Peter Phelps Movies

Temptation turns a man's life upside down in this noir-influenced thriller from Australia. Ray Yale (David Roberts) is a construction worker who is married to Martha (Lucy Bell) and is helping to build an upscale resort hotel just outside Sydney. Ray isn't entirely happy in his marriage, and his roving eye has become focused on Carla (Claire van der Boom), a hairdresser who lives next door. Carla is married to a low-level mobster, Greg (Anthony Hayes), but she craves excitement and is soon having a torrid affair with Ray. Carla knows that Greg has a large bundle of cash hidden in their home, and she hatches a scheme she shares with Ray -- they steal they money, set fire to the house, and run off together, with Greg imagining the cash was lost in the blaze. While Ray isn't interested in a life of crime, he can't say no to Carla, but when he develops cold feet at the last minute, his attempts to reach Billy (Joel Edgerton), who was hired to torch the house, are unsuccessful, and things take a turn for the worse when he learns that Greg's aged mother was in the house when it burned to the ground. Ray quickly realizes he's been implicated in a murder, and Billy doesn't hesitate to use this knowledge to his advantage. The Square was the first directorial project for Nash Edgerton, who previously was one of the leading stuntmen in the Aussie film industry. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Gregor Jordan's version of the Australian legend Ned Kelly stars Heath Ledger as the title outlaw. Sixteen-year-old Irish immigrant Ned is sentenced to three years in prison for stealing a horse. After his release he finds work tending to horses owned by Richard Cook (Nicholas Bell), whose wife (Naomi Watts) grows interested in Ned. Fitzpatrick (Kiri Paramore) is a police officer with a yen for Ned's sister, Kate (Kerry Condon). When she rejects him, Fitzpatrick steals the family's animals. The brothers are falsely accused of a crime and go into hiding, leading to the assault and arrest of their beloved mother. Francis Hare (Geoffrey Rush) is eventually brought on to stop the gang, which becomes famous after a string of bank robberies. The film also features Orlando Bloom (of Lord of the Rings fame) and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under). The most recent version of this oft-filmed tale featured Mick Jagger as the infamous Kelly in 1970. ~ Perry Seibert, 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

In this Australian thriller set in Queensland, a writer returns from LA to Michelton, his tiny hometown, to attend the funeral of his best friend, and finds himself involved in a manhunt for a deranged serial killer. It all begins at the funeral when Matt Curran sees the sister of Andy, his late friend. Cathy, who is also an ex-lover of Matt's, and who doesn't believe the official report that Andy committed suicide. She believes that he was murdered because Andy knew that the courts convicted the wrong man for the killings of several young men. Matt is intrigued and decides to look for the truth. He is opposed by Chris, the town cop who is jealous because his wife Sandra had once loved the writer. Matt is not deterred and continues looking. Soon he finds himself following a baffling trail of clues, consisting of obscure biblical references, and body parts from the slain women. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romance, after they accidentally have a little fender bender, a lawyer's wife and a truck driver find true love in Australia. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The direct-to-video Merlin brings the King Arthur legend up to date. The fun begins when a young Californian traces the ol' family tree directly back to Merlin the Magician. The twist: Merlin's descendant is a woman, played by Nadia Cameron. The good news is that the woman is endowed with special powers. The bad news is that the bad guys find out ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Certain films were clearly made before their time, others, such as this one, delve into a genre obviously well past its heyday. In this story, Ross is a young Australian man who has decided to drop out of his everyday life in order to come to grips with himself in the surfing scene. As he is leaving in his car for the coast, he has a confrontation with a gang of crazed bikers which leaves one of the nutso lads' bikes on the scrap-heap. This does not sit well with them, and they vow revenge. While the bikers prepare to track him down and make him pay for his violation of their integrity, Ross is on the beaches finding himself. Had the surfing footage been more exciting, or the bikers been more believably menacing, viewers might have forgiven the filmmakers for taking another pass at the "surfers vs. bikers" theme. Instead, reviewers noted that unintended laughter punctuated the screenings they attended. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

An elite Australian cavalry unit attacks the Turkish-held stronghold of Beersheba in this World War I adventure drama. Four friends goes through the trials of battle in this epic $10 million production. The Australians resent being led by the British who continually misuse the cavalry. They conspire to strike out on their own to prove their effectiveness and drive the Turkish hordes from the desert town. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi