I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Despite its setting in the modern Australian outback, Red Hill is essentially a Western. Ryan Kwanten plans Shane Cooper a young police constable (~ deputy) newly arrived to a small town from the big city with his pregnant wife. He comes up against the local inspector Old Bill (Steven Bisley), a Judge Roy Bean'ish law west of the Pecos, who barely conceals his disdain for someone he suspects is a coward. Cooper's first day on the job, the day over which the film is set, starts off badly and promptly gets worse. An escape from a maximum security prison sees the arrival of convicted murdered Jimmy Conway in town. This news of this escape strikes a chord with a number of the townspeople and sees Old Bill muster a search party, or posse by any other name, in the expectation of the arrival of Conway (chillingly played by Tommy Lewis in an almost wordless dead-eyed performance). Ryan Kwanten, in his first major lead role, is an amiably low-key hero. Although it becomes clear that Old Bill has underestimated his apparently callow young constable his capabilities are not unrealistically augmented and he doesn't suddenly become a combination of McGyver and Rambo when the chips are down. The real power in his performance is more effectively illustrated by the fact that the powerful performances of both Lewis and Bisley do not completely obliterate interest in his presence. Red Hill is among other things a genuinely beautiful film to behold with the shots of Victorian landscape breathtaking to behold and features an excellent score subtly helping to augment the Western atmosphere. As the first film from Patrick Hughes (who produced, directed, wrote, edited and presumably fed and watered the animals) it bodes well for the career to come.

To fully appreciate Red Hill, I think you need to be an Australian. Not that that means you won't enjoy it if you're not. Nonetheless, there is definitely an unmistakable 'difference' from your typical western genre thriller movie that can only really be attributed to the Australian psyche.Having so said, I agree with several other reviewers that Red Hill is well worth the watch. Ryan Kwanten played the part of Shane Cooper, the new-cop-in-town well - although I wondered how long he had been a cop in the city because he was a bit timid to start with even though he had a past incident that framed him as maybe too compassionate to be a hard- nosed law officer. He was clearly a human being who cared and also happened to be a cop! Steve Bisley was every bit the "this is MY town" local sheriff (except that, in this modern version, he's a police inspector who just thinks he's the Wyatt Earp of Red Hill) and plays the part brilliantly.Then there's the protagonist Jimmy Conway excellently played by Tommy Lewis, a Northern Territory Aboriginal from way back. What other reviewers have totally failed to understand is that Tommy plays Jimmy exactly as he would have been in real life - all action and no talk! The make-up crew did an excellent job on him too.The plot is a bit "Blue Heelerish" (for you non-Aussies, that was a very popular TV series set in much the same environment as Red Hill) except that likable Sergeant Tom Croydon was very different from Steve Bisley's Bill.I would have liked to see a bit more development of the wild animal side-plot which I feel was left a bit up in the air (maybe there's a sequel planned to deal with that). All-in-all, a good movie that was pretty true to form (given the true circumstances - which aren't revealed until the very end).

Overall I thought it was a surprising jolt.That is not to say that it was a absorbing examination of the human condition. A thoughtful guy movie? I can stand behind that.We open to some very good but menacing shots of the Australian wilderness. What's going on in the trees? Then we have our hero in a cop uniform in the morning who just can't find his gun. A great way to define a character right off the bat. Good natured but flawed. It's his first day in this town and he has a pregnant wife.We then get a good but brief rundown of this town and its population. For all intents and purposes, it's a western town but in present day. In the police station, the TV in the background says there was an escape from a prison. Nice subtle touch that none of the characters initially notice.I was expecting then some sort of tense thriller. I was wrong.***Spoilers The first stop for the new cop is a ranch where a horse looks half eaten. What did this? Local yore is that it's a panther. But out here? Then the police station finds out who escaped from the prison. Some bad guy from the town who tried to kill the Sheriff and killed his wife.The town goes into lockdown. The convict is going to come back for revenge! What follows is a long and well-done action piece as the "bad guy" eliminates his enemies. But is the "bad guy" the bad guy? I have to say that it was a bit silly how the hero narrowly averted death several times.Then a lot of good elements lead to the end. The panther was re-addressed well. The element of the hero's pregnant wife was handled well. The "last word" from the convict was a nice touch.You've probably seen it before but not done quite as well as this.

I'm not really into Western type action movies but I go to say, I really did enjoy Red Hill. The story was kind of unexpected though a little obvious towards the middle of the actual plot.The action kept dragging a little but the story it self kept me interested .Well worth a watch.Ryan Kwanten acting seems the same in everything I've seen him in but I do like the guy. He does do his part well and I can take him serious. I'll defiantly look out for more of his Movies and TV.I did find one thing quite strange, where did the town folk disappear? I understand that an alert was sent out into town and where did they all go? No one else in town through out the movie?Finally, what's the deal with the panther? Was that necessary?Over all, do watch it. I did enjoy.