Sue Smith Movies
One of the most notorious slasher films of the 1980s returns to terrorize filmgoers with this blood-soaked remake that proves just how horrifying high school dances can truly be. Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow) has survived a terrible tragedy, but now the time has come to leave the past behind and celebrate her senior prom in style. When the big night finally arrives, Donna and her best friends prepare to enjoy their last big high-school blowout by living it up and partying till dawn. But while Donna is willing to look past her nightmares and into a brighter future, the man she thought she had escaped forever has returned for one last dance. An obsessed killer is on the loose, and he'll slay anyone who attempts to prevent him from reaching his one and only Donna. Who will survive to see graduation day, and what will Donna do when she's forced to confront her greatest fear? Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, and Dana Davis co-star in the slasher remake that will have tuxedo-clad teens everywhere nervously looking over their shoulders as they file out onto the dance floor. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, (more)
- 2008
A man accused of a crime he has no memory of committing must survive incarceration long enough to stand trial in this brutal drama featuring Pete Postlethwaite. In the aftermath of a drunken one night stand, Ben Coulter (Ben Whishaw) awakens hung-over and bloodied, and lying next to the dead body of a young woman. Every shred of evidence indicates that Ben is the killer, but if that's the case how is it that he has absolutely no recollection of such a brutal crime? Thrown behind bars until the day that he will stand before a judge and jury, Ben discovers that the strong survive in prison, and the weak often perish. Should he somehow manage to live long enough to have his day in court, odds are good Ben will wind up right back where he is, in the middle of a sadistic nightmare from which he can not wake up. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Whishaw
Blockbuster action director Michael Bay delivers a striking look at a strange world of the future in this sci-fi action drama. Midway through the 21st century, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) lives in a confined indoor community after ongoing abuse of the Earth has rendered most of the planet uninhabitable. One of the only places in the outside world still capable of sustaining life is an idyllic island where citizens are chosen to live through a lottery. Or at least that's what Lincoln and his fellow citizens are taught to believe; the truth is that Lincoln, like everyone he knows, is actually a clone who is kept under wraps to provide needed organs when the person who supplied his or her DNA falls ill. When he becomes aware that his existence is a fraud, Lincoln escapes to the outside world with a fellow clone, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), though the powers that be are determined to see that no one gets away alive. The Island also stars Steve Buscemi, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sean Bean. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, (more)
An 18-year-old orphan teetering on the verge of womanhood attempts to unlock the secrets of her shrouded family past by setting out into the Australian countryside with little more than her mother's diary and a mysterious older lover to guide her in an intimate drama directed by Craig Monahan and starring Hugo Weaving and Emma Lung. Orphaned as a young child by a horrific car accident and locked into a forbidden love affair with the one-time trade unionist who now works as a factory manager at the peach-canning factory where she currently works, Steph (Lung) is a typical teenage girl who longs for a better life. With an unknown future on the horizon and a painful past slowly shrinking away in her rearview mirror, Steph attempts to find out everything she ever wanted to know about the family she once lost while never losing hope that she will one day find success on her own terms. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
In My Father's Den (2005), a universally acclaimed New Zealand feature, swept over 15 international honors and virtually owned the 2005 New Zealand Film Awards. This intelligently crafted, penetrating drama travels in the footsteps of such masterpieces as The Myth of Fingerprints, In the Bedroom, and The Son's Room by detailing an indigenous, scarred family's attempt to heal from age-old wounds. The haunting story begins with war journalist Paul (Matthew MacFadyen), who returns to his childhood home to bury his father. Although few words are spoken, the pain and resentment of past traumas continue to sear and burn in Paul's mind, and become rapidly evident via Paul's struggles to interact normally with his brother (Colin Moy) and eerily laconic sister-in-law (the celebrated Miranda Otto). Upon moving into a local cottage, Paul feels somewhat validated and encouraged when he inadvertently (and innocently) befriends a teenager, Celia (Emily Barclay), an intelligent girl with a love of books who starts to borrow volumes from Paul's personal library; they share a distaste for the community and its people, and a difficulty with social adjustment. But when Celia goes missing, and all fingers in the narrow-minded, gossip-ridden small town point in Paul's direction, the bough starts to break for the young man. In an effort to clear the accusations, Paul starts an informal investigation, from which the unspoken secrets of his family's past and the mystery of Celia's absence will ultimately dovetail into a tragic discovery. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew MacFadyen, Miranda Otto, (more)
- 2002
The formative years of celebrated Australian feminist Jill Ker-Conway are recounted in the two-hour TV biopic The Road From Coorain. Growing up in the Outback of New South Wales in the 1930s, Jill chafes under the domination of her mother, Eve (Juliet Stevenson), a prickly relationship that becomes even more so after the death of Jill's father. Though she grows wealthy from various investments, Eve becomes a bitter alcoholic, all but forcing Jill to go out into the world and stand on her own two feet. Drawn into the Australian intellectual renaissance of the 1940s, Jill finds her feminist values challenged when she falls in love with rough-hewn American mining engineer, Alec (Tim Guinee). First telecast in Australia on March 3, 2002, The Road From Coorain was seen in America as an episode of the PBS anthology Masterpiece Theatre on May 13, of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juliet Stevenson
- 1997
The Australian drama series Fallen Angels was set in the fictional Sydney suburb of Endeavor Park. The stories dealt with a community legal center, populated by lawyers who'd either been washed out of legitimate firms or who were too temperamental and unpredictable to survive in any other legal environment. Though snappish and stressed-out, the lawyers were sincere, honest, and dedicated to the well-being of their impoverished clients. Debuting February 7, 1997, on Australia's ABC network, Fallen Angels ran for 20 episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Australian filmmaker Ken Cameron directs the six-part television miniseries Brides of Christ, originally broadcast in 1991. The series involves a group of six women at an Australian convent school during the 1960s, a time of social turbulence and Vatican reforms. Sister Agnes (Brenda Fricker) leads the group of nuns with Mother Ambrose (Sandy Gore). The younger nuns include Sister Catherine (Josephine Byrnes) and Sister Paul (Lisa Hensley). Also at the convent are teenagers Frances Heffernan (Naomi Watts) and Rosemary Fitzgerald (Kym Wilson). Each of the six episodes focuses on one character. Russell Crowe appears in a small role. Brides of Christ premiered in the U.S. on A&E. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
