Jon Brazier Movies

In Scarfies, a group of college students think they've stumbled into some fast money only to discover there are some dangerous strings attached. Reliable Scott (Neill Rea), practical Emma (Willa O'Neill), naive Graham (Charlie Bleakley), charming but sneaky Alex (Taika Cohen) and Alex's embittered ex-girlfriend Nicole (Ashleigh Seagar) are all students at New Zealand's Otago University; Otago students are nicknamed "Scarfies" for the scarves that were once part of the student uniform. The five are looking for a cheap place to live and seem to have found one when they discover a large, abandoned house suitable for squatting, complete with electricity. But the real bounty is in the basement, which is hiding a large, lush garden of marijuana. The five quickly harvest the herb and sell it for a quick $50,000 (far less than it was actually worth), but they've soon managed to spend their new found wealth just in time for the man who planted the pot to arrive, ready to kill whoever made off with his cash crop. The five trap the intruder in the basement, but when it becomes obvious they need to formulate a long term solution, the tensions start to get the better of them. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A 20-foot "peace" statue, erected to maintain a truce between two warring villages, has been stolen. Everyone thinks that Autolycus (Bruce Campbell) is the culprit, but this time he's innocent. After recovering the statue and returning it to its rightful owners, Xena (Lucy Lawless) and Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) must re-steal the monument so that Autolycus will not lose his standing as King of Thieves -- and then everybody involved has to re-re-steal the darn thing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Xena (Lucy Lawless) once again faces destruction at the hands of war god Ares (Kevin Smith), who has formed a new and powerful army under warlord, Agathon (Jonno Roberts). With no other options, Xena and Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) must forge their own ragtag army, consisting of four condemned prisoners. Unfortunately, Ares has a distinct and dangerous advantage: newly forged armor and weapons that render Ares and his minions all but invulnerable. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Evidently, the "dream" to which every woman aspires in this made-for-TV drama is Mitch Parker (Jeff Fahey), a handsome, charismatic fellow with a smooth line of patter. Mitch proves irresistible to Liz Wells (Kim Cattrall), and the fact that he seems to be wealthy and extremely well connected is the icing on the cake. Eventually Liz marries Mitch, little suspecting that he already has a wife and two children -- not to mention several casual romances on the side. To juggle the various nuances of his double life, Mitch becomes enmeshed in a web of lies in which he casts himself as everything from an entertainment-industry executive to a CIA agent -- and when these prevarications begin to go sour, he makes a sharp and deadly turn into a life of crime. Though adapted from Karen Kingsbury's novel Deadly Pretender, Every Woman's Dream is based on a true story -- and more incredible still, that story is told from Mitch's warped point of view! The film first aired October 15, 1996, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Itinerant peddler Salmoneus (Robert Trebor) suddenly becomes a fabulously wealthy "maiden magnet" when he brokers the sale of the treasure of King Ores. Unbeknownst to Salmoneus, that treasure had been a gift to Ores from the malevolent immortal Hera, who is beside herself with rage. Hera dispatches Nemesis (Teresa Hill), goddess of retribution, to get even with Salmoneus -- and, incidentally, to dispose of Salmoneus' friend Hercules (Kevin Sorbo). Though it turns out that Nemesis does not entirely live up to her name, Hercules has his hands full tussling with ferocious fire monster Pyro (Daniel Batten), not to mention the duplicitous antiques "dealer" Zandar (Andy Anderson). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Writer/director Jane Campion's third feature unearthed emotional undercurrents and churning intensity in the story of a mute woman's rebellion in the recently colonized New Zealand wilderness of Victorian times. Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a mute who has willed herself not to speak, and her strong-willed young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, with Ada the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart (Sam Neill). Ada immediately takes a dislike to Stewart when he refuses to carry her beloved piano home with them. But Stewart makes a deal with his overseer George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to take the piano off his hands. Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave. Campion imbues her tale with an over-ripe tactility and a murky, poetic undertow that betray the characters' confined yet overpowering emotions: Ada's buried sensuality, Baines' hidden tenderness, and Stewart's suppressed anger and violence. The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy of the Outback, complete with a Greek chorus of Maori tribesmen and a blithely uncaring natural environment that envelops the characters like an additional player. Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and the spaces between a character's fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in characters' gazes. And she guides Hunter to a revelatory performance of silent film majesty. Relying on expressive glances and using body language to convey her soulful depths, Hunter became a modern Lillian Gish and won an Oscar for her performance, as did Paquin and Campion for her screenplay. Campion achieved something rare in contemporary cinema: a poetry of expression told in the form of an off-center melodrama. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi