NOW SHOWING

MOVIE: In Like Flynn STARRING: Thomas Cocquerel, Corey Large, William Moseley, Isabel Lucas.

REVIEWER: Javier Encalada

BEFORE Errol Flynn took on the role of Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and became a global superstar, he was a young boy born in Hobart in 1909.

He went to Papua New Guinea at the age of 18, seeking his fortune in tobacco planting and metals mining.

He spent the next five years between New Guinea and Sydney.

In Like Flynn proposes the idea that Flynn was an adventurer: a cross between Indiana Jones and Crocodile Dundee, based on the actor’s first book, Beam Ends (1937).

One of the film’s executive producer is Luke Flynn, one of the star’s grandchildren, although his birth name was Luke Stoecker.

In this action flick, Flynn is an adventurer, opium smuggler, gambler, street fighter, womaniser and gold prospector.

Filmed on the Gold Coast, this movie feels like a pilot for a TV series. It lacks the “gravitas” of a cinema feature, and it offers little answers to the many questions on the story: How did Errol get to become an adventurer? Where does this love for adventure come from?

In Like Flynn has a lot to offer young male audiences looking for a film about mateship, adventures and old-style banter, but besides a token female character played (rather well compared to the males counterparts) by Isabel Lucas, a female Asian criminal (Grace Huang) and other archetypes, don’t expect gender balance in this “boys will be boys” flick.

Cinematography is a highlight, making up for the ups and downs in the acting and the holes in the story. But In Like Flynn barely manages to entertain for most of the film.