Boytown, written by Mick and Richard Molloy tells the tale of a hugely popular fictional Australian 80's boy band, getting back together in 2006. It stars some of the cream of the crop of Australian comic talent including Wayne Hope, Glenn Robbins, Bob Franklin, Tony Martin and Mick Molloy himself.
When I heard about this movie some time ago, I was the first to admit, this idea has been done before many times, in sketch shows, and cleverly in a Cruel Sea video clip. So, how on earth was Molloy and his team going to sustain an 88 minute film based on one lousy idea? Well the answer is, that they don't.
Boytown is a poorly directed and even more atrociously written comedy without any funny dialogue or a hint of intelligence, it makes the average other Molloy outing, 'Crackerjack' look incredible in comparison. The worst sin this movie commits is somehow wasting the talent of the cast and not giving geniuses like Wayne Hope, Glenn Robbins and Bob Franklin a single funny line.
Sure, some of the songs are funny, but you get the impression the script is sometimes just a vehicle to showcase these songs. The movie is swamped in comic conservatism, there is not a single fresh idea or unpredictably clever scene; with the exception of an admittedly hilarious cameo from a Brazilian seductress. But any good work in the movie is undone by the ending which is frankly terrible and leads me to believe Mick hired a primary school kid to solve his case of writers block.
All in all, it was a bad idea, executed badly, with a fantastic cast that was badly wasted. However, its still a league above David Spade, Rob Schnieder, Adam Sandler and the gang and for that reason I will give it 3/10. For a funny Australian movie go no further than Bad Eggs or The Castle, or just buy the 3 seasons of the Micallef P(r)ogram(me).