Bryan Brown Movies
With his rugged, everyman exterior and quick wit, Aussie actor Bryan Brown has made an undeniable mark in the world of cinema with unforgettable roles in such efforts as Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant (1980), the innovative action thriller F/X, and the bottle slingin' bartender drama Cocktail (1988). Although public misconception may be that Brown abandoned the Land Down Under for a film career in Hollywood, the lifelong Australian resident remains true to his homeland despite his status as a popular international film star. A former insurance salesman who was bitten by the acting bug early on, the Sydney native soon found stage work in both his hometown as well as London. His film debut as a lovelorn, mentally ill man in The Love Letters From Teralba Road (1977) soon followed, and after gaining positive critical notice for his performance, Brown appeared in minor capacity in such films as Phillip Noyce's Newsfront and Bruce Beresford's Money Movers before his breakout turn as a supporting player in the searing war drama Breaker Morant. His star on the rise in the early '80s, Brown subsequently appeared in the prison drama Stir before turning up in the acclaimed miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983). The musical drama Give My Regards to Broad Street proved a surprising gem to Paul McCartney and Brown fans alike the following year, and with the release of F/X in 1986, Brown became a bankable international star. The film's innovative use of special effects as a means to drive the plot, combined with a smart script and Brown's natural charisma, resulted in a modest hit that spawned both a sequel and a television series (albeit without him).After taking the lead in Tai-Pan (1986) and returning to Australia for the relationship drama The Good Wife (1987), Brown took his biggest Hollywood role to date as a veteran bartender opposite Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Although Brown would have little chance to truly shine opposite the Hollywood heavy, he did manage to steal a few scenes and have fun with the role. Shifting gears entirely for Gorillas in the Mist that same year, Brown was once again offered the opportunity to shine in the role of a National Geographic photographer who falls for primate researcher Dian Fossey Sigourney Weaver. Despite the fact that Brown's '80s momentum may not have carried into the '90s as strongly as fans might have hoped, those who did seek out his films found him still very much at the top of his game. From Nicolas Roeg's existential drama Full Body Massage (1995) to the intensely personal Dead Heart (1996), his performances were consistently thought provoking. After expanding his resumé to include producer credits with the 1991 F/X sequel, Brown did his best to bring stories to the screen that he found personally compelling. His association both in front of and behind the scenes of Twisted Tales (a sort of Down Under Twilight Zone meets The X-Files) helped to maintain his high profile in Australia, and, in 1999, Brown appeared opposite hot-Aussie export Heath Ledger in the comedy drama Two Hands. After more starring roles that year, Brown appeared in the sleeper drama Risk and the nuclear drama On the Beach (both 2000). Having been a youngster in 1960 Australia, the retro-gangster comedy Dirty Deeds had special appeal to Brown, and his turn as a Sydney-based crime syndicate leader who draws the ire of a fearsome Chicago crime family offered a fun take of the gangster-chic trend. Although Brown would threaten to take a break from acting following Dirty Deeds, it wasn't long before he was back in front of the cameras for the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly Captured (2004). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Set against the scenic backdrop of pre-World War II Australia, Baz Luhrmann's romantic period adventure stars Nicole Kidman as an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch, and Hugh Jackman as the rough-and-tumble cattle driver who helps protect her property from greedy English cattle barons. As the pair attempt to herd 2,000 head of cattle hundreds of miles across the treacherous Australian outback, they are stunned to bear witness to the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces -- who just a few months prior launched a devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, (more)
- 2008
Multiple Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole adds yet another offbeat role to his long resume with the mystical comedy-drama Dean Spanley. Adapted from Lord Dunsany's popular novella My Talks with Dean Spanley and helmed by Toa Fraser, the film stars O'Toole as Horatio Fisk, an irascible, cantankerous septuagenarian living out his final days at the turn of the 20th Century. Despite his distant and slightly strained relationship with his son Henslowe (Jeremy Northam), Horatio willfully joins the young man on regular outings; the tedium and monotony of these routines eventually grow so overwhelming, however, that the two decide to attend a lecture on the Transmigration of Souls by a visiting Hindu Swami. At the meeting, their paths intersect with the eccentric Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), and a friendship blossoms between Spanley and Henslowe. When Spanley joins Henslowe for a private dinner, and accepts his invitation to sample a rare Hungarian wine known as the Imperial Tokay, Spanley instinctively brings forth reminiscences of a prior life lived out as a canine - and his recollections hold a rather bizarre connection to Horatio's familial past. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill, (more)
- 2006
In the late 1940's, as Australian politics became increasingly polarized in the wake of the growing Cold War, a group of leftist film enthusiasts who were increasingly troubled by the hesitance of most exhibitors to screen Russian or European films with radical themes founded a film society called the Realist Film Unit. While the Realists initially showed films made by others, the group soon began producing documentaries on political and social issues they believed were being ignored by the mainstream media, including economic injustice and unfair housing practices. While members of the Realist Film Unit found themselves hounded by police and were subjected to surveillance by Australian Security and Investigation Organization, the group continued to make films and document political actions through the 1950's. Australian filmmakers John Hughes and Uri Mizrahi were given a cache of the Realist Film Unit's archival materials by the daughter of founder Bob Matthews, and the documentary The Archive Project looks back at the men and women who comprised the RFU, the issues they explored, the opposition they faced from the Australian authorities, and the historic footage they left behind. The Archive Project received its world premiere at the 2006 Sydney Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A luxury liner has capsized in the middle of the ocean, and it's up to the few remaining survivors to navigate through the treacherous, upside-down maze of terror and make their way to safety in the made-for-television remake of the 1972 disaster film. A terrorist has boarded the luxury liner Poseidon during a lavish New Year's Eve celebration, and when the blast of his bomb causes the immense ship to capsize, the struggle to make it out alive turns into a waterlogged nightmare as the ship slowly continues to take in water. But sinking isn't the only thing the survivors have to worry about, because within their midst the diabolical terrorist is waiting for just the right moment to finish the job he started when he planted the bomb. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A school of ravenous tiger sharks turn a spring break celebration into a frenzied bloodbath, and the only way to survive is to stay away from the beach in a sun-soaked tale of iron-jawed terror starring Shannon Lucio, Kathy Baker, Riley Smith, and Bryan Brown. The hard-partying college coeds aren't the only ones hitting the Florida beach this spring break, and as the keg gets tapped and the beer begins to flow, a school of hungry tiger sharks prepares to move in for the kill. With a virtual buffet of tasty teenage flesh to satisfy their bottomless appetites, the crafty, water-bound killers soon commence to turning the blue waters of the beach blood red. Now forced to fight for their lives against an unrelenting onslaught of unimaginable horror, a group of desperate coeds attempts to put their higher education to the test and outsmart nature's perfect predator. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathy Baker, Bryan Brown, (more)
- 2004
After 25 years of marriage, our heroine Rose (Christine Lathi), the book editor for the "LA Chronicle", is in for a shock. Her husband Nathan (Brian Kerwin), who is also her boss at the "Chronicle", has fallen in love with his much-younger assistant Mindy (Abby Brammell). Humiliating as it is when Nathan files for divorce, it is absolutely unbearable for Rose when she is fired and Mindy is given her job! As she struggles overcome these personal devastations, Rose is reacquainted with Hal (Bryan Brown), a freewheeling novelist with whom she had been in love before she met Nathan--and whom she had rejected because of his "unreliability." All of the main characters are played by different actors in the film's many flashback sequences. Adapted from the book by Elizabeth Buchan, the made-for-TV Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman was first broadcast by CBS on September 26, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Screenwriter John Hamburg directs his second film (since his 1998 debut Safe Men) with the romantic comedy Along Came Polly. Ben Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, a professional risk assessor who never takes chances in any aspect of his life. When his new bride Lisa (Debra Messing) leaves him for a European scuba instructor named Claude (Hank Azaria), he finally decides to a risk of his own. At a party, he meets free-spirited Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), whom he remembers from his seventh-grade Model U.N. Unlike the control-freak Reuben, she's spent her life living on the edge. They reluctantly begin a romance and Polly introduces him to a new world of spicy food and suggestive dances. Along Came Polly also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Reuben's washed-up best friend Sandy Lyle and Alec Baldwin as the obnoxious insurance company boss Stan Indursky. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, (more)
Adapted from an unproduced play by Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby, et al.), the made-for-TV Footsteps stars Candice Bergen as Daisy Lowenthal, a best-selling suspense novelist who has recently "killed off" her most popular fictional character -- and who is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Determined to confront and conquer one of her most dreaded phobias, Daisy elects to spend a weekend alone at her isolated beach house, not even permitting her husband Robbie (Michael Murphy) to keep her company. As Daisy sweats out the weekend -- and an ominous storm -- she finds that she is not quite as alone as she thinks. For one, there's that curious young man named Spencer (Bug Hall), Daisy's self-proclaimed number one fan who possesses a disturbingly thorough knowledge of the writer's professional and personal life; for another, there's lawman Eddie Bruno (Bryan Brown), who has apparently been hired to keep tabs on Daisy. There's yet another player in this taut little melodrama...but to give any more away would be unthinkable. Footsteps debuted October 12, 2003, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Candice Bergen, Bryan Brown, (more)
- 2003
Directed by Rachel Ward, this short feature centers around 15-year-old Martha (Matilda Brown), whose frustration with the trappings of small-town life reaches a breaking point after her would-be birthday excursion to the beach is canceled. Determined to distance herself from her mother's (Lisa Hensley) lackadaisical attitude and string of no-good boyfriends, Martha, along with her sister Elsie (Alycia Debnam-Carey) decide to go to the beach by themselves, and hope to find their long-absent father in the process. Screened at the 2003 Brisbane Film Festival, Martha's New Coat also features Daniel Wyllie and is based on a script from Elizabeth J. Mars. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matilda Brown, Alycia Debnam-Carey, (more)
Directed by David Caesar, Dirty Deeds is an Australian crime picture inspired by real-life Sydney mobsters, and is set in the Sydney crime underworld of 1969. Bryan Brown stars as Barry Ryan, a prominent gangster whose ruthlessness rivals some of the toughest in the trade. He lives with his downbeat wife, Sharon (Toni Collette), and their son, but spends the majority of his time either with fellow mobsters or his mistress, Margaret (Kestie Morassi). Ryan's business is threatened when a Chicago Mafia boss dispatches two of his goons to scope out the poker machine scene for a potential takeover. Tony (John Goodman) and Sal (Felix Williamson), however, are lost when it comes to Australian culture, and stick out like a sore thumb. Negotiating with the Americans will be difficult enough for Barry, but the real blow comes when he learns that one of his own gang members has been deceitful. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Toni Collette, (more)
The stars of Robocop and F/X come together for this 2001 heist thriller from director Alex Wright (The First 9 1/2 Weeks). After establishing himself as one of the world's best safecrackers, Nelson (Peter Weller) decides to retire from his life of crime and walk the straight and narrow. However, when his brother is targeted after going into debt with an organized crime ring, Nelson finds himself pulled back into the life he left behind for one last big job. Luckily, he has a little help in the form of fellow top-notch crook Art (Bryan Brown). Angus MacFadyen (Equilibrium) also stars. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Bryan Brown, (more)
Three people discover jealousy and larceny are a dangerous combination in this tense drama. John (Bryan Brown) is a veteran insurance investigator who succumbs to temptation and veers towards the wrong side of the law. With the help of novice con man Ben (Tom Long), John hatches a scheme to substantiate false claims by taking a percentage of several questionable claims his firm has settled for a fraction of their usual worth. John and Ben are assisted in their illegal business by Louise (Claudia Karvan), a lawyer with a cocaine problem who is also John's lover. But when Louise becomes involved with Ben and demands a bigger share of the money, their already-shaky confidence game begins to collapse. Risk was adapted from the short story "The Adjustor" by Tracy Kidder. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Tom Long, (more)
