Loved, loved, loved this film!
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a New Zealand film and I personally think that anything funny said with a New Zealand accent is 15% funnier because of said accent.
Sam Neill is excellent as 'Uncle Hector', foster father to "bad egg" kid Ricky Baker. Ricky is played by Julian Dennison and he is just off the charts! He's brilliant and funny and just a fabulous pairing with Sam Neill.
They wind up on the run in the NZ bush together (prepare for an emotional hit that leads to this - this film isn't just laughs!) meaning they spend most of the film bouncing off each other. The chemistry between them is critical and never disappoints.
My one and only let down in this film is that they couldn't resist the temptation to make fun of a mentally ill person for laughs. Rhys Darby, a New Zealand comic actor who I adore, plays a conspiracy theorist living rough in the bush that they encounter while on the run. I think his comic chops could have been used just as well, without such a strong 'freak show' element.
That's a relatively minor thing in the overall film though, certainly not problematic enough to prevent me from recommending this to you. It's bloody good fun and you should definitely get yourself to a cinema to see it!
The Sydney Morning Herald gave it 3.5 stars which is a bit stiff and News.com.au gave it 5 stars which is probably a fraction too much... somewhere in the middle for me!
Trailer here. In cinemas now.