Court of Lonely Royals (2006) Reviews

• murder and mayhem galore

  ksf-22015-05-11

  Interesting concept... kind of a Star Chamber, but here the Aussie police use a bunch of Gen X-ers to do their dirty work. Written, directed, produced by Rohan Hoole, and it looks like this is the only thing he has done so far. Lots of special effects going on -- liberal use of airbrushed, soft lighting, tricks with lighting, negative film, black and white photography. Also lots of prostitution, explicit sexual activity and drug use. And that's all within the first ten minutes! Two chicks meet up in a hotel, on different errands, and they become besties, going on special "assignments". We're not always sure what's going on, but that's part of the charm, I guess. Are they friends? Lovers? Co-workers? A whole lot of cussing. Weird lighting. Lots of killing. Kind of a "Week in the Life of...." diary. Pretty entertaining, but those who need a clean, straight forward plot probably won't like this one. There are some funny lines in here, but sadly, there are so many blanks in the IMDb character list, we're not sure who said which lines. Not a bad first project for Hoole. Script is a little weak, but the acting is pretty good. Probably didn't need all the special effects, but it's entertaining enough.

• Stylish but not much substance

  hdskp2007-03-13

  Court of Lonely Royals had its world premier at the Adelaide Film Festival. Personally i have never watched nor been interested in Australian films (multiple reason, but there is some real gold). The only reason i went was due to the hype around this film and the statement that the work was similar to the works of Wong Kar Wai (one of my personal favourite directors) and authors like Bret Easton-Ellis. As well the film was touted as Australian Neo Noir. A very interesting concept. And the fact that it was made for around 500 thousand dollars was also very exciting. The plot basically resolves around 4 disaffected 20 somethings in a near future Dystopic future. The characters live in a metropolis, 2 as assassins, a prostitute and one a fixer of some sort. 2 assassins Holden and Hunter work for the police and themselves assassinating people, in very interesting ways (infact this was the only original part of the whole film), using peoples weaknesses. Into this comes Camille a girl who gets things for her boss (basically a fixer)and charli a prostitute angry at the world. Ina near future Australian metropolis they intermix with themselves and the seedy underworld of corrupt police, politicians and clients. The plot could very easily work, especially when the cinematography is very good (although it is heavily borrowed from WOng Kar wai and in the last half is very bad with random changes from hyper colour and black and white) The major issue with this film and why it fails is the character development. The characters are unconvincing and very unrealistic. We don't feel for them at all. I think more emphasis should have been done on showing the loneliness and sadness in the characters, instead we get clichéd treatment of characters (i.e a clients dialog to Charli) and rather bad dialog. (Was it meant to be funny?) This film did have a lot of potential, sure it was very stylish and did succeed in somewhat displaying a dystopic and noirish city at night. But even that was sort of discarded at the end. The characters were unconvincing (and in the character of Camille very very annoying) and the plot line shouldn't have given an open ending. At the festival i asked the director if this film borrowed heavily from Wong Kar Wai's "Fallen Angels". His response was basically yes a little and that they had thanked the director in the credits. Thats okay, however, i personally believe that major sequences of cinematography and the general idea (assains,loneliness etc) were more than borrowed from Wong Kar Wai. That would be forgiven if there was more character development and a better ending.

• Right up there with my name is "Domino" for stupid flashiness

  dilbertsuperman2007-10-06

  Teenage girls that have no perception of reality may find this movie to be cutting edge and awesome. The rest of us will just be thinking- gee this is a rather flashy way of not telling an interesting story and the action is very limp for the most part. About every 15 minutes there is 30 seconds of decent footage so there's some potential for who shot this movie but no potential for who wrote or directed it. The girls are pretty so this is OK to completely waste a Saturday afternoon with but just realize this is a stupid poorly written comic book timewaster and nothing else. PLOT: Attempts at making assassination look stylish and cool are coupled with unrealistic plot twists and dialog- at no point will you care about any of the characters. This follows several assassins as their lives start to collide. Cosmo magazine would be proud. The rest of us will wish the mall rat whores that purchase this trash were not altering the market of movies so much. This movie could have been saved by being directed by John Woo with American and Chinese actors and a whole lot more character development and believable plot twists. Go see a hong kong cinema gangster flick instead- those are the real deal- this is a mall imitation jewelry version.

• Intriguing Aussie sci-fi item

  Woodyanders2015-09-30

  In a bleak near future murder has become a commonplace occurrence. Hired killers Holden Janicowsky (well played with stoic resignation by Damon Gameau) and Hunter Thompson (a solid performance by Ayse Tezel) find themselves in considerable jeopardy after they cross paths with innocent lass Camille (an endearing turn by Leah de Niese) and vengeful prostitute Charlene (a winningly saucy portrayal by the foxy Samantha Noble). Writer/director Ronan Michael Hoole keeps the gripping story zipping along at a breakneck pace, maintains an uncompromisingly grim tone throughout, offers a vivid depiction of a shockingly dark, amoral, and dangerous world, and delivers a provocative central point on the massive spiritual toll ending human lives takes on one's soul. Moreover, Hoole's flashy and dynamic style, Marc Windon's splashy and dynamic cinematography, and the pulsating score by The Midnight Juggernauts all give this film an extra exciting and invigorating raw vitality. Worth a watch.

• stylishly surreal

  poppi-doser2008-06-14

  This was one of eight Australian made and produced films I saw during last year's Adelaide Film Festival. It was easily my favorite, and I have been waiting (apparently in vain) for director/writer Rohan to release his second film ever since. I thought the way the film was cut together was both highly creative and original and the plot line was as dynamic as its characters/actors. Seeing works like these makes me feel proud to call myself Australian. The fact that Rohan Michael Hoole received such little attention either then or later on for his debut feature leaves me wanting to defect. I consider myself a discerning viewer and as a consequence have never owned a television. I was introduced to SBS and foreign films via my German-born father at an early age and I have attended the opening of almost every Australian-made film since 2001. My favorite director/writer/camera man team is Bergman/Nykvist. Why am I telling you this? Because I think that: a) if you haven't seen this film you need to and, b) if you see it and don't like it, you're suffering a case of the green-eyed monster.