Terry Norris Movies

Longtime Australian actor Richard Roxburgh makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of Raimond Gaita's acclaimed memoir, adapted for the screen by poet Nick Drake and starring Eric Bana, Franka Potente, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Despite their hardships in life, Romulus (Bana) and his beautiful wife, Christina (Potente), struggle to raise their son, Raimond (Smit-McPhee), to the best of their abilities. As the deeply moral Romulus struggles to make up for the absence and neglect of the boy's depressive mother, father and son build an unbreakable bond that is only strengthened with the passing of time. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

One of the most expensive miniseres ever assembled for Australian television, Changi covered a time-span of nearly 60 years. The story was told in flashback as a group of six former POWs, arranging a reunion, recalled their experiences in a Singapore prison camp. Though all six suffered mightily at the hands of their Japanese captors, all managed to survive the ordeal and remain friends even after cessation of hostilities. Still, each man had retained a deleterious "side effect" from his imprisonment, which threatened to cast a tragic pall on their reunion. Running an exhaustive gamut from comedy to horror, Changi sustained its believability by having each of the main characters played by two actors -- one young for the WWII scenes, one old for the postwar scenes. Though critics and the general public were impressed when the series first aired on Australia's ABC network from October 14 to November 12, 2001, there were a number of real-life prison camp survivors who condemned the project as unrealistic and offensive (and never mind that at least one of the lead actors on the show had himself weathered six years in a Japanese stockade). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though featuring a simple straightforward story of a small town turned upside down when a car carrying four members of the local women's bowling team flips over and leaves the occupants trapped and hanging, it is the sprightly performances of the ensemble cast that make this quirky Australian comedy special. The first person on the scene of the bizarre accident is Maurie, a somewhat dim-bulbed pig farmer. Unable to think of a way to help poor Margot, Nell, Jean and Carmel -- the ladies inside the car -- he goes off to call the Emergency Services. Unfortunately, the fire department doesn't understand Maurie and can't decide whether he said the women were on Nhill Road (it's pronounced "Nil") or the road to Nhill, and they immediately speed off in the wrong direction. The town sheriff is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile Maurie returns with Brian, a vegetable farmer who just can't cope with the horror of it all, and they both fret about what they should do. As they worry and figuratively wring their hands, the women try to figure out how to save themselves. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide