Famous Australian film critic David Stratton has revealed that the Australian film regrets giving it a bad review.
The 85-year-old man said The Sydney Morning Heraldd, “completely misinterpreted” the 1997 classic The Castle and gave it only one and a half stars.
“It was the first film made by a team that worked in television, and it seemed like a TV movie to me, while I really like the visual side of cinema,” he explained.
“I also found the humor a little condescending.”
David admitted that he has since seen the film several times and finds it very entertaining.
“But I obviously got it completely wrong, since I’ve seen it several times since then and now I think it’s very funny,” he continued.
Famous Australian film critic David Stratton has revealed that the Australian film regrets giving it a bad review.
The 85-year-old told the Sydney Morning Herald he “didn’t fully understand” the classic 1997 film The Castle and awarded it just one and a half stars. In the photo the cast of the film.
Along with his co-presenter Margaret Pomeranz, Stratton was on air for 28 years, first as host of the Movie Show on SBS and then on ABC with At The Movies.
Disagreements with ABC management caused him and Pomeranz to leave the show in 2014.
Stratton continued to support himself in film, fittingly teaching a film history class at the University of Sydney.
The Castle, originally released in 1997, is a comedy about a blue-collar family fighting with developers.
Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Eric Bana and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell starred alongside Michael Caton in this ultra-low-budget film.
The film’s creators Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Jane Kennedy later made another comedy classic, The Dish, in 2000.
Despite its extremely low budget of only $750,000, The Castle was a financial success, grossing $10.3 million at the box office in Australia.
Caton became a popular star in Australia after playing the lead role in The Castle: a Melbourne family man who fights to prevent the government from acquiring his house in its plans to expand a nearby airport.
Stratton presented the popular series The Movies Show on SBS and At The Movies on ABC with Margaret Pomeranz.
Caton has since appeared in a number of top Australian dramas, including Packed to the Rafters, Strange Bedfellows, The Animal and All Saints.
He also starred opposite Sam Neill in Rams last year and in the Packed to the Rafters reboot, Back to the Rafters.
In 2021, Caton revealed that he was paid a pittance to play Darryl Kerrigan in The Castle, pocketing just $3,000 for his time.
‘Eleven day session, $3,000, but decades of career later. That’s the real payoff for The Castle,” Caton told ABC’s Australian Story.