Graham Kennedy Movies

Director Carl Schultz and screenwriter David Williamson's character study of an aging Australian man's second marriage boasts a robust performance by Leo McKern. McKern plays Frank, a man in his seventies, who used to be something of a firecracker, but who now, his best days behind him, prefers to putter-around, play chess, and get under the skin of his new wife Frances (Julia Blake). Frances, forsaking her old family ties (which her family resents her for), marries Frank and agrees to move with him to Queensland. Frank and Frances pack their things and head north, settling into an easy life of fishing and relaxation. They immediately make friends with a lonely neighbor, Freddie (Graham Kennedy) -- and also the local doctor, Saul (Henri Szeps), who informs Frank that he has a bad heart and hasn't much longer to live. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The Killing Fields is a romanticized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine story by New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg. Covering the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975, Schanberg (Sam Waterston) relies on his Cambodian friend and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) for inside information. Schanberg has an opportunity to rescue Dith Pran when the U.S. army evacuates all Cambodian citizens; instead, the reporter coerces his friend to remain behind to continue sending him news flashes. Although his family is helicoptered out of Saigon (a recreation of the famous TV news clip), Dith Pran stays with Schanberg on the ground. Racked with guilt, Schanberg does his best to arrange for Dith Pran's escape, but the Cambodian is captured by the dreaded Khmer Rouge. Accepting his Pulitzer Prize on behalf of Dith Pran, Schanberg vows to do right by his friend and extricate him from Cambodia. The rest of the film details Dith Pran's harrowing experiences at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and his attempt to escape on his own. The Killing Fields won Academy Awards for Hang S. Ngor (a Cambodian doctor who lived through many of the horrific events depicted herein), cinematographer Chris Menges, and editor Jim Clark; an Oscar nomination went to Roland Joffe, who made his directorial debut with this film. Spalding Gray, who played a small role in the film, later elaborated on this experiences in his one-man stage presentation Swimming to Cambodia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This patchy, uneven combination of fantasy and musical comedy is hilarious in parts and embarrassing in others, though the premise has great potential in itself -- a screwball Captain Invincible is out to save the world from his nemesis, Mr. Midnight, the white supremacist. Captain Invincible (Alan Arkin) is wallowing in his cups in the Australian outback when he receives an unusual call from the American President asking for his help. Unusual because the Captain had no choice but to go into exile after Joseph McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee became suspicious of his red cape, and he has never been sober enough to recover from the shock. This history is given in a mock newsreel at the beginning of the film. But now Mr. Midnight is threatening to dismember New York City by convincing all the ethnic groups to live along the seashore. Once they are situated on beachfront property, he will blast out a crack in the earth behind them, cut their connection to the mainland, and send them drifting off into the Atlantic. It seems the dastardly Midnight has stolen the ultra-secret hypno-ray and can slice off New Jersey whenever he wants. Weakened by depression and alcohol, Captain Invincible is nursed back to full throttle by Patty Patria (Kate Fitzpatrick) and is soon ready to zoom over Sydney to the far side of the globe -- after practicing in harness in front of rear-projected scenes. Meanwhile, Mr. Midnight and his sidekick are all set to defend their turf, and their ability to slice it up -- though the (American) patriotic sentimentality that prevails in the end, after several other songs have come and gone, is summarized in a rendition of "God Bless America" that conflicts with the opening scenes and may leave foreign audiences cold. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In The Odd Angry Shot director Tom Jeffrey provides a cathartic Australian answer to Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. Australia's participation in the Vietnam War was as much of an alienating and soul-searching experience for Australians as for Americans, and Jeffrey's frank portrayal of a group of Australian volunteers casts the war in a different light from the perspective of a Cimino or Oliver Stone. The story concerns a corp of Australian elite soldiers -- the Special Air Service troops (the equivalent of the United States' Special Forces group) -- and the elite group's more pragmatic and hopeful attitudes -- whiling away the time in mindless diversions and cracking jokes. Then one of their own is killed and their feelings about the war suddenly change. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Though this movie is based on an Australian TV series, The Box stands successfully on its own. In the movie, Channel-12 owner Sir Henry Usher (Fred Betts) has engaged the services of Dr. Winter (Cornelia Francis), an efficiency expert, in the forlorn hope of having the station turn a profit. When Dr. Winter arrives on the scene, she is confronted with the station's efforts to produce a hopelessly awful adventure drama, "Manhunt." Efforts on the part of station personnel to placate, appease and please this implacable (so they imagine) authority continually go awry. Inveterate schemers, the station's personnel manage to have as many romantic misadventures as they have job-related ones. Eventually, they get a clue, and things begin to look rosier for this madcap bunch. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi