Excellent, smart action film.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

As noted by others: no gay film in the actual sense, rather a mixture of surf film, teen movie, growing up story, with a little family drama, a little working-class drama, some gay issues, but especially a film about two (or three) brothers. Therein lies the weakness of the film: it wants too much and gets lost. If it focused only on the brothers and the gay issue, it would surely have been more successful. I don't think the film is a great achievement, but mainly due to the two outstanding characters of Fergus (Xavier Samuel) and the / his grandfather (Barry Otto) it is pleasant and entertaining enough and at the end -with the talk of the twins on the beach about the third brother- it comes full circle. But still: more focus on Fergus and his relationships with family and friends instead of Jesse and his surfing and the beach parties etc. would have certainly worked better and would have been better received by the audience targeted by marketing.

I really liked this movie despite the lengthy surfing scenes and lack of real depth to the storyline. The actors in the film were all entertaining to watch. There was a array of characters with various interactions...some funny, some sad, some utterly bland but contributory nonetheless. The scenery was incredible. I think many modern films lack that beautiful setting which captivates the audience so it was nice to see it be different in Newcastle. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Xavier's and Kirk's characters. It felt real and very believable. I was upset that I missed the scene at the end of the credits. There should have been a heads up that the movie was not yet done. Overall, I give this movie a 9/10 as I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

I can't really say - not what went wrong, but - what didn't go right with this little film. The acting is not actually bad, though the script is easily yelling at times; nice surf shots, but prudish, as another reviewer mentioned, use of half-naked shots, that mar any feeling of contest, or sport, in the film, and the comic effect (I'm talking here about the scene of the two brothers running naked in town) is not delivered. Not quite clumsy; rather half-baked, and somewhat hurriedly edited. Pity, the opening shots were really nice. Why not stick to what they retroactively conveyed, that is a sense of enclosure from the city's industrial whereabouts, and from the huge ships that look like whalers and close off the sea imparting a sense of oppression and the quest for freedom? Newcastle? Looks more like an old hut full of adolescent ware.

While I've seen some over-the-top homophobic comments of two 'reviewers'. This is not a "gay-themed" film. There's a small, but bright facet that is gay-themed.Family, sibling rivalry among brothers, loss, teenage high-jinx, and a lot of surfing overshadows the fact that one brother is gay. The few PG moments of sex are between two older teen boys and their girlfriends. If seeing a male butt, (in a non-sexual context), makes you squirm, you better stay away from a ton of "regular" movies and museums too.Anyway, "Newcastle" is the story of how a tragedy enables a family to overcome nagging internal tensions. There are no villains, just victims of their own fear and disappointment. The performances are all topnotch. A minus for US viewer: occasionally the Aussie accents are a little hard to understand.