Two useless lists & Tomorrow, when the war began

Firstly merry Christmas and happy new year! I hope you all had a more exciting time than me.

A list of things I should have done during my 9 day break:
Sand back the bathroom walls

Take the dogs to the beach

Cook those meals I always say I never have enough time to cook

Things I did:
Catch a super awesome summer cold (still counting the days until it leaves me)

Bought and installed an air conditioner in the bedroom - we are in the middle of an awful heatwave...bliss! Although I will see a white Christmas once in my lifetime. If you want to experience menopause early, call round!

Finally watched some movies -The Runaways, Julie and Julia, Running with Scissors, Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Finished reading The Tommyknockers

Watched the neighbours let off some (illegal) fireworks and set their palm tree on fire on new years eve

On to my review:
Tomorrow, when the war began is an Australian film released in 2010 based on John Marsden's book of the same title.
It is the first of a series of 7 young adult books released from 1993 to 1999.
Needless to say I was the key demographic when they were released and loved the books.
A group of 7 teenagers in a country town decide to skip the country show one year and instead camp in 'hell.' All their families attend the annual show where they display livestock, jams etc. Hell is a piece of hidden, natural bushland only accessible by hiking where they can camp and has a natural water source.
Ellie and Corrie are the organisers, they also invite Kevin, Corrie's boyfriend and Homer, Ellie's neighbour. Ellie decides to ask Lee, a Vietnamese student at their school she has always found interesting. The last 2 are Fi, a girly 'townie' and Robyn, daughter of the minister.
They embark off on a weekend of teenage hi jinks, and when they return to Ellie's house they realise something is desperately wrong. Ellie's dog is dead and no one is home, similar situations are found at all their houses. There is no Internet or mobile phone access and the group gets worried. The gang splits up to check and Ellie, Corrie and Kevin go into town to view the showgrounds where they can see something is happening. There, they get the confirmation that they have been invaded by a foreign force and the soldiers are holding everyone prisoner at the grounds.
I won't reveal much more, but I did enjoy this film and it is unusual for an Australian film to have a big budget and to be primarily an action film (and young adult centred at that), and I think they did it well.
Not to say it didn't have it's faults. As it sometimes the case with book to film translations some of the dialogue was a little stilted or awkward when I recognised chunks of it came from the book.
I thought it was also great that the main focus was on Ellie, and that she is actually a strong character with flaws but also great features: she's always honest, unsure about her decisions but the complete opposite of Bella Swan which is a relief.

The characters all appear age appropriate too, which helps the realism. When I read the books, I always fantasized about playing Robyn and now I'm almost 10 years old than the actress playing her! Is it depressing that I didn't picture myself in the leading role, that even in my fantasies I wanted to play a supporting character? I did find that she was played quite holy in the film and that didn't come across so much in the books, but it is good to have a religious character that wasn't a crazy zealot.

Anyway one interesting casting choice was the part belonging to Corrie played by an English actress named Rachel Hurd-Wood who played Wendy in 2003's underrated Peter Pan. She mostly got the accent right, but just a bit of poshness crept in to the dialect every now and again.
The race of the invading nation was never given, a deliberate move in the books that the filmmakers continued. I think it is the right choice, all we know from seeing them is that they are Asian and neighbours to Australia. Even their language spoken is fabricated and false.

Overall a good film if you can track it down, I'm not sure what its overseas release is like.
And now I must peel myself off the couch, step over the panting animals in various places on the floor and go get more ice blocks.

Please ignore the dust on my floor