Hans Brockmann Movies
Set in the Deep South during the postwar era, Wise Blood stars Brad Dourif as an aimless veteran, who decides to become a Bible-thumping preacher (for a questionable concern called "The Church Wihout Christ") principally because he hasn't anything better lined up. Dourif links up with a veteran of the hellfire-and-brimstone circuit, who for business purposes pretends to be blind. The older man persuades Dourif to blind himself for real so that he can truly "see the light" (yes, the movie is that weird). Director Huston, himself, appears as Dourif's grandfather. Adapted from the one-of-a-kind novel by Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood was a noble experiment but a box-office failure-though, to be fair, Huston never set out to make a blockbuster from O'Connor's offbeat tale. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty, (more)
- 1980
This love story that uses Chamissoplatz Square as the substance of its plot development, contrasts with the documentary on the housing crisis embodied by Chamissoplatz Square: Und Wenn Wir Nicht Wollen (...And If We Don't Want To...), directed by Udo Radek and released slightly earlier in 1981. Berlin Chamissoplatz uses meetings between tenants and city officials, and spin-off activities from the housing issue, to provide ample venues for the two protagonists (an older architect and a younger student) to fall in love. The architect wants to demolish the buildings and redevelop the area, the student is fighting against demolition. The Chamissoplatz sector was one of the hot spots of the housing turmoil in the city, getting worse even as this film was released. As street fights were breaking out in the real Berlin, the film has its lovers escaping to Italy for a passionate interlude. The film is not exactly "Walt Disney meets Watts," but the producers might have reconsidered the timing of its release. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hanns Zischler
- 1983
In a complex plot that loses punch through weak dialogue, a computer hack, his love interest, and a friend plan a bank heist involving the transfer of funds from a Berlin bank to a bank in Zurich "over the wires." They have everything worked out when they realize that they will have to join forces with some gangsters in order to physically reach the bank's computer -- and in that process, a guard is killed. Somehow, things still work out and the trio is off to Zurich to pick up their millions -- though no one can guarantee that absolutely nothing will go wrong from this point onward. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Dominique Laffin, (more)
- 1985
- PG13
Forbidden represented not only the TV-movie bow of Jacqueline Bisset, but also the American debut of German film favorite Jurgen Prochnow. Filmed in Berlin by a British production crew, this fact-based story concerns German countess Nina von Halder (Bissett). Despite the anti-Semitic edicts of the Hitler regime, Nina becomes romantically involved with Jewish Fritz Friedlander (Jurgen Prochnow). Complicating matters is the fact that Fritz is already married. The infidelity angle is put on hold as Nina hides her lover from the Nazis, all the while remaining active with the Resistance. Based on the Leonard Gross novel The Last Jews of Berlin, Forbidden originally aired March 24, 1985, over the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1988
- R
Made for television, A Father's Revenge stars Brian Dennehy as a high school basketball coach. When terrorists pull off a political kidnapping in West Germany, Dennehy's stewardess wife Joanna Cassidy is among the hostages. Fed up with the apparent foot-dragging of the authorities, Dennehy takes personal action in effecting Joanna's rescue. He hires Ron Silver's band of mercenaries, then heads to Germany to bring back his wife himself. Credibility is stretched to the limit at times, but the three stars are at their peak. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
- R
Noted French director Claude Chabrol helmed this oddity, a remake of German director Fritz Lang's 1922 classic Dr. Mabuse. The film features an all-star international cast as it tells the futuristic horror story of a bizarre epidemic which has swept West Berlin leaving a grim trail of grisly suicides. Meanwhile, the media broadcasts weird, highly suggestive propaganda. The authorities are appalled by all the bloodshed, but only one lone cop suspects that the "suicides" are really the work of a demented criminal mastermind. The film is also known as Dr. M. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alan Bates, Jennifer Beals, (more)
After getting his big break, an aspiring TV reporter (Terrence 'T.C.' Carson) finds that showbiz ain't all it's cracked up to be. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Terrence "T.C." Carson, Lisa Arrindell, (more)
The popular animated duo of cat and mouse team up again to appear this time on the big screen. Homeless, the 'toons end up helping out a young girl who stays with a nasty auntie while she is separated from her father. Will the young Robyn be reunited with her loving father? Will the odd pair make it on the streets? Will they find a home? ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Kind, Dana Hill, (more)
Sex, religion, and morality are the key ingredients in this Australian comedy set in the 1930s. Rev. Anthony Campion (Hugh Grant) is a liberal, forward-thinking Anglican priest who is sent on an unusual assignment. Norman Lindsay (Sam Neill) is a popular and highly controversial artist whose paintings often feature voluptuous nude women; his latest major exhibition is to feature a work called The Crucified Venus, which depicts a naked female impaled on a cross. Outraged, the Anglican Bishop of Sydney wants Campion to visit Lindsay and persuade him to remove the work from his show. Rev. Campion and his wife, Estella (Tara Fitzgerald), travel to Lindsay's Blue Mountain estate, where the artist is hard at work with a bevy of lovely nude models in tow, including Sheela (Elle MacPherson), Giddy (Portia de Rossi), and Pru (Kate Fischer). The Reverend is quietly appalled by the open sensuality of Lindsay's household, and Estella is mortified; they're even more upset when Lindsay calmly but firmly refuses to remove The Crucified Venus from his show. However, the longer the Campions stay with Lindsay in hopes of changing his mind, the more they find themselves drawn into the sensuous pleasures of his world. Sirens was based on an actual incident and Norman Lindsay was a real artist of the period (his life was depicted in the film Age of Consent, in which he was played by James Mason). But audiences were probably less interested in art and cultural history than in the opportunity to see supermodel Elle MacPherson appear undraped; she also gives a fine and charming comic performance, as do Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, (more)
Near the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance as crippled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint, says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars' worth of cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect, "Verbal" Kint. Kint's nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton's misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their customer asks if they'd be interested in pulling a quick job while out West; the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze's violent reputation is so infamous that he's said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel that they have little choice but to agree. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
Haughty and vain British industrialist Thomas Smithers (Pete Postlethwaite) dearly loves his wife Juliana (Greta Sacchi). Since they only have a daughter (Carmen Chaplin), and a strange one at that, Smithers decides that rather than leaving his fortune to his wife and child, he will build a fabulous garden to honor Julianna, who unfortunately, cares little for such things. Hearing of Smithers's plans, Julianna's conniving cousin Fitzmaurice (Richard E. Grant), who has secretly wanted her for himself, suggests that Smithers hire hot young Dutch garden architect Meneer Chrome (Ewan McGregor) to do the work. Chrome's work does not come cheap, but that is fine with Fitzmaurice who is hoping that the project will bankrupt Smithers and cause Julianna to return to him. Unfortunately for Fitzmaurice, Julianna finds herself falling in love with Chrome. Unfortunately for Julianna, Chrome has fallen in love with her daughter Thea. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Greta Scacchi, (more)
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