Action and comedy are served in equal portions in this Australian crime thriller. Jimmy (Heath Ledger) is a 19-year-old living in Sydney who is somehow asked to run an errand for local underworld kingpin Pando (Bryan Brown). Before Jimmy knows what's happened, he owes Pando $10,000, and finds the gangster's muscle men are out for his blood. Jimmy attempts to stage a bank robbery to recover the loot, with disastrous results; when he has a spare moment, he tries to win the heart of Alex (Rose Byrne), a pretty girl from the country. This slam-bang entertainment was an uncharacteristic entry in the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it received its U.S. premiere. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heath Ledger, Rose Byrne, (more)
- 1999
Beautiful location filming highlights this romantic comedy/adventure from Australia. Walter (Bryan Brown) is a shy mailman who delivers a route in the small town of Talok Spring near Australia's Whitsunday Islands. Walter has long had a crush on Claudia (Aleksandra Vujcic), who works at a barmaid in Talok Spring's local tavern. Walter politely lets Claudia tag along on a routine mail flight, though postal regulations expressly forbid it, and when a storm causes the plane to crash in the bay near an island, Walter and Claudia are able to swim to shore. For Walter, this is a dream come true -- the weather is beautiful, fruit, vegetables and seafood are in abundance, and he's alone with the woman he loves. However, Claudia, who does not return Walter's affection, is less than enthusiastic, and with good reason. It seems she stole a large quantity of gold and stashed it on the plane before takeoff, and is in no small hurry to recover it before the crime is traced back to her. Dear Claudia marked the feature film debut for writer/director Chris Cudlipp. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Aleksandra Vujcic, (more)
- 1999
- R
A corrupt security guard finds his already shaky loyalties stretched to the breaking point in this action drama. Jake Barnes (Casper Van Dien) is hired to guard a bank in a small town near the Texas/Mexico border. Jake's boss wants him to keep an eye on his wife, whom he believes is being unfaithful to him; unfortunately, while keeping tabs on her, Jake falls into a sexual relationship with the woman. Jake is also involved with Kristen (Camilla Overbye Roos), who is urging him into another betrayal of his boss's trust -- a group of drug dealers are laundering $7,000,000 through the bank, and Kristen is in cahoots with a group of thieves eager to steal the fortune. Kristen and his partners want Jake's help, and they will do whatever they have to do to get it. On the Border also stars Bryan Brown, Daniel Baldwin, and Bentley Mitchum. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1999
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Like the 1959 theatrical feature of the same name, the two-part cable movie Journey to the Center of the Earth was loosely adapted from the Jules Verne novel (also of the same name). The first part of the TV version faithfully follows the chronology of the earlier film, with famed archeologist/explorer Professor Theodore Lytton (Treat Williams), his nephew, Jonas (Jeremy London), and adventurer-for-hire, McNiff (Hugh Keays-Byrne) embarking upon an expedition to the earth's core. The three men are following in the footsteps of Casper Hastings (Bryan Brown), who disappeared during a similar expedition several years earlier. Coming along for the ride is Casper's wife (or perhaps, widow), Alice Hastings (Tushka Bergen). Upon the foursome's arrival at the titular center of the Earth in part two, the plot goes off on a new, Apocalypse Now-inspired tangent, with the "lost" Casper Hastings reigning as a god over a subterranean (and cannibalistic) native tribe. Directed by George Miller (of The Man From Snowy River fame), Journey to the Center of the Earth made its first American TV appearance courtesy of cable's USA Network on September 14 and 15, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Treat Williams, Tushka Bergen, (more)
In this family-oriented outdoor adventure story, Bryan Brown plays Tyrone, a hunter who captures a handful of grizzly bear cubs. However, Tyrone didn't count on the tenacity of the cubs' mother, who retaliates by kidnapping Tyrone's son. When Tyrone sets out to find his son, fearing the worst, the bear proves a kind and capable companion, guiding the boy through the wilderness and showing him the ways of survival in the wild. Shot amidst the rugged surroundings of Vancouver, British Columbia, Grizzly Falls also features Richard Harris, Oliver Tobias, and Tom Jackson; co-screenwriter Stuart Margolin is better known as an actor, best remembered for his recurring role as "Angel" on the TV series The Rockford Files. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Clark, Bryan Brown, (more)
