Vince Colosimo Movies

Fresh off the success of their inventive take on the zombie genre, Undead masterminds Michael and Peter Spierig direct Ethan Hawke in an ambitious tale of a futuristic Earth populated entirely by vampires, and the efforts made by the creatures to ensure that their food supply doesn't run out as humankind is faced with extinction. The year is 2017, and a vampire plague has turned most of the planet's human population into bloodsucking ghouls. As the population of mortals fast begins to dwindle, a vampiric corporation sets out to capture and farm every remaining human while simultaneously researching a consumable blood substitute, headed by undead hematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke). His work is interrupted after stumbling onto a pocket of human survivors lead by Elvis (Willem Dafoe), a former vampire, whose past reveals a cure that could reverse the tide and save the human race. With time running out, Dalton's only hope lies in outsmarting the security forces of his boss (Sam Neill), whose goal isn't just to find a substitute, but to repopulate humanity in order to sell its blood to the highest bidder. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A criminal looking to go straight finds an unusual obstacle in his path in this crime thriller from Australia. Jack Barrett (Colin Friels) is a hired killer who has spent years snuffing out the lives of strangers at the behest of the Sydney Mafia. Jack has lost his taste for violence and wants to get out of the game, but while trying to sell his gun collection at a pawn shop, Jack makes the acquaintance of Billie Finn (Bojana Novakovic). Billie is a university student who is writing her master's thesis on organized crime, and when she guesses what Jack does for a living, she becomes a near-constant presence in his life, wanting to know everything about murder for profit and the men who pay him for his talent. While Jack is initially wary, he develops a soft spot for the nervy student, and he tells her a bit about what she wants to know. However, Jack's superiors soon get wind of his new friend and her project, and they begin to suspect she's learned more than they'd like, and they assign Jack a final hit -- kill Billie. Solo was written and directed by Morgan O'Neill, who won the assignment as part of a screenwriting contest sponsored by Miramax Pictures and Live Planet. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Marc Gracie's Australian comedy Take Away concerns a business rivalry between fast food entrepreneurs. Starting with a segment that shows the birth of fast food, the film quickly establishes the relationship between Tony (Vince Colosimo) and Trevor (Stephen Curry). The anal Tony runs a fish and chip stand more or less right next to the free-wheeling Trevor's more exotic stand that offers calamari burgers. The two have known each other forever, as their fathers owned a restaurant together. They had a falling out and the feud has been passed down to the sons. After they learn that a large fast food corporation, Burgies, is coming into the area, Tony and Trevor work together to stop them. John Howard portrays the head of the Burgies company. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Australian filmmaker Tony Ayres makes his feature-film debut with the psychological drama Walking on Water. Terminally ill Gavin (David Bonney) is nursed by his housemates Charlie (Vince Colosimo) and Anna (Maria Theodorakis). Gavin's mother, Margaret (Judi Farr), and brother Simon (Nathaniel Dean) come to stay at the house to say goodbye. After Gavin's death, the group turns to drinking, drugs, and various affairs. Anna starts seeing Simon, who is married to Kate (Anna Lise Phillips), while Charlie struggles with his relationship with Frank (Nicholas Bishop). Walking on Water won several award from the Australian Film Institute and won Best Feature Film at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

The intertwined lives of four couples living in and around Sydney, Australia, form the structure for this drama masquerading as a whodunit. Andrew Bovell freely adapted his play, Speaking in Tongues, opening up the action, as the geography and topography of Sydney and its suburbs become major characters as well. The film opens with a shot of what looks like a corpse entangled in a thick stand of branches -- the title plant, which grows in profusion in Australia. Bovell and director Ray Lawrence take their time in explaining whose body that is and then slowly reveal, with no help from a number of red herrings, how it happened to be there. The principal players are Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey), a psychiatrist with issues over her child, a murder victim; her husband, John Knox (Geoffrey Rush), an aloof professor whom she suspects of infidelity; Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia), a police detective cheating on his wife, Sonja (Kerry Armstrong), who is a patient of Valerie's. Zat's mistress, Jane O'May (Rachael Blake), is someone he met at a dancing class his wife dragged him to; she is estranged from her husband, Pete (Glenn L. Robbins). Their neighbors, Paula (Daniela Farinacci) and Nik D'Amato (Vince Colosimo), try to stay neutral in the O'Mays' split; she works days as a nurse and he's unemployed and minds their children. Suspicion around the disappearance of one character manages to enmesh all of the others. Bovell's stories are about secrets, real and imagined, and how they can poison relationships. The film virtually swept all the major awards at the Australian Film Institute's annual ceremony, though its reception in the States was mildly respectful. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

This Australian drama is based on the life and times of Mark "Chopper" Read, a notorious Aussie criminal who went on to become a best-selling author, publishing nine books about his exploits outside the law. In 1978, Chopper (played by Eric Bana) is serving a 16-year sentence for abducting a judge who was overseeing the trial of his best friend Jimmy (Simon Lyndon). Jimmy and Chopper end up sharing a cell, along with Keithy George (David Field), a crime boss; when a disagreement between Keithy and Chopper escalates into violence, Chopper kills Keithy, leading to retribution from the gangster's mates, who hire Jimmy to do their dirty work. To escape, Chopper forces a friend to cut off one of his ears so he'll be transferred to another prison. Eight years later, Chopper is out of prison and looking for Jimmy in hopes of getting revenge; in the meantime, he's looking to get even with another of his enemies, Neville (Vince Colosimo), and trying to keep his eye on his girlfriend, Tanya (Kate Beahan), who supports herself as a call girl. While the real "Chopper" Read was not directly involved in the production, comic Eric Bana was cast in the lead at Read's suggestion. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi