Hit a wall with streaming and can’t decide where to head next? No problemo. We’re making an executive decision for you tonight because, let’s face it, you’ve got a million better things to do than to scroll your evening away watching trailer after trailer before you eventually fall asleep with your hands down your pants, right?
Tonight you’ll be watching an Aussie classic from 1999, Two Hands. Written and directed by Gregor Jordan, the film follows the story of strip club employee Jimmy (Heath Ledger) who blows his first job with local gangster Pando (Bryan Brown) sending him on a mission to repay $10K before Pando and his crew catch up with him and knock him off. Along the way Jimmy meets and falls for Alex (Rose Byrne), who gets dragged into his dangerous escapades.
It was the film that put Byrne and Ledger on the map and scored them their ride to Hollywood, and like other flicks of the era such as The Castle and Chopper has become a true blue Aussie staple. You should watch it tonight because…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2JmLpnASv0
I’d forgotten how good Bryan Brown and co. are in this film. The baddies deliver the bulk of the laughs as they kill time, argue about guns and deal with the domestic side of life. It’s easy to forget that they’re cold-blooded murderers as they bungle their way through the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiOGIHkW038
Well geez, you’d have to mention the blossoming romance, right? Rose and Heath would have each been about 19 at the time of shooting and their on-screen chemistry gives me high school level stomach butterflies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp9K382jE3I
One of the funniest sequences in the whole film (well, except for one part at the end), the bank job is the opposite of what 90s heist movies like Heat and Point Break achieve. It’s awkward, kooky and comical as everything goes wrong for Jimmy, Wozza and Craig. Also, have you heard the fan theory about The Joker’s first robbery…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9zz4Hb8h0o
Talk about a dose of nostalgia. A buzzing nightlife in the cross, FUBU clothing, gritty streets, and lazy suburbs – Sydney has changed a boatload since the late ’90s and it’s cool to do a bit of a time warp and see the world through the eyes of Jimmy and the lens of Alex. Even Bondi Beach seems less crowded.
Gotta hand it to the costume designer who made Heath look like a stud for pretty much the entire film. Even his dorky work uniform somehow looks rad: