Welcome to Woop Woop

Plot synopsis:
Teddy (Johnathon Schaech) is a New York bird smuggler who goes to Australia to replace a flock of escaped birds after a deal goes awry. While there, he has a wild liaison with a quirky, sexually ravenous girl, Angie (Susie Porter), who after a brief courtship knocks him unconscious and kidnaps him. When he awakes he finds himself "married" to her - not legally - and stranded in Woop Woop, a desolate, dilapidated town hidden within a crater-like rock formation in Aboriginal territory. The residents are people who lived there at an asbestos mining camp before the land was handed over to the Aborigines; following a tragedy in 1979, Woop Woop was abandoned and literally "erased" from the Australian map. Not content with the deal given to them by the mining company (from Fremantle), they opted to return to their old lives in Woop Woop. At first they repopulated themselves incestuously, which caused wide mental instability. A rule was then enacted ("Rule #3") which bans residents from sleeping with their relatives. Since then, outsiders like Teddy have been occasionally kidnapped to keep Woop Woop populated.
Their only export is dog food made from road-killed kangaroos. The town is run by Angie's father, Daddy-O (Rod Taylor), in an authoritarian manner that he disguises as communal (he and the other town elders keep the best luxuries for themselves in secret while doling out only the usual canned pineapple and sub-par tobacco to the others). The only entertainment available to the residents are old Rodgers & Hammerstein films and soundtracks, the latter of which they play constantly. These are presumably left over from the town's last official contact with the civilised world.
After witnessing another kidnapping, 'Midget' the local hairdresser, gets shot to death by Daddy-O during an attempted escape, Teddy soon realizes he will be trapped in Woop Woop for life unless he finds a way out for himself. Initially, he repairs his VW van which had been vandalized by the locals, only to have it vandalised again by Daddy-O. The Australian Cattle Dog that he adopts is shot as part of 'Dog Day.' He befriends a couple of locals, including the scruffy, affable Duffy, and Krystal, Angie's sister, who help him to confront Daddy-O's iron-fisted reign, and to arrange an escape plan. Duffy, reprimanded by Daddy-O for breaking 'Rule #3,' nonetheless elects to stay in Woop Woop, while Teddy, Krystal, and Krystal's pet cockatoo escape.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
The town Woop Woop is literally 'off the map' and its inhabitants interact in a surreal and disturbing fashion.Fleeing from danger in New York, the lead character (Johnathon Schaech) makes it to Australia, only to walk into a much bleaker situation  a kind of time-warp - where Daddy-O is the law, the judge, and the executioner.
I watched this film grinning from ear to ear, and if it were not for my neighbour's enjoying it so much, I'd have thought that only Australians would get the drift of this film."Welcome to Woop Woop" is resplendent with Australian iconography, and if you don't know the space you may have a hard time understanding the references.
Cockatoos, dunnies(outhouses), the VW van, the backyard tip (dump), the brand of beer (it's real), Rogers and Hammerstein films, kangaroos as Aboriginal spirits, kangaroos as dog meat (true, not good, but true), even the main character's dog ( a Blue Heeler, Australian Cattle Dog), and the reference to the beach.
Woop Woop is in the middle of nowhere, has a population of 50 and is definetely a strange place--Rodgers + Hammerstein songs are blasting from speakers all day (!!!), they kill kangaroos and make them into dog food and no one is ever allowed to leave the town.
It seems my choice in movies/books etc is not the mass-opinion.This Monday I'm buying it, it's at least number 6 in my 'all time favourites' list :-) 'The usual suspects' & 'Lost boys' are some other examples of great movies (I think) and those are (in average) really well reviewed, so it's not that I only like weird ones.
When con-artist Teddy escapes to the Australian outback, he finds himself drugged, unconsciously married and trapped in "Woop Woop" an outback town inhabited by zany hooligans.I enjoyed it.
Initially, I didn't want to rent it after reading several negative reviews, but I'm glad I finally did proving that critics are often wrong.There's one scene which I won't spoil that hit the film's high-point, and let's just say I will never look at the Sound of Music again, or at least Mother Abbess.The soundtrack was fantastic (especially the "Climb Every Mountain" remix) and the cast were great.
