TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN

DIRECTOR: Stuart Beattie

CAST: Rachel Hurd-Wood, Caitlin Stasey, Deniz Akdeniz, Lincoln Lewis

CLASSIFICATION: 13 LV

RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes

RATING: **

COMBINE a camping trip, the boy you had a crush on in geography and World War III and you get Tomorrow, When the War Began.

The movie opens with seven clean-living friends setting out to embrace nature with a camping trip to the untouched paradise named Hell. Not being familiar with John Marsden’s books on which the movie is based, the first few minutes had me believing this movie was sci-fi because these fresh-faced teens were going to uncover the sinister side to the “paradise” Hell.

But the action begins, not during the camping trip but when they return home to discover dead pets and abandoned houses.

An unnamed army of Asians has invaded Australia while they weren’t looking, rounded up civilians and unleashed a brigade of ruthless soldiers on their small town of Wirrawee.

The group of innocents is now on the run and must deal with death and guns.

The cheesy point of the movie comes when they must choose between hiding out to save themselves, or risking themselves to stop the invaders.

The characters are all variables of the usual clichés, with the dumb blonde, the religious good girl, the Asian nerd and the bad boy all present and accounted for. In the first 30 minutes the movie is laden with teenage sexual angst, but relationships take on a more realistic feel as the characters are forced by events to grow up.

The movie uneasily straddles the line between being a ridiculous spoof and a heart-wrecking war drama. At times I was not sure if I was laughing with the actors or at them and their “acting” as they fooled around on set.

In other scenes they tackle issues of religion, death, relationships and ultimately whether the rules of normal life apply during conflict.

The candy-coated version of child soldiers, which the characters are forced to become, left a slight taste of blood in my mouth.

But the director makes an attempt to contrast the stereotypical Asian army of bad guys – which has taken over fuelling xenophobic moviegoers’ fears from the Russian warmongers of the 1980s and the Middle East of the 1990s – with the characters’ realisation that their soldiers are as young and scared as they are.

This film is perfect for those who crave a slight sprinkling of mental stimulation and a slice of facebook debate sandwiched between some big chunks of cheese.

Think of this as the McDonald’s of war movies… it’s got meat… maybe… but it’s definitely got the processed cheese down pat.

If you liked … Toy Soldiers or Wargames … you will like this.