Australian/New Zealand movies: 1988

Another big year for movies to cap with about the same number as 1986/1987 but a lot less nudity in this year and no movie with extensive nudity. There is a number of movies with brief nudity which will all be covered over the next couple of updates.

1988

The 13th Floor

Thriller where a young girl witnesses a young boy killed by her father and now 12 years later, Heather (Lisa Hensley) has stolen documents from her father implicating him in the boy's death. He is not happy so he sends a henchman after her. Heather and her drug-addled friend Rebecca (Miranda Otto) hide out on the deserted 13th floor of her father's building while they interact with various people in the building including an office drone John (Tim McKenzie), who Heather falls for. Heather is tracked down by the henchman but before he can leave the building, he is electrocuted by an electrical force seemingly coming from the building. Then the bodies pile up and it seems that the spirit of the dead boy is getting his revenge. Preposterous thriller with some surprisingly bloodthirsty killings particularly of some random people that just seem to happen to bump up the kill stats. The movie isn't helped by Lisa Hensley probably being miscast and the makers should've swapped the two lead actresses.

No nudity in The 13th Floor but there's a sexy scene from Lisa Hensley that I've done a HD redux upgrade of below. You can find a synopsis with HD/VHS fullscreen videos from The 13th Floor here.

Lisa Hensley in The 13th Floor

186551kb 4min 36sec 1920x1088 (bra and panties, skirt, 'nude' under covers, extremely legnthy)

 

 

As Time Goes By

Very odd sci-fi comedy about a surfer Mike (Nique Needles) who is dropped off in the middle of the desert and found by farmer Ryder (Bruno Lawrence) who lets him stay on his farm where he lives with Connie (Marcelle Schmitz), Turns out that Mike's father left him a letter that says to be where he is on the day after he arrived for a reunion, Soon weird things begin to happen and they all seem to revolve around a 1950s diner in the middle-of-nowhere run by a weird 50s pop culture obsessed being (Max Gillies) who could be an alien and seems to have the ability to time travel, Crazy little movie that's hard to pin down what it's actually about as the time travel aspect doesn't arrive until about halfway through. The movie is never not interesting and there's always something wacky going on in the middle of the desert.

Some brief probable nudity from Marcelle Schmitz. It's hard-to-tell if you can see anything. Maybe a higher quality version can show something but if there hasn't been an upgrade yet, I doubt there will be.

Marcelle Schmitz in As Time Goes By

9594kb 1min 02sec 496x360 (breasts/top of breasts)

5765kb 43sec 496x360 (one piece bathing suit)

 

 

Backstage

Drama where an American 'rock' singer Kate Lawrence (singer Laura Branigan) tells her agent that she'd like to do some acting but the only place that will have her is in Melbourne, Australia and she jumps at the opportunity. Once in Australia she comes across some resistance in her appearance in the play by local critic Robert (Michael Aitkens), which she doesn't take kindly too, humiliating him in front of the press. She goes to apologise to him and they end up falling for one another. On opening night, Kate has a bad case of the jitters and Robert doesn't hold back in his review and this causes strain on their relationship and eventually Robert leaves basically disappearing off the face of the planet except for one review on her next acting gig that reads familiar and Kate hopes they still have a chance. Very silly romantic drama that plays all the clichés including a very dopey reunion scene. Branigan is OK in her first acting gig but the movie does overstate her ability and she sings a few songs throughout the movie.

Some brief nudity from Laura Branigan.

You can find a synopsis with collages and VHS videos from Backstage here. A preview is below.

Laura Branigan in Backstage

   
   
   

 

 

Breaking Loose: Summer City 2

Barely related follow-up to 1977's Summer City, the movie follows Ross (Peter Phelps), the baby from the original, who is now studying to be a doctor. Ross gets into a fight with gang leader Sampson (Shane Feeney-Connor) which ends in a car race that leaves a gang member named Skunk clinging to life after an accident. Meanwhile one of his father's friend Robbie (Vince Martin) visits Ross and offers to help him which is needed when Sampson decides that if Skunk dies, Ross dies. Ross takes a room at Helen's (Abigail, reprising her role) house while he helps Robbie and Davie (David Ngoombujarra) in their fight against the police. Then Skunk dies and Sampson wants his revenge. The original was a strange but interesting movie. Not so Breaking Loose as it is a terrible movie, very by-the-numbers with little of interest. The bikie gang is an absolute joke full of rejects from a terrible Mad Max movie. Absolutely nothing redeemable about it.

There's no nudity in Breaking Loose but there are some videos from the movie here.

 

 

The Clean Machine

Telemovie that takes a fictionalised look at corruption in the New South Wales police force but mirrors a number of key events. The new premier wants a Royal Commission into police corruption but the commissioner (Ed Devereaux) talks him down to an investigation run by out-of-favour former cop Ed (Steve Bisley) who assembles a motley crew of allies who all have their reasons for nailing corrupt members of the force including Keith (Marshall Napier) who's still stewing over his dismissal. It looks like the investigation is going nowhere, not helped by it being hindered at every point but then the investigators have a breakthrough while focusing on the worst of the lot Warren (Grigor Taylor) who is shamelessly running around like a criminal and mingling with drug trafficker Dr. Michael (Tim Robertson). But that breakthrough comes with increased danger on the investigation team. Not bad look at the corruption going on in NSW at the time but the movie also pulls it's punches for an easy way out, something that didn't happen in reality. This telemovie is mostly forgotten mainly because there's been far better and more focused looks at NSW police corruption most notably the 1995 mini-series Blue Murder.

A little bit of nudity in the movie from Terry Markwell who plays a drug courier plus a hint of nudity from Regina Gaigalas and Nikki McWaters.

Regina Gaigalas in The Clean Machine

12964kb 46sec 712x576 (implied nudity, sex scene)

 

Terry Markwell in The Clean Machine

9508kb 33sec 712x576 (breasts, panties, stockings and suspenders)

 

Nikki McWaters in The Clean Machine

9782kb 34sec 712x576 (arm covering breast/implied nudity)

 

 

Dangerous Game

Stalker thriller in a shopping mall where a group of university students plan a night out so they can all hook up. One of the students Jack (Marcus Graham) is harassed by crazed Irish cop Murphy (Steven Grives) because of past history he had with Jack's father. Murphy goes too far and Jack tells his superiors and Murphy is then fired. Before the night out, Jack bets so-called computer hacker David (Miles Buchanan) that he couldn't hack something big and David claims to have opened the door to a major department store downtown so the group go check it out and it turns out the door is open. They decide to have a bit of fun in the store but they are followed by Murphy who wants to continue his harassment. But while throwing a knife at a target, Murphy accidentally kills Tony (John Polson). This makes Murphy go from harassment to murder and he decides to take it out on the remaining group and the rest of the night becomes a fight for survival for the students. A strange mix of 80s computer thriller where they haven't worked out what computers can actually do yet and stalker thriller that doesn't really work either. Clearly a movie made for an American market which worked as the director Stephen Hopkins would go on to direct Predator 2 and the similar Judgment Night. Not without it's charms but it's a very minor movie.

Some very brief blink-and-you'll miss nudity from Kathryn Walker

You can find a synopsis with VHS videos from Dangerous Game here. A preview is below.

Kathryn Walker in Dangerous Game

   

 

 

Day of the Panther

One of two marital arts action movies made in Perth by Brian Trenchard-Smith. After training in Hong Kong with his mentor Anderson (John Stanton), Jason Blade (Edward John Stazak) arrives back in Australia just as his mentor's daughter is murdered by the henchman Baxter (Jim Richards) of local kingpin Damien Zukor (Michael Carman). He decides to go after Zukor by getting a job with him and getting enough evidence to take Zukor down. At the same time, Zukor sets up a fight between the Blade and Baxter to where he rigs the odds so that he can win a lot of money when Blade takes a dive. Then Baxter finds out that Blade is friends with Anderson and is working to take he and Zukor down, so Baxter sets about destroying Blade and the Anderson family. Blade also meets Anderson's niece Gemma (Paris Jefferson) and they fall for one another. Poorly made movie that survives by half-decent action scenes as the guys playing Blade and Baxter are clearly not actors and are probably both dubbed. Trenchard-Smith isn't bringing his best here either.