Paul Mercurio also makes a humorous cameo reiterating one of the stricter rules of "Woop Woop" ~ "Nobody leaves".Although some scenes caused me to wince, such as the Woop Woop abbatoir scenes and a funny, yet disturbing incestual relationship, I suggest you check it out.Welcome to Woop Woop is a brilliant satire of Australian culture.7.5/10.
A dime-store hood named Teddy (Johnathon Schaech) from NYC, flees the mob and a psychotic, gun-toting, stripper girlfriend for Austrailia; while crossing the Outback, he meets and seduced by Angie, who knocks him out, drugs him, and brings him to her Outback hometown ("Woop-Woop") of 50 strange friends and relatives.Woop-Woop is a town filled with crazies, hippies, and grandparents (folks long forgotten by society when their asbestos mine is closed).
The locals never leave: they package dog-food made from Kangaroos for a living, and entertain themselves with Rodgers & Hammerstein soundtracks, and a nightly viewings of classic Hollywood musicals.The "King" of Woop-Woop is Angie's Dad (Rod Taylor...
The arid outback, the aussie dialect, and the Down Under idea of Wacky combine in this oh-so-funny film to bring you to tears from laughing so hard.
At the London Film Festical screening director Stephan Elliot started off before the screening that this definitely wasn't the case, and telling us it was about the more obnoxious of his country folk.This shows a side of Australia that is being rather swept under the carpet.
Although raucous and rude in the first half of the movie the mood turns darker towards the end.And don't forget to wait till after the credits end for an amusing extra.There are some very funny scenes including Barry Humphries as a blind petrol pump attendant - which so outraged the US lead that he had to spend time recovering in his trailer - it was done fortunately in one take with Humphries ad libbing the scene.
And an excellent performance by Rod Taylor as the leader of the community.Shot in the height of the summer, due to Stephan Elliot becoming ill just before the original start date, the crew needed 36,000 gallons of water per day to survive and in one scene they had to fit the dogs in the scene with shoes to allow them to run across the set..
Teddy (Johnathon Schaech), an American rare bird smuggler on the run ends up in the Australian outback.
He meets Angie (Susie Porter), a sexually veracious girl who drugs him and takes him to her community in the ex-asbestos mining town of Woop Woop run by her father Daddy-O (Rod Taylor).Teddy wakes up to find he is married to Angie.
He gets caught up in the weird lifestyle of the isolated community whose only source of entertainment and connection to culture is old videos of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals - a little like "Galaxy Quest" where the alien Thermians only understand human behaviour through the signals they have received of old television shows.Along with the most strident of Australian accents, the changes of mood in the film are bewildering - singing, dancing and fornicating one minute and shooting dogs the next.
This slice of Australiana makes the characters in "Wake in Fright" seem like Oxford dons.I only saw "Woop Woop" recently (2015) when it appeared on "World Movies" about the same time as a documentary called "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!" Apparently Quentin Tarantino championed the documentary and I must admit it was more entertaining than most of the films it featured, including "Welcome to Woop Woop"The cast gave it everything they had, and seemed to be in on the joke.
If this movie is similar to anything, perhaps it is the musical Li'l Abner since there is a sexy blonde (a very appealing Susie Porter, unknown to American audiences) a handsome, dark-haired man (Jonathon Schaech in a vastly entertaining performance that should have made him a big star.
This movie is a little gem and should be seen for a special, funny, weirdly good time..
I've been a fan of this film since 1999 and have enjoyed watching it again and again in the company of many Woop Woop virgins.
While the response to the film even among my friends runs the gamut, appreciation for the film's originality, grittiness and dark humor finds us on common ground.I most recently shared it with a friend who asked twenty minutes into the film, "So where is this going?" A little annoyed as he pressed for my explanation, I replied "Let it show you - the surprises in store are the fun of it!" To best sum up why this is one of my all-time favorite films of the off-the-wall variety: It just makes me laugh every time I see it.
Peter Weir's "The Cars That Ate Paris" took the same scenario and managed to turn it into a watchable, if not entirely likable film (best remembered for the spiky VW beetle).But director Stephan Elliot isn't known for his directorial subtlety, and as such, WtWW treats the subject with all the vulgar caricature we've come to expect.
