The Postcard Bandit (2003)

The 2003 movie, The Postcard Bandit, based on journalist Derek Pedley's book about the life and crimes of bank robber Brenden Abbott, has finally been released in the video shops.

Considering the rather unique criminal mastermind of Abbott, it is a disappointing script and screenplay with little vision or understanding of the genre and the casting of Tom Long as the lead may well have heralded the death knell on this ambitious project.

Whilst Long has performed impressively in comedies such as The Dish, to cast him as the hard-as-nails and stocky built Abbott really detracted from the credibility of his character.

Long was seemingly a fish out of water covering this material and his accent and delivery were laboured and he was well and truly shown up by, Glen Stiller, who played Abbott's younger brother, Glenn Salmon.

Stiller's eerie likeness and off-the-cuff depiction of Salmon was one of the film's saving graces along with the performances of Helen Dallimore and Tasma Walton as Abbott's romantic interests, Gina and Frankie.

In an era where actors are struggling to find work it is difficult to understand how the casting could have gone so wrong, particularly with so many locals on the crew and the real characters available for research and colour to the script.

Overall it was a fairly mind-numbing revival that in no way did justice to the myth built up by the Australian media and the police Abbott eluded for so long.