Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Reno Rangan When a movie is based on the play, setting wise it will be a tight narration. But the advantage is, movies can expand its screenplay in the natural world where stage plays has a limitation with the fake backgrounds. And obviously movies can reach any corner of the earth in the todays digital world while plays are for a limited live audience. So I think that is how this play turned into a motion picture, importantly, it was funded by the government and all the above it won a couple of Australian Academy Awards.It was a cancer themed thin comedy-drama with a little road adventure in the backdrop. A story that follows a 70-year-old cab driver Rex from Broken Hill. He has never been outside his town until he finds he has a cancer, so he takes a 3000 kilometer drive to Darwin looking for a doctor who can help him with his suffering. At the dusk hours of his life, he encounters some strangers and many stuffs for the first time. So this film is all about his final and best experience in the end of the life journey.I like sentimental films, I chose it because I haven't felt the emotions through my heart for a movie in the recent time. I expected it to fulfill my desire, but it only fell short. To me it was a decent movie in the first half, but it got better in the next half. The opening was kind of slow and dry, the cast was totally unfamiliar to me. I needed time to get used to a sudden change of accent after watching so many Hollywood flicks. Because you know we don't watch Aussie movies everyday and so the style of comedies differs with the different region."You want everything to be black and white, but it's not. It's gray."The best thing ever happened was the introduction of the characters Tilly and Julie. One is an aboriginal and the other is a British who joins Rex, the Aussie. They are the main source for the story to grow in the right direction. Because of them the narration had a subplot to focus their perspectives as well. Without them definitely it would have been a worthless flick.The end was not at its best. It hat many options, but they decided to finish it in an uncertain manner. Since it was a road movie, I also anticipated exhibition of beautiful Australian landscapes, that never came. I understand they don't want distraction from the main plot, because this was one of those films that took time for the characters to settle down. Even though it approaches the conclusion, the characters had kept deepening in its development.My upset with the movie was, it was a quite different from the usual cancer films. Precisely to say, it was very weak in the exhibition of character feelings. Certainly it won't make you weep. Just like one of the lines at the beginning that says 'everyone gets cancer', the movie was too casual like this is a regular thing. But the scenario where the story sets in and takes us with it was exceptional. I have a hesitation to recommend it, but it is a good movie if you're okay with the thing I expressed which are lacking.6½/10

sianydahling I actually signed up to IMDb just to write this review. Having stumbled upon this film by accident, I couldn't have been more moved. Michael Caton delivers an Oscar worthy performance that had me in tears throughout. In fact the entire cast deliver a completely immersive experience that transported me to the Australian outback, in particular the actors who played Polly and Tilly. And there is no doubt the performances would have shone so brightly without an incredible script. The story is one of both joy and sadness and despite the fact I hate to cry I just could not stop watching. I am a huge fan of the film Australia because of the incredible scenery, which is partly why I decided to give this (which I heard nothing about) a try. I was not disappointed. Everything about this film is beautiful.

ccorral419 Last Cab to Darwin. Making "The Best of Fest" list at the Palm Spring International Film Festival, this touching film out of Australia follows Broken Hill taxi driver (Rex - Michael Caton) who spends his days in transporting locals to and from, his nights drinking beers with his buddies (excellent character actors John Howard, David Field and Alan Dukes), and occasionally ending his evenings with his aboriginal neighbor Polly (star is born: Nignali Lawford). When he learns he has terminal cancer, he leaves everything behind and embarks on 1,865 mile road trip to meet a doctor (the always terrific Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook) who has an euthanasia machine. Ready to face the end on his own, his road trip forces him to live outside of his box, as he picks up a cheery hitchhiker (the very funny Tilly - Mark Coles Smith) and bar maid/nurse (Julie - Emma Hamilton). Director Jeremy Sims, along with cinematographer Steve Arnold, beautifully capture the outbacks appeal and desolation. While Caton, Lawford, Smith and Hamilton are relative unknowns in the US, if this film obtains distribution they will quickly gain stateside recognition. This road trip movie covers plenty of issues, and what better place to work things out then on the road.

eddie_baggins One of the great Australian success stories of a very profitable 2015 for local films, Jeremy Sims Last Cab to Darwin scored over 7 million dollars in local box office receipts this year and garnered an equal share of critical and audience good will that will likely see it become a staple in collections of local film lovers for years to come. Adapting Reg Cribb's successful stage play of the same name and casting Australian identity Michael Caton in the role that he portrayed in that very play, Sims has done a fine job at transplanting a play into a feature length film and his capturing of the dusty plains of outback Australia as Caton's dying cab driver and lonely soul Rex heads off on a road trip from South Australia's Broken Hill to Darwin is one of the films highlights. But it's not all smooth sailing for Sim's as he finds trouble maintaining momentum in the film which starts off particularly strong and engaging but through a misguided and cliché ridden final act loses stem, particularly with a bunch of side characters that feel slightly underdeveloped and also far to "movie like" to feel real. Caton delivers what could well be his finest ever moment as Rex a man we come to care for in a short period of time and Caton's experience with both comedy and drama serve him well as he balances a nice line between humour and pathos. Rex's journey (which is supposedly based around some true events) feels real and emotion filled but with the film itself set up for a 2 hour long trip, Rex's ride to be euthanized before cancer slowly kills him gets filled with Mark Coles Smith's (who sadly overplays) lost young man Tilly and Emma Hamilton's English ex-pat Julie's loving nurse and both these characters while at moments help the film along also take a little too much away from the film and it would've been nice to have seen them play smaller roles and Sims to have had more faith in Caton to carry the film along as he was seemingly more than up to the task.One of the better feel good (and sad) Australian movies in some time, The Last Cab to Darwin would be an incredibly hard films to dislike and while it never breaks out into being an undeniably standout classic, its deserving of its warm reception and likely long standing place in the hearts of Australian movie goers that found themselves investing in this likable tale of one man's journey to find himself in world that seemingly passed him by. 3 ½ cat trees out of 5