Jane Markey Movies
- 1986
Australian Allan Penney must not only endure the encroaching exigencies of old age, but also the indignities perpetrated by his unfeeling wife Diana Davidson and his bragadoccio ex-business partner Rob Steele. Davidson bundles Penney off to a nursing home while she embarks on an around-the-world tour. Hoping to ferret out Penney's secret bank account, his avaricious sons Philip Quast and Kelly Dingwell bring the doddering, all-but-blind old man home, feign concern for his well-being, and stage a "world cruise" in Penney's backyard! Their charade extends to a shopping mall, which stands in as both an airport and Las Vegas. Though in the early stages of senility, Penney eventually figures out he's being hoodwinked, but decides to keep mum, seeing just how far his sons are willing to go for his "benefit." Entering into the spirit of things, he demands geisha girls upon "arriving" in Japan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Philip Quast, Allan Penney, (more)
The ugly American bullying his way through a foreign country was a subject for comedy in several films of the 1980s, most notably Bill Forsyth's Local Hero and this film from exiled Yugoslavian director Dusan Makavejev. Eric Roberts plays Becker, an aggressive marketing executive for the Coca-Cola Company; he has been assigned to figure out why sales in hot and dry Australia aren't higher. Becker comes up against a low-key but formidable adversary, T. George McDowell (Bill Kerr), whose homegrown soda has cornered the market in his little corner of the country. Complicating matters is Terri, a local woman (Greta Scacchi) Becker hires as his secretary; she's McDowell's daughter and a single mom who's romantically attracted to the brash American. Becker wants to make a deal on his (and his employer's) terms, but he finds himself falling prey to the charms of life Down Under and the ministrations of Terri. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Greta Scacchi, (more)
