Written By Lance Mitchell

A wannabe professional thief, his gay best friend, a sexy hostage, some thugs and a mystery package everyone wants.

In the life of a criminal, there will always be that one job where things go awry, sending events spiraling completely out of your control in the blink of an eye. For Frostie, a ‘professional’ small-scale thief who likes to keep things very simple, that one job is about to occur.

Sent by his employers to procure a mysterious package, Frostie (played by Dwayne Cameron – Bray) is about to have simplicity ripped from his very hands as he is forced to take on a hostage who suddenly turns up on the scene of his theft. Exasperated, and with limited choices, Frostie takes the hostage to the home of his gay best friend, Brian, as he then attempts to figure out just what to do in order to return his life to simplicity.

And so begins a hilarious romp, co-written and directed by Dan Maccarthur, as Frostie, Brian and the hostage, Michelle, face decisions, rival thieves, and backstabbing, as they try to uncover just what is so important about the mysterious package, and more importantly, just what they are going to do with it.

Though sometimes outrageous, and more than happy playing to various stereotypes, the moments of comedy throughout the film are pretty darn funny – the main source of which comes from Brian (Leon Cain) who is amazing as the gay best friend. With a love for the Queen, cocktails and social media, this pot-smoking gay man – the bong, of course, is in the shape of a disco light flashing penis – does a stand up job as Brian, his hilarious antics only helping to keep things spiraling into a web of insanity.

Anything made after the year you were born is cheap and nasty and not worth shit.Frostie

The other source of hilarity comes from the two rival thieves – Reeco and Cogzy. Cogzy in particular, played by Ben Weirheim, is outstanding in the role of the ‘dumb / muscle sidekick’, and the musical montage of him getting beaten up by a young woman and her geeky karate-chopping boyfriend at a gas station had me laughing. His IQ levels are played up for a variety of laughs, as we have him respond to a jab about taking his sister up to the make-out point as ‘nah, she’s too fat’, and there is an absolutely hilarious montage of both him and Reeco (Ashley Lyons) trashing Frostie’s apartment.

It’s just a shame really that though everyone is given a lot of comedic material to work with, Dwayne Cameron wasn’t provided with much within his role. That’s not to say that Dwayne doesn’t do a really good job as the respectable and professional thief, but the moments of comedy from Frostie are few and far between. I think I genuinely only chuckled twice at his antics – one in the beginning of the film when he narrates how ‘professional’ he is and has to try cracking a code again, and the other time was a ‘wooden spoon as a weapon’ gag that was built up a scene earlier.

I just wanted him to do a whole lot more, and would have loved it if they had written Frostie as a little less ‘straight-laced’.

As well as the contents of the titled package, a sense of mystery is slowly built up throughout the film as we get small glimpses that there is more to Michelle (Isabella Tannock) than she first appears. In the conclusion to events, it is uncovered that she is the daughter of the Big Boss who went on her own to steal the package and prove herself to her father. But when she finds out just how little he values her life, she quickly turns on him, hooking up with Frostie, and they leave with Brian in tow.

Nice Package
  • Score
3

Summary

With a cool soundtrack and silliness throughout, Nice Package is a fun romp into the disastrous outcome of a professional thief’s so called ‘simple’ job. It’s just a shame that they didn’t give Dwayne Cameron more comedy to work with.