Paul Hogan Movies
Australian actor Paul Hogan was mellow-voiced and rugged enough to succeed as an action hero, but he loved making people laugh, something he'd been doing on a professional basis since his debut as a blindfolded, tap dancing knife thrower on the Aussie TV amateur contest New Faces. With his late-1970s weekly half hour TV show The Paul Hogan Show, he became the most popular comedian in Australia. His material was limited to a handful of subjects -- breasts, bums, beer, and soccer -- but the series' selling card was Hogan's ability to play a wide variety of distinct characterizations, sometimes making the transition from one character to another so quickly that he literally seemed to be two different people. Hogan was able to expand his popularity to England with a series of commercials for Australian Lager Beer; but though The Paul Hogan Show had been shown on a smattering of American independent and PBS stations, he was largely unknown in the U.S. While visiting New York in 1985, Hogan was struck by the wide cultural gaps between the Big Apple and the Outback. With his manager John Cornell as director, Hogan took a big chunk of his TV earnings and produced an amiable culture-clash comedy, Crocodile Dundee (Hogan and Cornell owned 65 percent of the picture, the rest going to the circle of friends who'd invested in the project). To make sure that American audiences would be primed for this film, Hogan agreed to film a series of "visit Australia" ads for no salary. The strategy worked: Crocodile Dundee opened big in the U.S. in the fall of 1986, ultimately posting a worldwide gross of $375,000,000. While filming Dundee, the long-married Hogan fell in love with leading lady Linda Kozlowski; after divesting himself of wife number one (he claimed that the marriage was on the rocks anyway), Hogan made Kozlowski his bride -- and his most frequent costar in subsequent productions. Those later Paul Hogan vehicles failed to match the popularity of Crocodile Dundee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Some folks will do anything to pinch a penny, and when a pair of lifelong friends discovers that they can evade the taxman by pretending to be a loving gay couple, their worries are just beginning in this comedy starring Paul Hogan and Michael Caton. Though their simple plan seems to go off without a hitch at first, the arrival of a by-the-books tax inspector threatens to blow the lid off of their inventive scheme. Now, with the IRS on their back and the pressure mounting, the stage is set for a series of comic misadventures you won't forget in this warmhearted tale of friendship and the eternal quest to beat the taxman at his own game. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Michael Caton, (more)
- 2001
- PG
- Add Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles to QueueAdd Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles to top of Queue
Director Simon Wincer teams up with his fellow Australian and star Paul Hogan for this second follow-up to the 1986 sleeper hit. Mick Dundee (Hogan) is still making his home in the tiny outback town of Walkabout Creek with his significant other Sue (Linda Kozlowski), and now joined by their young son Mikey (Serge Cockburn). Crocodile hunting has been made illegal, and Mick has been reduced to wrestling the animals for tourists. When an opportunity comes up for Sue to take over as L.A. bureau chief of a newspaper owned by her father, Mick and family cross the Pacific to California. There, Mick and his son's encounters with the natives cause more than a few cross-cultural mishaps, including a massive traffic jam on the freeway when the Dundees attempt an animal rescue. In the meantime, Mick becomes an amateur sleuth helping to probe the mysterious death of his wife's predecessor at the newspaper. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles was inspired by star Hogan's real-life move to Los Angeles. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, (more)
- 1998
Based on novelist Tim Sandlin's Sorrow Floats, this moving drama follows an alcoholic woman and two recovering drinkers as they travel across the nation in search of her son, who was taken away from her by her husband. Along the way, the journey cannot help to inspire the woman to embark upon a quest for her own salvation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosanna Arquette, Paul Hogan, (more)
In this adventure drama for the family, based on the popular TV series of the mid-'60s, Sandy Ricks (Elijah Wood) is a moody teenager from Chicago who is not dealing well with the recent divorce of his parents. In the hope that a change of scenery will do him good, Sandy is sent to spend the summer with his Uncle Porter (Paul Hogan), an aging hippie and fisherman who lives on Coral Key, an island off the coast of Florida. The sun and sand do little to improve Sandy's outlook on life, even after he meets Kim (Jessica Wesson), a pretty girl who lives nearby, but he becomes sunnier when he encounters Flipper, a friendly dolphin, while boating with Porter. When Sandy helps save Flipper from a pack of bloodthirsty charter-boat fishermen, led by the mean-spirited Dirk Moran (Jonathan Banks), the dolphin becomes the boy's loyal companion (at least when Sandy is close to the water). But Sandy soon discovers that Dirk is dumping toxic waste into the waters of Coral Key, and with the help of Cathy (Chelsea Field), a friend of Porter's with a background in marine biology, Sandy and Porter try to gather enough evidence so that Sheriff Buck Cowan (Isaac Hayes) will be able to put Dirk behind bars. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elijah Wood, Paul Hogan, (more)
In this humorous Western, Aussie Paul Hogan plays a cowboy running from the law. Lightning Jack Kane is a member of the notorious Younger Brother gang. He is the only member to survive their last shoot-out. Fortunately, he was only a minor member of the gang and escapes notice. Jack decides to rob a bank. He gets away with a small amount of cash and a mute, Ben, as a hostage. Unfortunately for Jack, Ben wants to be an outlaw so Jack is stuck with him. Eventually the two become grudging friends. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Cuba Gooding, Jr., (more)
- 1992
In a post-apocalyptic world prone to a dangerous virus, roving motorcycle gangs replenish their draining blood supplies by abducting helpless females. A would-be victim (Melanie Kilgour) decides to fight back with her friend (William Smith) and two hippie-rebels (Andrew MacGregor and Joe Maffei). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Australian star Paul Hogan just couldn't seem to come up with a hit comparable to his 1986 international hit Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's Almost an Angel was a nice try, but no cigar. The star plays a lifelong thief who suffers a potentially fatal accident. While "in limbo", Hogan is visited by God (amusingly played by Charlton Heston-well, why not Charlton Heston?). When he recovers, Hogan is convinced that he'd been returned to the land of the living in order to do God's work. He turns over a new leaf, coming to the assistance of wheelchair-bound Elias Koteas and his pretty sister Linda Kozlowski (the real-life Mrs. Hogan). At first suspicious of Hogan, Kozlowski is finally won over by his new-found sincerity. So lightweight that it threatens to float away at any moment, Almost an Angel is held together exclusively by Paul Hogan's star appeal. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to insure a box-office success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Elias Koteas, (more)
An evil drug baron rears his ugly head in this sequel to the blockbuster Crocodile Dundee, kidnapping Sue so that Dundee will butt out of the Baron's affairs. Using outback strategy, Dundee attempts to rescue his girlfriend. Reversing the procedure of the first film, the story later takes the hero and heroine from America back to Australia, making Sue the fish out of water. In the interim between the two films, stars Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski became husband and wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, (more)
Accustomed to a simple life in the Australian Outback, a legendary crocodile hunter has trouble adjusting to his new surroundings when an American journalist brings him to New York City. This Australian comedy delivers exactly what one would expect: plenty of fish-out-of-water gags about the hunter's reactions to the absurdity of modern urban life. Though he initially seems rather naive, Paul Hogan's "Crocodile" Dundee soon demonstrates that his natural ways are rather quite well-suited to city life, proving himself equally adept at defeating muggers and charming members of high society. Along the way, as one might expect, a romance develops between the rugged hunter and the hardened journalist, who finds herself enchanted by his down-to-earth behavior. The story is not particularly original, but the film's good-natured humor proved extremely palatable to audiences, as indicated by its worldwide box office success. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, (more)
- 1985
Anzacs: The War Down Under is a two-part Australian TV movie dramatizing the activities of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). This all-volunteer outfit fought shoulder to shoulder with enlisted men during the First World War. The film concentrates on three Anzacs: An aristocrat (Andrew Clarke), his best friend (Mark Hembrow) and his friend's sister (Megan Williams). Part One details the training of the volunteers, and their first taste of true combat. Part Two details the further activities of the all-volunteer Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS). During the first few months of World War I, aristocratic Anzac Andrew Clarke is wounded, and is urged to go home to convalesce by Megan Williams, the sister of his best friend (Mark Hembrow). Meanwhile, heavy fighting in France has thinned the ranks and battered the morale of the other Anzacs. Featured in the cast as a military man is Paul Hogan. It was Hogan's new-found international stardom in 1986's Crocodile Dundee which sparked the American distribution of Anzacs, two years after its initial 1985 Australian run. The video release is edited from the 10-hour Australian miniseries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
