Appropriately for a sports-related film, this new Aussie comedy is very much a game of two halves.
In the first, the manager of a hobby cricket team signs up his team of no-hopers to play a professional tour in India.
By the time the Abbotsford Anglers play their first disastrous match against a Kolkata team, it seems we’re in for a low-key tale of passionate losers beating the odds.
There’s a few half-decent jokes, a few more indecent jokes and the promise of some sporting drama.
Unfortunately, the film loses its focus in the second half so that we’re no longer sure exactly what’s at stake.
Lead Stephen Curry is likeable enough, but there’s no real sense of any of the characters coming to find their unique strengths (or depths) to win victory.
Instead, the film veers off into fantasy.
As a result, the crucial matches are about as nail-biting as a boozy knockabout in the local park.
