Bruno Lawrence Movies

The dreams and trials of an aspiring young comic are presented in the Australian film. Gino does not want to follow in his father's footsteps and become a builder. Instead he dreams of being a comic. Unfortunately his pregnant girlfriend presents an obstacle as he prepares himself for an audition on a popular television variety show. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Alternating between urban affluence and rural squalor in its New Zealand setting, this contemporary update of the Brothers Grimm tells the story of a boy and his sister whose placement into very different adoptive homes can't destroy the psychic bond that connects them. An impressionistic opening scene suggests that Jack and Dora's mother has gone off her rocker; soon, the children are packed off to an orphanage, where Dora is adopted by the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Birch (Brenda Simmons and Gilbert Goldie) and Jack falls into the hands of grim farmer Clarrie (Tony Barry) and his bottled-up wife Bernice (Elizabeth Hawthorne). Years later, the teen-aged Jack (Alexis Arquette) suffers through continuing abuse from his proud, sardonic parents and their quartet of vacant-eyed, black-clad daughters. Using an invention that helps focus his nascent hypnotic powers, the lad unleashes his revenge on the family and sets off to find his real sister. Dora Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, meanwhile, has grown up within the comforts of a middle-class home but can't escape her outsider status -- or her special powers, which allow her to sense not only Jack's presence, but also the voices of the dead. With the help of Teddy (Bruno Lawrence), an older telepathic man who wants to bed her, Dora finally finds her way to Jack. But his unhappy childhood has already inflicted too much damage, poisoning the siblings' hopes of a joyful reunion with their birth parents and setting the stage for the savage vengeance of Jack's stepsisters. Garth Maxwell, who previously directed the award-winning gay short Beyond Gravity, made his feature debut with Jack Be Nimble. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

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, Rovi

In this stylish and smart 1988 thriller, reporter Tom Stewart accidentally falls on the wrong side (not that he's ever on the right side) of the law during a psychotic killer's spree of murders. Stewart's no angel having already stolen money from a car wreck. At the center of the killings is Morris Martin, a schoolteacher on a rampage supposedly searching for his "dead" wife. As Martin's killings become progressively more violent and heat from the police increases, Stewart is forced to hunt Martin down himself, teaming up with crooked cop Ray Birch to do so. Stewart and Birch eventually corner Martin, but have no idea the mystery they'll uncover when they find him. ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi

This Australian-made sci-fi tale is about a surfer who stops in for a bite to eat at a 1940s-type diner. Eventually he realizes that it is not a diner at all -- it is a spaceship disguised as one, and the "owners" of the diner are aliens. ~ Brian Gusse, Rovi

The New Zealand-produced thriller Bridge to Nowhere takes place in and around an actual unfinished bridge, abandoned in the mid-1920s. Five urban youths head into the wilderness in search of this legendary structure. They have the misfortune to cross the path of mad mountain dweller Bruno Lawrence, who considers himself lord of all he surveys. In the tradition of The Most Dangerous Game, Lawrence decides to hunt down the kids like animals. Is there any 1980s New Zealand-based film that doesn't star Bruno Lawrence? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In a tour-de-force sci-fi story with only three main characters, Kiwi director Geoffrey Murphy creates an interesting dynamic nuanced with shades of mysticism. When scientist Zac Hobson (Bruno Lawrence) experiments with a radical new power source -- a band of energy that would circle the planet -- the project goes awry and apparently wipes out all living creatures (they vanish without a trace). At first Zac adjusts by indulging himself in some of his materialistic desires, but he soon starts a serious search for other signs of human life. He discovers it in New Zealand in the form of Joanne (Alison Routledge), with whom he falls in love, and Api (Peter Smith), a Maori. The challenges the three face in order to survive, as well as their personal interactions, keep this human drama engrossing. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Dramatically set against New Zealand's North Island scenery, this uneven but well-acted story is about Cathy (Mary Regan) -- a woman trapped in an incestual relationship with her father (Terence Cooper) on a remote sheep farm -- and a drifter named Daley (Bruno Lawrence) who arrives there looking for work. Daley soon develops an interest in Cathy, who is aloof and remote, and he does not understand why. When he does realize what is wrong, he and Cathy make a crucial decision that is bound to end in violence. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This funky and intelligent sci-fi-horror sleeper from New Zealand features Gary Day as the maniacal Dr. Howell, director of the Trans-Cranial Applications Hospital, who conducts bizarre brain experiments in a subterranean laboratory on a remote island -- most of which backfire and turn his patients into murderous zombie slaves. Onto this island of weirdness ventures a group of youths -- including the troubled son (Michael Hurst) of the doctor's former scientific rival, whom the mad doc had hypnotized into murdering his father several years ago. The resulting confrontations between the dirtbike-riding kids and armies of rampaging mutants are action-packed and splattery as all get-out. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Utu is the Maori word for "Retribution," which sums up the chief motivating factor of this New Zealand-produced drama. Set in the 1870s, the film details the exigencies of British Colonial rule. A Maori scout, Te Wheke (Anzac Wallace), stumbles across a native village that has been destroyed in a British raid. Since it is the scout's own village, he deserts the British army, the better to seek "utu." Leading a vigilante force consisting of his fellow Maoris, Te Wheke kills as many British settlers as he can get his hands on. The feverish conviction of his crusade is in stark contrast to the attitudes of the British, who seem more concerned with material possessions than with human beings. Popular down under star Bruno Lawrence is cast as a vengeance-driven settler who makes it his personal mission in life to end Te Wheke's reign of terror. The most expensive New Zealand-filmed project to date, Utu was an enormous success upon its first domestic release; the American version runs some 15 minutes shorter than the original. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The New Zealand-filmed Wild Horses stars Keith Aberdein as an itinerant logger. Aberdein is hired by a national park to help corral a herd of roaming horses. In addition to his inability to carry out the job at hand, he also manages to scare off most of the deer in the area. This incurs the wrath of a group of venison hunters, led by Bruno Lawrence who take revenge by killing off some of the horses. Aberdein arranges a truce with Lawrence order to capture a wild stallion that he's got his heart set on. But the feud erupts again before long, leading to a violent showdown. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Actor David Hemmings made one of his periodic forays into directing with the lightning-paced Race For the Yankee Zephyr. The film pits deer hunters against a group of unscrupulous businessmen. Their mutual goal is a reserve of gold, hidden somewhere in the Australian wilds. Ken Wahl and Leslie Ann Warren are the Hollywood-bred "box office insurance" in this Australian/New Zealand coproduction. Race for the Yankee Zephyr was first shown in America via pay-cable, where it carried no rating but was preceded with a warning vis-a-vis violence and strong language. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi