Tony Martin’s “Bad Eggs” comes out at the tail end of a string of well-rounded – and reasonably successful – Australian comedies. But being that the star of one of those victories, Mick Molloy [Crackerjack], also appears in Martin’s film, it’d seemed this one’s in with a fighting chance.
Question is: Is watching Mick the bumbling cop better than watching Mick the bumbling copper?
The former TV star turned radio personality stars as oafish, unorthodox Ben Kinnear, a member of Melbourne’s Zero Tolerance Police Force. When he and partner, Mike Paddock [Bob Franklin] once again embarrass themselves and the force – they’re responsible for killing a magistrate among other things – they’re demoted to street patrolling, and ordered to hand in their swish suits for the plain blue uniform. But just as quick as they’re demoted, the duo stumbles across possible corruption in the force. Can they thwart the system and ultimately get their plum jobs back?
Martin – whose been collaborating with star Molly, since their days on TV’s “The Late Show”, as well as a popular national radio show – shows potential here with his first stint as director. The script’s reasonably tight, the characters well defined and everything kept an enjoyable-enough pace. He obviously knows his old cop show’s quite well.
There’s a slight lag in some of the gags – they’re giggle-worthy but not ecstatically funny. But the ones that do work work quite well, and mainly because of the highly underrated Molloy – he’s the glue holding most of the film together. Bob Franklin, Judith Lucy, Shaun Micallef, Bill Hunter – are as equally well-cast, but Molloy’s obvious charm and appealing sense of humor carry the film through it’s lagging moments. Be interesting to see where he goes from here.
Ok, so I may have liked “Crackerjack” a little better, and Molly, the lawn bowler, had me laughing in a couple more spots, but Tony Martin’s “Bad Eggs” is still another win for Australian comedy. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of notorious twosome Martin Molloy in future years.
