The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee
The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee is a 2020 Australian comedy film directed by Dean Murphy, written by Robert Mond and Dean Murphy, and starring Paul Hogan, Chevy Chase, John Cleese, Olivia Newton-John and Kerry Armstrong. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on 17 July 2020. Premise. Paul Hogan is reluctantly thrust back into the spotlight as he desperately attempts to restore his sullied reputation. Complicating matters is that he is scheduled to be knighted (Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite film is Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles). After a series of escalating mishaps that  involve fellow celebrities Olivia Newton-John, Chevy Chase, and John Cleese, Paul hits his low point. However, he manages to restore his good standing with the press by stopping a car thief. Paul receives the knighthood, and the character of Crocodile Dundee is revived as both a musical and a cartoon. He’s booked to appear on the Tonight Show, but chooses to attend his granddaughter’s school play instead. Paul leaves Hollywood to happily live in Australia. Production. Filming took place in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and Los Angeles, California, USA in 2018. Release. The film was originally scheduled to  be released in Australian cinemas on 30 April 2020, but had its theatrical release cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee" was released exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on 17 July 2020. Reception. This new film has been summarized by Penelope DeBelle in "Adelaide Now" as "The latest in a long line of old man movies"...Crocodile Dundee" was 34 years ago, followed two years later by "Crocodile Dundee II." Not even surgical uplifts and impeccable veneers can alter the fact that Hogan is now 80 years old. ...the idea of Hogan trying to revive the  warmth and affection we had for his younger self seems a forlorn hope, just as casting a creaky Harrison Ford as a man living off the land seems an unnecessary stretch." The film has mostly negative reviews, with one and two-star reviews from ArtsHub, Screenspace, "The Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Guardian". "The Australian" newspaper's Stephen Rommel gave it one star, saying "The kindest comment I can make about Paul Hogan's new movie, "The Very Excellent Mr Dundee", is that it includes John Cleese's worst performance ever (and, yes, I have seen "Fierce Creatures" from 1997 )." On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 24 out of 100, based on 4 critics.