Terence Cooper Movies

While it is really helpful to know something about the game of rugby to fully appreciate this film, and it would be even better if the viewer was familiar with the competitions between Wales and New Zealand in the mid-1960s, the fundamental premise is something almost any former athlete can appreciate. In the story, in 1966, New Zealand and Wales were in finals competition for an important rugby title, and the score was really close. In fact, the outcome hinged on a decision by a "sideline judge" (something like a referee). Now it is almost fifteen years later, and the judge is on his deathbed, making an urgent confession about something that has worried him all these years: he knowingly made an unfair call. Their victory tarnished, the movers and shakers in Welsh rugby are incensed, as are their counterparts in New Zealand. They insist that the match be replayed -- with the original players. The only problems is, they have for the most part all become out-of-shape middle-class men with beer bellies. Fans of the game should note that among the actors playing on these teams are quite a few former rugby greats from the 1960s. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this comedy, Carlos Munoz (Cheech Marin) travels from America to Australia to find work, and gets a job at a Mexican restaurant. While there, he meets up with poor little rich girl Alex Hobart (Emma Samms) who hires him to pose as her fiance to scare her father into approving of her marriage with her unappealing boyfriend, Bruce Woodley (Vernon Wells). ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

No Way Out is told in flashback as Naval officer Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) is grilled by his superiors regarding a recent "unpleasantness." While at a Washington party, Tom meets Susan Atwel (Sean Young), and they're soon sharing a steamy love scene in the back of a limo (marvelously parodied in 1993's Hot Shots! Part Deux). Several months pass before Tom meets Susan again; he discovers she's the mistress of the US Secretary of Defense David Brice (Gene Hackman). When Susan is murdered by Brice, his loyal aide (Will Patton) dutifully destroys the evidence and invents the fallacious theory that a KGB mole was responsible. Tom is assigned to locate that mole -- a perilous situation, since Tom knows that no such mole exists, but must go along with the charade since he was the last person who was seen with Susan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this tale of sleazy romance that turns deadly, novice Kiwi director Denis Lewiston has created an unevenly paced story with several gripping (and groping) scenes. Christine (Simone Griffeth) is an American married to a rich but crass businessman, and unknown to them both, Greg Sandford (Steve Marchuk) is planning to break into their opulent digs and rob them blind. Right in the middle of carrying out his preparations, he arranges for an "accidental" meeting between himself and Christine -- and the sparks of sexual attraction ignite a blaze that not only lands them in bed, but burns up whatever morals Christine may have left. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

New Zealand educator Sylvia Ashton-Warner (played by Eleanor David) is the subject of this informative and slightly uneven biography, based on the events in Ashton-Warner's adult life. During the 1930s Ashton-Warner moves to a remote village with her husband who has been appointed to be the headmaster in the school there. She tries to teach the Maori children but is having absolutely no luck at all -- that is especially discouraging considering that she is also fighting off culture shock and the effects of a recent emotional breakdown. Driven to find some solace in music, painting, and sculpting, she one day realizes she can use these types of creative activities as teaching tools -- and begins to develop an innovative way to reach her students. She is surprisingly successful, a fact which does not interest the all-male administrators at the school who insist she teach using traditional methods. The stand-off is severe enough that the men burn the manuscript for a new primer Ashton-Warner wrote, insisting later that this was an accident. No one seems to have come out a winner in Sylvia Ashton-Warner's battle with the provincial educators, least of all the students. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Dramatically set against New Zealand's North Island scenery, this uneven but well-acted story is about Cathy (Mary Regan) -- a woman trapped in an incestual relationship with her father (Terence Cooper) on a remote sheep farm -- and a drifter named Daley (Bruno Lawrence) who arrives there looking for work. Daley soon develops an interest in Cathy, who is aloof and remote, and he does not understand why. When he does realize what is wrong, he and Cathy make a crucial decision that is bound to end in violence. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Fred Wells (Patrick McGoohan) is a sullen introvert who still resents the death of his wife in childbirth 25 years earlier. His daughter born at that time, Katie (Emma Piper), runs away from his ravings about sin and damnation and escapes to a hippie-style commune where an unscrupulous guru ends her virginity in a supposed sex ritual. When the arrogant guru is murdered, a shy young man enamored of Katie is first sought by the police -- but the real culprit seems to be her father. The undertones of incestuous desire on the part of the father, and the human reactions when the reality of that tendency is faced, are handled well in this psychological drama. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Retired after years of international espionage, Agent 007 is lured back into action to battle the evil spy organization SMERSH in this notoriously incoherent parody of the James Bond films. David Niven portrays the aging Bond, who atypically rejects the advances of a variety of women, and agrees to battle SMERSH's hold on the lavish Casino Royale only after organization head M is murdered. Also mixed up in the affair are several other secret agents, all named James Bond, played by everyone from Peter Sellers and Woody Allen to a chimpanzee. Despite a star-studded cast, a large production budget, and a hit score by Burt Bacharach, the film was universally panned as a muddled, overlong failure, with the occasional amusing sequence lost in the unintelligible surroundings. The participation of several screenwriters and five different directors, including John Huston, only adds to the confusion. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

In this complex mystery, an American woman is married to a British businessman. The trouble begins when the woman suspects that she is being stalked. She tells this to her husband and his friend. They then go home. While the friend is upstairs making a phone call, the stalker sneaks in and kills her husband. The friend hears the commotion and rushes downstairs. He gets there just in time to hear the killer requesting payment from the wife for services rendered. Later the killer is arrested and makes a full confession. Though he claims the woman paid him to kill her husband, the court remains skeptical. The friend believes the killer, but says nothing. After the trial, he learns that the woman's ex-husband had been blackmailing her with the claim that they were never actually divorced. He pushed her into killing her new husband. When the friend learns the truth, he has no choice but to phone the police and tell them all he knows. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime drama, an impoverished but enamored bank clerk joins his brother's gang of bank robbers so he can afford to marry his sweetheart. Unfortunately, their latest caper fails and the bank clerk accidentally gets involved in a murder leaving him to take a hard look at the life he has chosen. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romance, a crooked, over-ambitious clerk will do anything to make it to the top, even if it means getting engaged to a man she doesn't love. Her "beloved" is the son of her richest client. Fortunately, by the story's end, the woman reconsiders her goals and ends up falling for a minor executive. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi