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Don Saunders Movies

1989  
PG13  
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The eponymous team consists of four residents of a New Jersey psychiatric hospital: ex-postal worker Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd), who fancies himself a doctor; one-time ad agency exec Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle), suffering from a Messiah/martyr complex; writer Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton), who cannot abide the "idiots" in the world (namely, everyone but himself); and TV-obsessed Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst). Permitted a field trip to a baseball game, the four unfortunates wander off when psychiatrist Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is waylaid by two corrupt police officers after he witnesses them killing a third cop. The innocent inmates are accused of attacking Dr. Weitzman, but it is they who team up to bring the actual culprits to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Michael KeatonChristopher Lloyd, (more)
 
1987  
R  
Harry Ironmaster (Rupert Everett) is an aristocratic and wealthy young man, which in his time and place should put him pretty much on top of the world. However, he is responsible for a horse-drawn coach accident in which his father is killed and he himself loses an arm. Not only that, but his favored pastime of horse-riding is no longer possible for him. His girlfriend, the doctor's daughter, wants to draw him out of his depression, but nothing seems to help. Harry's low state begins to lift when he makes friends with Ned, the very capable driver of a local express coach to Sydney. They are both aware that trains will soon replace these huge wagons, and Ned agrees to work for Harry. This costume drama boasts some beautiful cinematography, and is based on a best-selling novel by Kathleen Peyton. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

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Starring:
Rupert EverettHugo Weaving, (more)
 
1986  
 
The Second Amendment of the Constitution forms the basis of this drama that follows the crusade of a lawyer to allow citizens to carry handguns. He launched his fight after his wife and daughter were killed during a robbery. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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1984  
PG  
Writer-director Sophia Turkiewicz based Silver City on her experiences as a young child, when her parents moved from post-World War II Poland to settle in a migrant hostel in western Australia's Polish community. Nina (Gosia Dobrowolska) is a young refugee who wants to be a teacher. She meets Julian (Ivor Kants), a young law student, and the two fall in love. The problem is Julian is already married, but he leaves his wife (Anna Jemison) for Nina. However, when Julian's wife announces she is pregnant, Julian abandons Nina and returns to her. Nina is then forced to go it alone in a new and strange country. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

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Starring:
Gosia DobrowolskaAnna Jemison, (more)
 
1983  
 
The German-Australian Savage Attraction was originally released as Hostage: The Christine Maresch Story. Kerry Mack portrays the real-life Christine, whose youth and idealism is cut short when she is strong-armed into a marriage with a neo-Nazi (Ralph Shicha). Even though this takes place in the 1970s, Christine is treated no better by her craftily sadistic husband than she would have been at the height of National Socialist domination in the 1940s. The film tends to make the same points over and over, but the fact-based story has enough in-built drama to sustain interest. Savage Attraction is a grimly suspenseful tale of obsession, possession and desperation: an R rating was definitely called for, and duly applied. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Kerry MackRalph Schicha, (more)
 
1983  
 
Director Henri Safran adapts Henrik Ibsen's stage play to an Australian setting and a turn-of-the-century ambience in this uneven presentation of an illicit love and its consequences. Harold (Jeremy Irons) is a somewhat over-the-edge photographer who has lost out at a career in the sciences. His wife Gina (Liv Ullmann) is an opposite personality type: subdued, quiet, not prone to excessive outbursts. Harold's father the Major (John Meillon) lives with the family, which includes the daughter Henrietta (Lucinda Jones) who is slowly going blind -- and all is as normal as possible until Gregory (Arthur Dignam) shows up and in a two-day period, tragedy strikes. The prig Gregory sees it as his obligation to open up his best friend Harold's eyes with some shocking news: Henrietta is not really Harold's daughter at all, but the offspring of an illicit affair between Gregory's father and Gina. Figuring into this relationship is a wild duck that was once wounded by Gregory's father, and its symbolism looms almost too large over the rest of the complex, claustrophobic household as personalities lead events to their fateful end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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Starring:
Liv UllmannJeremy Irons, (more)
 
1982  
R  
In this Australian coming-of-age comedy, a 13-year old boy falls in love with his seductive sister-in-law. Though much older, she is touched by his crush and begins to teach him about lovemaking. The trouble begins when she turns up pregnant and cannot remember whether the father is her husband or the boy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Carol KaneTony Owen, (more)
 
1971  
 
In this drama, a pub owner who lives in the Australian outback stakes a claim to an area where nickel is found. An American company buys her out on the condition that she not sell her shares in the company for a year, giving the company head a chance to make false reports and overvalue the company's shares. The pub owner lives it up with a gigolo for a while before settling down with a long-time admirer. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi

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1966  
 
Based on a popular Australian novel, this comedy was produced Down Under in 1966. Nino Culotta Walter Chiari is an Italian journalist who is lured by his brother into coming to Australia to work for his paper there. But when Nino arrives in Sidney, he finds out that there is no paper; his brother has taken off with the investors' cash. Left in the lurch was his brother's business partner, Kay Kelly (Clare Dunne). Nino vows to pay off his brother's debt and gets a job as a bricklayer to do so. He also tries to woo Kay, but finds her difficult to win over. Meanwhile, he encounters a series of racist reactions from Aussies, at the thought of an Italian assimilating into Australian culture - one of the film's core themes. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

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Starring:
Walter ChiariClare Dunne, (more)