Animal Kingdom-reviewed.

Hello All and a Happy new year!
Whilst recently browsing through my love film account i was wanting to watch something on line something different from my usual watchers, i went through the horror and the action and the thrillers for a bout an hour and couldn't find anything that i really wanted to watch, you ever get that feeling?
Then i thought "Drama section? let's have a gander" so i did and Animal Kingdom came up at the top of the list with 4 stars with some great reviews along with the usual 1 star reviews that just said "Boring" ah well, I'll give it a watch and I'm pretty damn glad i did!
Made in Australia in 2010, it tells the story of a young boy Josh who's mother dies of an heroin overdose and has nowhere to go see he makes a phone call to his estranged Grandma to see if he can go and live with her, she duly obliges so he moves in but also living there are 4 of his uncles who just so happen to be heroin addicts, armed robbers and drug dealers, a real nice family, these are the kind of people you really wouldn't want to mess with at all, they slowly try and embroil him into there nasty ways but he always seems to resist or get involved in a very minimum way, partly scared by his family so for an easy life just goes with the flow, the whole town has basically gone to shit with the police openly killing criminals and always making it look like self defence, so comes the first part of the story where one of the brothers ( i wont reveal who) is talking about getting out of the game as he has made a ton of money on the "dirty" drug trade and now wants a better future and so has invested in shares, too late, he gets shot by the police who have been after him for a while, no explanation by the police is ever given and this leads to anger amongst the remaining family especially the one who is always high on coke and paranoid as hell, retribution time, one of the uncles asks young Josh to go steel him a car but doesn't say why so he does only to find out the next morning that it was used to kill two police officers in cold blood, the police swoop on the family and the are all arrested except for of course the grandma, known as grandma smurf. The film twists and weaves with a good few shocking moments and proceeds with the brothers being released on bail but the heat is very much on Josh as the paranoia spreads through them believing that Josh and his girlfriend are telling more to the police than he is letting on.



The main detective is played brilliantly by Guy Peirce whom i have seen in many a film and he always in my opinion is a fantastic actor, another high praise has to go to Jacki Weaver who plays Grandma Smurf, she is truly a great character who's love and protection for her boys knows no bounds, there is a part near the end where she his talking with a lawyer and she basically has him wrapped around her finger, the scene is great and you defiantly would NOT mess with Grandma Smurf!
So in summing up this is a very high recommend from me, it's one of those films that doesn't move at a million miles an hour but the intensity of the plot and the acting is top notch and keeps you glued through every twist and turn and double cross,
Fantastic stuff -9/10.
Jonny T.