"Stickmen" tells a story about three New Zealand buddies who shoot pool and become involved in an underground tournament. The question the film asks is: Will they win? (duh) Probably the most outstanding thing about this flick is the absence of anything outstanding. Strictly one for the guys, this flick is a good natured romp with some heavies, some babes, and our trio of heros who don't do much other than wisecrack and shoot pool. As one of the characters puts it; happiness is a cue in one hand, beer in the other, and his "mates"...oh, yeah, and his girl. In a film about pool you might expect some great trick shots but "Stickmen" manages to muster only a single massé shot. Very ordinary stuff for men only. (C)

Stickmen was great on video for an easy night in. Having heard positive feedback about it for so long I was pleasantly surprised when my high expectations were not disappointed. Sure - it bore some similarities to Lock Stock, but who cares? The caper genre is nothing new. Plans are made, foiled, remade, and the crafty plot comes with some genuinely funny laughs. In fact, I liked it better than Lock Stock for the mere fact that in the place of mass gratuitous violence was a game: we see more confrontations with pool cues than with guns, and yet Stickmen still maintains the seedy/tough flavour. Not only that but there are female characters who are central to the plot, and they even have their own personalities! A great piece of filmmaking.

This was definatley not what i was expecting, there are of course simalarities between lock, stock and two smoking barrels but i found these easy to overlook. The premise, Three friends get roped in to an underground pool tournament run by a fairly mean guy called daddy who doesn't want them to win, they of course do win, (as impossible as the winning shot is) and everyone is happy, very enjoyable movie, the kiwis sure know how to make quality films.

This film has to be one of the all time best from us Kiwi's. It has managed to wrap comic material with menace and poolhall excitement in a great entertainment package. I hope it does enormously well on the international stage - it deserves to.