He'd wanted to capture the last vestiges of "Old Australia" he'd encountered when he'd filmed "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" in various outback towns.
Ok i have to admit that the main reason of seeing this movie was because its been made by the same director as Priscilla Queen of the Desert ( Stephan Elliot ) And that was probably my mistake.
Australian backgrounds, the Northern Territory ( where communities like the WoopWoops would not even surprise me ) and a weird bunch of people.
I'd never heard of this movie, never knew Rod Taylor was Australian (this from someone who saw Hitchcock's "The Birds" in a theater during its initial release) and I really need to see it again when it is not interrupted every five minutes by a string of commercials, as on the Sinclair (Charge!) station where I did see it.
No need to say much more; the other reviews tell you as much as you need to know, but I will say the opening sequence in New York probably probably nails the world's view of American gun culture and the two endings (preceding and following the closing credits) are worth the wait.I did love the throwaway line about the asbestos mine burning for weeks..
I have to admit that Aussie humour is an acquired taste (even though I am now a more complete man for knowing the phrase, "Part me beef-curtains!")but all I have to say is this: why are we getting hot under the collar about something called "Welcome to Woop Woop"?
I suppose a case could be made for this insofar as apparently Australian tax dollars went to support this film (why any country, which no doubt has problems with poverty and so forth as all countries do, would spend precious tax dollars on movies, is another issue altogether).
Having the idea that somehow characters in film must be idealized ethnic, racial, or national archetypes dooms any movie to being insufferably boring.
Does anyone really think that this is going to set some expectations of what Australians are like abroad?Welcome to Woop Woop is not a brilliant film, but I found it entertaining and offbeat enough.
I enjoyed the performances in this film, and the ending with the giant kangaroo actually made me chuckle a bit because I never thought they would attempt to use something that silly.
Welcome to Woop Woop is like "Mad Max: Beyond Thuderdome" meets "After Hours".
More importantly, in that these are crazy people that he can never seem to get away from.The movie is pretty funny because you're forced to witness something of an isolated civilization built on seemingly modern technology, but used in a different fashion (you'll see what I mean when you watch it) and the story contains some political undertones, as well.
He meets Angie, has sex with her a few times and then wakes up married and impossible to leave the small unknown town of Woop Woop.
Woop Woop: So-So. I was never a fan of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, finding it far too in love with itself to enjoy as a whimsical comedy and not serious enough to generate empathy for the characters.
Woop Woop, by contrast, like Priscilla before it, puts the camp right into the film from the outset.
The Australian outback is filmed spectacularly, and the actors do a good job with th limited roles they are given.
Through the odd twists and turns he encounters after meeting Angie and the rest of the Woop Woopers, his selfish motives that lead him to Australia in the first place change into one of actually caring for some of the people he finds exciled there: Duffy, Ginger, and particularly, Krystal.
And the little extra scene after the movie's credits underlines how deep that love between Teddy and Krystal really was.
Certainly not a film I would have thought to be entertaining, "Welcome" turned out to be darkly funny yet depressing.
I for once could not believe that Australia or ANY film company for that matter would finance this garbage that not only bruises Australia's reputation and appearance, but makes a mockery of everything labeled "Australian", especially to the poor soul who makes the most unfortunate mistake of watching this trash.First of all, let's look at the non-existent plot.
He makes a hasty escape to the Australian outback (of all places!) where he picks up a hitch-hiker wonderfully portrayed by Susie Porter who spends most of her screen time running around like a pig so that we can see her bare bum, her breasts in full exposure and having sex with Schaech's character every second she can, all for no reason at all.She now wants to introduce Schaech to her 'loving' father and his clan of loonies who reside in some coregated-iron tin town in the middle of nowhere (hence the title of "WOOP WOOP") where they spend their spare time watching Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals such as "SOUTH PACIFIC" and "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" in between acting like a bunch of rednecks who may have breathed in too many toxic fumes from an 'off-screen' nuclear dump.
Rod Taylor plays 'Big Daddy O', an overbearing, over-protective father of Susie Porter's character who refuses to let Schaech leave their nice little town because it seems that someone is now expecting a baby.
