Flammable Children

R

Released Jun 21, 2019

1 hr. 37 min.

Comedy

List

74%

27 Reviews

Tomatometer

52%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Local kids get a dose of excitement when a 200-ton blue whale washes up on a beach in 1970s Australia, and their parents find their own good time by drinking and playing games behind closed doors.

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Critics Consensus

Swinging Safari gathers an entertaining ensemble to offer audiences a messy yet ultimately endearing comedy rich with period detail.

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Oliver M

Hey Kylie is just amazing So full on and over the top Cartoon and Cutting It's actually full on and overload and true Cheap Baz but hitting all the right marks Kylie you really showed something else Bless You

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Enjoying it (I'm still watching as I write this) captures much of life in the 70's, maybe all, love seeing the drink, cigs, lollies, clothes, furniture, food, shearing the music even if a bit changed, like Gary Glitters music, it's over the top, stupid, but done tongue in cheek and I like/love it !!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Australia, 1975. The beach suburb of Nobbys Beach is a place that revolves around surf mats, baby oil, boxed wine and the new miracle of Kentucky Fried Chicken. 14 year-old Jeff tries to find his feet in a world changing faster than his hormones, and deal with his crush on shy and sensitive girl-next-door Melly. When the beach town suddenly hits the spotlight after the body of a 200-ton whale is washed ashore, Jeff and Melly think it's the biggest thing that ever happened in their lives. Meanwhile, their eccentric parents are catching up with the sexual revolution that has also washed up on Australia's beaches. And just like the decaying whale, it's all about to go spectacularly wrong... Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus reads: "Swinging Safari gathers an entertaining ensemble to offer audiences a messy yet ultimately endearing comedy rich with period detail." "Swinging Safari" is nicely shot with a nice ensemble containing of Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue, Julian McMahon etc. But, ultimately I don´t understand the film itself since it´s a mess with halfbaked stereotypical characters and a scenestructure that is all over the place. The editing makes your head almost explode as well and it´s simply not funny. Having lived in Australia, I will always support the Australian movieindustry, but this one is a hit and a miss. I reckon "Swinging Safari" was inspired by Wes Anderson, but it´s not even close of being something of a Wes Anderson film.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The exploding whale was a viral video that took the world by storm 10 years before this movie was made.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This coming of age story is flat out hilarious. It works the 70's suburban setting hard. The Austrailian suburban experience was apparently remarkably similar to the Californian experience in that decade. The only real difference is the Austrailian accents and vernacular, which makes this even funnier. Elliot makes the most of every opportunity to go too far in every scene. If you want a lesson in how to raise your kids in the most un-PC way possible, this is the movie for you.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Despite my name, I grew up in Sydney in the seventies, I'm Anglo-Saxon and no mistaking this movie was a ripper for me for nostalgic reasons. I mean every few seconds I was being bombarded with images and sounds which tore my heart out, reminding me and even titillated my other senses from some of my most sacred memories. Surprising how clunky some of it was when almost as much was so pure I felt like someone was watching over my shoulder as a kid after all. I suspect this will not reverberate with other Western audiences as much because what it depicts above all is a unique Australian experience which I know has not permeated the rest of the far-flung European Empire. This is much more appealing to me as a non-LGBTQ bloke than Priscilla. By the way the amount of re-writing I had to do to get this review past the automatic LGBTQ defending censorship was enough to make me even more hostile to these lifestyle CHOICES. Cue nasty angry face! Aussies will continue to call F..s for fa.s as we did even when the issue was finished in the seventies. Back then f... were not such thin-skinned wombats!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Stephan Elliott

Director

Guy Pearce

Keith Hall

Kylie Minogue

Kaye Hall

Radha Mitchell

Jo Jones

Julian McMahon

Rick Jones

Asher Keddie

Gale Marsh

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21%

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Harry Windsor

Hollywood Reporter

Elliott whizzes from montage to sight gag to flashbacks and flash-forwards, skittering sideways for frequent discursions about the family pets, or a disastrous incident with a beach umbrella.

Feb 22, 2018

Full Review

Stephen Romei

The Australian

This is a movie that had an immediate effect on me and my co-viewer. We talked about it for hours. It's still on my mind.

Rated: 4/5

Jan 26, 2018

Full Review

Sandra Hall

Sydney Morning Herald

The trouble starts when things get half-serious. The half bit is the problem.

Rated: 2.5/5

Jan 19, 2018

Full Review

Stephen A. Russell

The New Daily (Australia)

It's a full-throttle 90 minutes of sensory overload on '70s interiors and heinous fashion, but there's also an undercurrent of just how hard it can be for teenagers to push away from parents and find their own identity.

Rated: 3.5/5

Aug 19, 2020

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

It is an enormously mediocre film, potentially bland and without any grace that uses comedy and a very poor narrative to address issues of nostalgia, family and adolescence. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 2/10

Jul 27, 2020

Full Review

Hanna B

Film Threat

In the end, what Swinging Safari lacks in the story is made up in originality and a satisfying art direction.

Rated: 6/10

Aug 6, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Local kids get a dose of excitement when a 200-ton blue whale washes up on a beach in 1970s Australia, and their parents find their own good time by drinking and playing games behind closed doors.

Director: Stephan Elliott
Screenwriter: Stephan Elliott
Distributor: Blue Fox Entertainment
Production Co: See Pictures, Wildheart Films
Rating: R (Some Underage Drinking|Sexual Content|Language)
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English (Australia)
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 21, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 21, 2019
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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