Andrew Knight Movies
- 2002
A contentious romantic relationship was at the core of the Australian comedy-drama series CrashBurn. Catherine McClements and Aaron Blabey starred as a pair of lovers who quickly degenerated into combatants as the series wore on. The series was created by Deb Cox and Andrew Knight, who also penned many of the 13 episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Siam Sunset is a post-modern love story about two lost souls. Perry works for an English paint company. His job of creating colors gradually becomes one of constant misfortune. In desperation, he travels to one of the most desolate parts of Australia, where he hopes to find a special color called Siam Sunset that will somehow bring about his salvation from the natural disasters that mysteriously torment him. Along the way, he meets Grace, a woman as troubled by the world as he is. Together they decide to give life and love another chance if the universe lets them. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linus Roache, Victoria Hill, (more)
- 1998
Novelist Richard Flanagan (Death of a River Guide) rewrote his screenplay for this film into his second novel, published in 1998. He also made his directorial debut with this Australian drama about European refugees who sought a new way of life in Australia. Flanagan lives in Australia's island state of Tasmania, the setting for this tale of a father seen from his daughter's viewpoint. Back in Hobart after a 20-year absence, unmarried 36-year-old Sydney resident Sonja Buloh (Kerry Fox) is pregnant and planning an abortion. The sight of her alcoholic father Bojan (Kristof Kaczmarek) recalls her childhood, and the film flashes back to show Bojan arriving from Slovenia with wife Maria (Melita Jurisic). One winter she abandons Bojan and three-year-old Sonja and vanishes into the night. Employed by Tasmania's hydroelectric company on remote corners of the island, Bojan is forced to have friends watch Sonja, but after a molestation of the eight-year-old Sonja by Picotti (Jacek Koman), Bojan begins working in Hobart to take care of her himself. He finds happiness with kind-hearted Jean (Essie Davis), owner of an apple orchard, but Sonja's objections to her father's lover, end the affair. When the bitter Bojan turns to alcohol, his drunkenness eventually prompts the teenage Sonja to flee. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kerry Fox, Rosie Flanagan, (more)
John Ruane directed this Australian romantic comedy in which lonely Alice (Miranda Otto), seeking her long-lost father, begins working in the same dead-letter office that keeps returning her letters to him. The office is run by a political refugee from Chile, Frank (George DelHoyo), and Alice and Frank eventually become a twosome amid the undelivered mail. Barry Otto, Miranda Otto's father, makes a brief appearance. Shown at 1998 film festivals in Brisbane and Melbourne. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miranda Otto, George Del Hoyo, (more)
- 1997
Australian comedian Eric Bana, whose gift for zany characterization had been given an excellent forum on the sketch-comedy series Full Frontal, was rewarded with his own variety/talk show in 1997. Beginning as a limited series of four hour-long specials, The Eric Bana Show Live later settled into a weekly half-hour slot. Most of Bana's comic characters had been created for other programs, but in this case at least, familiarity never bred contempt. Also featured were the musical stylings of Steve Blackburn, who wrote the songs and led the band. The Eric Bana Show Live was a presentation of the Seven Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Co-produced by Britain's Channel Four and Australia's Seven Network, the two-part miniseries Kangaroo Palace was set in the "swinging" London of the 1960s. The story focused upon a trio of young Australians who'd come to Great Britain to seek their fortunes, establishing residence in a low-rent flat which they nicknamed Kangaroo Palace. One of the transplanted Aussies, Catherine Macaleese (Jacqueline McKenzie), was on a dual mission: to establish herself as a professional photographer and to track down her long-missing father. The other two flatmates were Heather Randall (Rebecca Gibney), who merely wanted to "party on" in perpetuity, and Richard Turner (John Polson), who'd bolted Australia to escape his irksome fiancée. Kangaroo Palace was originally seen in two 120-minute doses in 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline McKenzie, John Polson, (more)
- 1993
The Australian sketch comedy series Full Frontal was very much in the same vein as the earlier weekly Fast Forward, utilizing several of the same writers and performers. Though the satire was wide-ranging, the principal targets were the films, TV programs, talk shows, and musical specials carried by Australia's Seven Network, which also happened to be the home of this particular series. Talk about biting the proverbial hand. Over twenty hour-long episodes of Full Frontal were broadcast from 1993 to 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Also released as Spotswood, The Efficiency Expert stars Anthony Hopkins as Wallace, a cold-blooded management consultant, infamous for radically "downsizing" every firm he comes in contact with. Wallace's latest assignment is to streamline a small, family-owned shoe factory in Australia. As he gets to know the eccentric (and endearingly inefficient) factory workers, Wallace undergoes a slow-but-sure "humanizing" process. Eventually realizing that he can simultaneously cut costs and preserve the dignity of the workers, he finds a way to modernize the operation without a single firing. In traditional fashion, the main story shares screen time with a romantic subplot involving the factory-owner's son and a female employee. Characterized by many critics as "Capraesque," The Efficiency Expert also bears trace of all those Ealing comedies of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Ben Mendelsohn, (more)
- 1989
Debuting in 1989, the Australian comedy series Fast Forward offered quickie takeoffs of down under movies, TV shows, and commercials. The series provided valuable exposure for such stars-to-be as Magda Szubanski, Michael Vietch, and Steve Blackburn. Over 70 hour-long episodes were telecast over a six-year period. Fast Forward aired over Australia's Seven Network until the fall of 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
One of Mark Twain's best-loved stories becomes a screen musical in this family-friendly adaptation. Mischievous Huckleberry Finn (Jeff East) is a 15-year-old boy who has long had a difficult relationship with his often violent father. When Dad tried to kidnap him, Huck decides to run away from home, and heads out of town on a raft. Huck is soon joined by Jim (Paul Winfield), a runaway slave who is no more eager to see his master than Huck is to see his father. As the two friends make their way down the Mississippi, they're faced with a variety of challenges and adventures, including a run-in with a pair of shabby but dignified actors, The King (Harvey Korman) and The Duke (David Wayne). Produced in association with Reader's Digest magazine, which in 1973, scored a box-office hit with a musical version of Twain's Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn featured original songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who also wrote the songs for a handful of Disney hits, including Mary Poppins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff East, Paul Winfield, (more)
- 1973
- G
- Add Battle for the Planet of the Apes to QueueAdd Battle for the Planet of the Apes to top of Queue
The fifth and last of the original series of motion pictures based upon author Pierre Boulle's imaginative novel Monkey Planet, this science fiction film was the least-liked by the series' legion of fans. Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar, the rebellious intelligent chimp of the previous film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). Caesar led his brethren in a revolution against their human masters earlier, but humanity has since nearly destroyed itself in a nuclear apocalypse, and survivors are second-class citizens within ape society. Now a beneficent ruler of his people, Caesar encourages a fragile, peaceful coexistence with humans, despite the protests of militaristic gorilla leader General Aldo (Claude Akins). When Caesar learns that recordings of his murdered parents may exist in the Forbidden City, he journeys to the irradiated wasteland with the human MacDonald (Austin Stoker) and the wise orangutan Virgil (Paul Williams). Although Caesar finds what he's looking for, he also attracts unwanted attention: mutant humans who still dwell underground in the devastated war zone follow the search party back home, leading to a climactic battle and Aldo's tragic challenge of Caesar's authority. Suffering greatly due to penny-pinching studio 20th Century Fox's low budget, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) is most notable for a cameo by director John Huston as an ape named "The Lawgiver," who appears in a wraparound segment. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, (more)
