channel, and see the title "Reckless Kelly" glittering before us, beckoning. We were instantly transfixed, and our hazy curiosity was rewarded with a movie that was at once funny and insightful, brilliant yet understated, paradoxically shockingly awful and the greatest thing ever. Now, we all know this is not a good film in terms of plot, effects, characterisation, score, make up or anything else that one usually judges a film by. It is, instead, so unashamedly ridiculous, without even trying to cover up its sheer stupidity, that i can honestly say it is a pleasure to watch. There is no real plot to speak of, but basically an almost invincible Australian outlaw, Kelly, needs to save his island from Japanese businessmen before they tow it by tanker to the waters off japan where it will become a kind of theme park. Kelly goes to America to earn money as a robber, accidentally becomes film star, mandatory love interest, happy ending, good hearted rogue, blah, blah, blah... honestly, a terrible film, but worthy of a 10 rating as it really will make you laugh, although you should be heavily intoxicated as a precaution. RG x

Why always compare this to Young Einstein?

[Sic Coyote · 9/10 · 9 April 2000]

I thought this was and still is a cool film, I feel it just hangs together so well. You are just carried along on a swift stupid ride through the adventures of an outlaw trying to save his home from an evil corporate banker. The gags are hilarious and Yahoo is just as good as in Young Einstein. My favourite part has to be the bank get away scene, it's just so stylish! I recommend this to anyone who just wants a fun eighty minutes of senseless fun. Great cast, great gags, great film. The only thing I would wish is that they release this on DVD in its original widescreen format with both cuts of the film on it and possibly a directors commentary and music only sound track. That would just make my day I give this 9 out of 10 cause it's just so easy to watch and so much fun.

Serious Reckless Australian Cinema

[fom4life · 26 July 2011]

Yahoo Serious is Reckless Kelly

In the realm of modern comedy, this particular Yahoo is very series about being funny, even if this sentence is not. 1994's 'Reckless Kelly' comes in the middle of his carrier as one of Australia's most creative film makers. Right behind the popular 1988 'Young Einstein' and right before 2000's 'Mr. Accident. A movie for each decade. No more, no less. I think he is due for another one about this time.

Reckless Kelly is part of the infamous Kelly Gang of Australia. While his rather big family runs the Glenrowan Hotel and Video Rental on Reckless Island, located near a national park, Ned robs banks. He is an expert marksman who can shot a fly at point blank range and also holds the record as the most shot man in the world. He rides around on a makeshift bike that is fast but likely to fall apart at any minute. But unlike Republican bank robbers who steal money just for themselves, he is a Democrat bank robber who steals to redistribute the wealth amongst those who need it.

When Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving as Sir John) decides to sell the island to the Japanese, Ned takes to robbing banks for himself, but only in America where his conscience is free to steal. American bank robbing turns out to not be so lucrative, but a carrier as an actor in a low budget 'straight to video' movie studio does. Aided by his Shakespearean quoting actress girlfriend Robin Banks, he seeks to get the money to save his island, as 'The Christian Cowboy'.

Several visual gags with great shots of kangaroos and other Australian wildlife mixed with Yahoo's smiley and sunny personality make 'Reckless Kelly' a likable and potential comedy classic. The classic is taken out of the comedy with some characterization that is introduced and not used to it's funny potential and some gags that are lamely delivered. The climatic gun battle with Agent Smith and the armed bankers is fairly amusing and caps off the comedy to create smiles but not belly laughs.

If you want to take a good hard look at Serious Australian Cinema it's worth a look and some laughs. If your particular about your limited time on earth to watch extremely quality funny films it might be better to check out one of his other films or one of the old comedic masters or Mr. Bean. According to Wikepedia as of December 2008 he is working on his 4th feature, a war movie about the Kokoda Track campaign.

Even though he shoots flies dead in the picture, the end credits lets us know that 'No fly was harmed during the making of this motion picture.'

Politics, humour... and a shed-load of beer.

[animaltraining · 10/10 · 7 February 2008]

I can understand that Serious comedy is (as many before me have said) very much an acquired taste...

However, you can't look at Yahoo's work with an outlook to deciding if you love it or not. There are going to be parts that you think should have been done differently and that's what he likes. He thinks everyone should think about things for themselves.

I'm fairly sure that this movie was his attempt to get a very strong political message out to the younger generation. A younger generation that had not been told enough about their country's real history and so he thought he'd make a bit of a joke of that, tie it in with one of Australia's most loved heroes and at the same time send up all the stereotypic crap that surrounds nationalities. He laughed at the Brits while not so subtly showing his vote for a republic... he laughed at the Americans and their "gone too far" situations that the "dream" and eternal optimism can bring... he even laughed at himself - or Australians as a whole - for the idolisation of America, beer and the inability to respect the history of the land.

I realise that perhaps the average person who sits down to watch this movie isn't exactly on the look out for a political statement from Mr Serious... but that's definitely what it was. Take the humour away (that some of you find not to your taste) and you are left with a very well thought out and executed statement to Australia. Sadly... because it followed Young Einstein (genius movie in so many ways) it attracted an audience expecting the same humour throughout and the message was missed.

If this movie deserves a revival, it's now. Because on the 13th Feb, 2008 we are all saying sorry.

It was a fantastic movie

[mrmunkoms · 8/10 · 8 December 2001]

This was one of the best movies I have ever seen and I've seen a lot of movies. I hope each and every one of you see this movie too. It is awesome. Very funny too. Yahoo Serious has made a semi name for himself because of Young Einstein and Reckless Kelly.

Cinema at it's finest!

[mcneely-40866 · 10/10 · 9 February 2019]

Without a doubt the greatest film adaptation of the story of Reckless Kelly ever done by Yahoo Serious.