- 1998
Bryan Brown stars in these four tales from his Australian television series of the unexpected, "Twisted." A former dancing champion is hiding a secret from his past, a woman in a railway station has a bizarre confrontation with a counter clerk, a hitman finds a "routine" assignment is anything but, and a women has an abrupt run-in with destiny. Brown also served as executive producer for this series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown
Ken Russell's Dogboys is set at a southern prison. The title of the film comes from the prisoners who are used to train the attack dogs employed to stop escapes. DA Jennifer Dern (Tia Carrere) is investigating the prison's warden (Bryan Brown). She puts one of her men inside the prison, but he ends up dead from one of the dogs. Inmate Julian Taylor (Dean Cain) finds a partial picture of a man in with the blood from the mole's death. While keeping himself free of attack and harm in the prison, Taylor and Dern team up to reveal the truth about the warden, and stop his sadistic practices. Dogboys was made-for-television. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Cain, Bryan Brown, (more)
The second of two network-TV adaptations of Jules Verne's speculative 1868 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this two-part ABC version originally aired on May 11 and 12, 1997, some two months after CBS's shorter -- and infinitely more faithful -- version. The year is 1886, and an unknown "creature" is terrorizing the high seas, causing merchant vessels to vanish without a trace. Enlisted by the U.S. government to find out what's really going on, oceanographer Pierre Arronax (Patrick Dempsey) and rough-hewn whaler Ned Land (Bryan Brown) set sail for uncharted waters. Ultimately, they are captured by the insane but honorably motivated Captain Nemo (Michael Caine), the inventor of the high-teach submarine Nautilus. This much can be found in the original novel. The rest of the film has less to do with Jules Verne than its does with the popularity of such theatrical features as Star Wars and Titanic, not to mention the then-prevalent specter of political correctness. Because he wants nothing more out of life than to slaughter whales, Verne's nominal hero Ned Land is transformed into the main villain -- while Pierre Arronax comes off none too sympathetically himself, depicted in an early scene as a wanton womanizer who sleeps with his own father's mistress. Also, a bit of gratuitous romance is thrown into the proceedings, with Captain Nemo suddenly acquiring a daughter, and another woman joining the storyline when the Nautilus makes a side trip to the lost city of Atlantis. Finally, what with Verne's good guys turning bad and Captain Nemo clearly certifiable, a new "hero" is introduced in the form of African-American crewman Cabe Attucks (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje). Oh, and did we mention that Nemo is actually a half-cyborg and a former Indian prince? This "new and improved" 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is only slightly less ridiculous than the 1916 silent film version, which also managed to add a love interest and a spectacular "flashback" sequence straight out of 1001 Arabian Nights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Patrick Dempsey, (more)
Though not quite a western, this gripping Australian drama contains similar themes as it chronicles the unending struggle between native aborigines and ever-encroaching Europeans. Set in the arid red-rock desert west of Alice Springs, a region called Dead Heart by the whites and hailed as a sacred place by the aborigines, the story centers on the travails of Ray Lorkin (Bryan Brown) the local lawman who sees that Australian laws are obeyed in the tiny village of Wala Wala where he is one of only seven whites. The story itself unfolds via flashback as told by the Aboriginal village elder Poppy. The trouble begins in the town jail when an Aboriginal prisoner is discovered dead. Believing the hanging to be murder, the town tribesmen demand revenge. Lorkin, while not fully understanding aboriginal customs, has always tried to remain tolerant and respectful of their ways and so allows his deputy, Billy, to be ritually wounded during a ceremony of vengeance. More trouble brews when Aborigine bootlegger Ray Tony takes the schoolteacher's bored wife Kay out to a particularly sacred area for an illicit tryst. Later, Kate finds Tony dead. Strangely, his body shows no signs of violence. Despite the lacking evidence, Lorkin suspects a murder and demands justice. His investigation leads him down a dangerous, winding path that culminates in a tense and surprising manner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryan Brown, Ernie Dingo, (more)