In fact, he wants Schaech to do the right thing and marry Porter and raise their child in this delightful little neighborhood.The only problem here is that Schaech wants nothing to do with any of this and he spends the rest of his time in the movie attempting to escape the lunatics and crazies that populate this dump.
I actually felt a little embarrassed for Johnathon Schaech who found himself in the middle of this mess and probably wanted 'out' before filming was completed.
And to follow this film up with 1998's cinematic dud, "HUSH", this is definitely something he could afford to leave off his resume.If you want to see a film that portrays the once handsome Rod Taylor as a beer-guzzling, pot-bellied, red-faced, gin-soaked Aussie ocker, then "WELCOME TO WOOP WOOP" is definitely the movie to see him in.If you want to see a film that offers something meaningful to both your intelligence and your wallet, then steer clear of this rot.
Oh man, I feel sorry for actors like Rod Taylor ending up in this awful mess, very embarrassing...
Even out in the far reaches of country Australia only morons and half-wits talk anything like the characters in this film.
"Welcome to Woop Woop" has just about every cultural reference and stellar mega star in disguise in this hilarious satire of a slice of life in outback Oz.Not for the faint of heart, it takes an whoppingly open mind and a good sense of humour to watch this little gem -- from the same director as Priscilla Queen of the Dessert.
If you're careful, "Seppos" might also catch a few observations on the inalienable truths of American life.All the family and friends know about "Welcome to Woop Woop" it's an introduction to one aspect of the country --- bizarre though it is, we hold it dear.
The only redeeming quality about this film is that "John Boy" shows off his bum often in this terribly written story about a hidden town in the Australian outback called WOOP WOOP.....a place that once you enter, you can never leave ( without permission ofcourse ).
Woop Woop was a refreshing movie about one character's realization that everything should not be taken for granted.
So it's probably no surprise that I took every opportunity to watch crappy little films like this one that aired on free to air television.
I usually enjoy Australian movies, but this thing I could pass on if it ever turns up on cable again.Jonathan Schaech (who made his name with "That Thing You Do!"), as Teddy, gets stuck in a ramshackle, bizarro town after being suckered by Angie, a horny woman, to visit her family.
Naturally Teddy falls in with her.Not all Australians like this movie, and I can see why.
For having to sit through this putrefied heap of rotting fecal matter, I now officially detest everyone who had any creative contribution or was responsible in any way in giving this phlegm gobbler life.The purported story goes something like this, (excuse any inaccuracies because after twelve minutes, my eyes began bleeding) - small-time New York hustler, (Johnathon Schaech) who must have agreed to do this effluvium while having a loaded and cocked 9mm held to his head, comes unstuck while trying to illegally sell Australian galahs.
Be offended by films like 'Woop Woop', be very offended..
In Australia, he meets a number of extremely unusual characters, which are likely the above-ground counterparts of New York City's Mole People.
I was should have known it was directed by the same person who did "Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."Shot in the Australian Outback, it has the trademark humor of most movies from Down Under.
Welcome to woop woop is great fun, provided you leave your morals at the door kick back and enjoy it, like great sex.
I don't want to divulge any of the plot or story except to put it in a nut shell, a con man escapes to Australia, meets and marries a nymphomaniac who takes him home to a town called Woop Woop deep in the Australian outback, run by a mad man, his father-in-law.
If you like bad movies that are so bad they are good, great in this case.
You need to realize that the Outback people in this movie have their own little world & they are all somewhat crazy.
Many people will not realize this & never will enjoy a movie like this.
It ranks up there with movies like Princess Bride and Office Space, that are classic films from the day they debut.
Along the way, he meets more than a few zany folks, and finds himself a virtual captive guest in a town called "WOOP WOOP." The humor is at times perverse, and often hysterical.
I like Aussie movies anyway.
Parts are great fun, and the vernacular is great -(as in "Part my beef curtains again"...)Make sure you watch all the way through the end credits as well...This movie is well worth renting..
It is at the beach that his companion lures Teddy into saying he loves her, and from there the plot develops into a hilarious, albeit kind of twisted, view of a tiny Australian community and their bizarre inhabitants.
This aspect of the movie is incredibly well done, and isn't at all forced as love stories in black comedies often are.