It is 1988 and two best friends from Ireland flee from Belfast after a violent confrontation with Colin of the IRA and illegally enter Australia, finding seasonal work picking fruit at orchards to afford hostels, sustenance and booze costs, the last often used to dim the two's fear of immigration officers. After some gentle persuasion, Fergus Montague goes on a TV dating game show and wins a trip to Queensland. This, however, occurs just as the pair's apartment is raided by immigration officerDerek Johnson and Wesley Murray is forced to escape and eventually joins his friend in Queensland. Meanwhile, Colin is sent to Australia in a witness protection program after he gives up some of his former colleagues, and names Fergus and Wesley as terrorists. Irritated by their lack of progress he eventually takes off to find them himself. The two make their way up the coast and become acquainted with backpackers Alice and Erica along the way. After their car overheats and explodes in the outback, the duo narrowly evade Colin, who has finally caught up with them. With the help of a local who calls himself Ron Barassi the duo make their way to a pub where immigration, the S.A.S. and a police force who discovered their burnt-out car and Colin have all arrived at. As the duo are being carted away, Colin shoots out the windows of the police car and the duo escape once more, running off into the sunset.
The film's Rotten Tomatoes score is 47% from 1,087 public reviews.
The film's IMDb score is 5.5/10 from 520 public reviews.
Critical reception
In a review in the long-running SBS Australian TV program, The Movie Show, cinema critic David Stratton described the film as an only intermittently funny road movie. Margaret Pomeranz agreed, finding the script underdeveloped, and the film itself "good-natured but really incredibly mundane". Long running website 's reviewer "Filmink Magazine " says "Jimeoin's challenged himself with a film and come off pretty well." and that "With a healthy measure of eighties nostalgia and a neat storyline, The Craic avoids falling into the trap of seeming like series of sketches pasted together.", talking of course about Jimeoin's roots as a stand-up comic and a TV comedy star of his show Jimeoin before this film was developed and released, his second film and first Lead role.
Box office
The Craic grossed $5,265,935 at the box office in Australia. It took almost $2 million during its first week in cinemas, placing it in the same opening league as acclaimed Australian films such as Muriel's Wedding and. The average budget for films that year was $3,100,000.