Some brief side-boob from Paris Jefferson.

You can find a synopsis with collages and HD/VHS fullscreen videos from Day of the Panther here. A preview is below.

Paris Jefferson in Day of the Panther

 

 

The Dreaming

Indigenous horror mystery where a doctor Cathy (Penny Cook) sees a vision of the horrible death of an Indigenous woman while trying to save another Indigenous woman, a possible relative, that she believes to be real. She then starts having dreams that become more vivid and seem to suggest that her boyfriend (Gary Sweet) has been murdered even though he's very much alive. Turns out her archaeologist father (Arthur Dignam) has disturbed a cave where the Indigenous woman was murdered and now they are all in danger from a bunch of marauders from 200 years ago. Silly and mostly uneventful movie that gets more than a little repetitive. There's a few moments of interest, mainly in an early scene where Cathy tries to save the life of a descendant of the dead woman but otherwise the movie doesn't reach any big heights.

No nudity in the movie but there's a bath scene featuring Penny Cook.

Penny Cook in The Dreaming

6308kb 23sec 736x560 ('nude' in bath)

 

 

Emerald City

David Williamson written drama about a successful TV/movie writer Colin (John Hargreaves) and his publisher wife Kate (Robyn Nevin) who decide to move from Melbourne to Sydney with their kids to get to where the action is. The writer meets a wannabe writer Mike (Chris Haywood) who has shacked up with a young writer Helen (Nicole Kidman) where they wrote a Vietnam War themed mini-series which isn't a hit. Colin and Kate get caught up in the rush of the Sydney entertainment scene and it begins to change them. Fairly uninteresting drama which is very inside baseball about writers compromising their vision to make things more commericial. Hard-to-get into if you don't really know the scene.

No real nudity in the movie but there's a few sexy scenes featuring Nicole Kidman who once again finds herself paired with the older Chris Haywood just as she was in the previous year's The Bit Part. You can find those videos here.

 

 

The Everlasting Secret Family

Secret society drama about a school boy (Mark Lee) who is lured away by a powerful senator (Arthur Dignam) to become his illicit lover. They form a relationship but after a while, the school boy becomes disillusioned by the relationship and looks for a way out. He tries with fellow secret society member, a high court judge (John Meillon), but he dies of a heart attack during some light BDSM. But before he dies, the judge introduces the school boy to a doctor where he goes to keep himself looking young, despite still being a teenager. The senator also takes a wife (Heather Mitchell) to look 'normal', who the school boy despises. He continues the relationship with the senator and 14 years later, the school boy has ingratiated himself into the senator's family, now as the senator's son's 'tutor' and looking exactly the same. Oh and he and the senator's son have fallen for one another and mummy is not happy about that one bit. Incredibly uncomfortable movie with a lot of strange, baffling behaviour where everyone seems to have a secret of some sort and the death of a high court judge is no big deal. And while it's all very progressive towards homosexuality, you can tell that it's from a less enlightened time because there's a baffling scene involving the school boy 'dragging' up to show that he's hit his 'lowest point'. A very questionable movie.

Some brief nudity in the movie from Beth Child.

You can find a synopsis with VHS videos from The Everlasting Secret Family here. A preview is below.

Beth Child in The Everlasting Secret Family

   

 

 

Evil Angels
aka A Cry in the Dark

Based on the real-life disappearance of baby Azaria Chamberlain from Uluru in 1981. Parents Lindy (Meryl Streep) and Michael (Sam Neill) says that a dingo has taken Azaria but no-one believes them and they are eventually both charged with murder, found guilty and sentenced to jail. But there's is reasonable doubt in the case and a new trial finds both not guilty of the murder of Azaria in a shocking turnaround of justice. A case that haunted Australia for decades, this is a fairly decent look at what happened helped by Streep giving it everything including a decent Australian accent. Also has a lot of scenes of people talking about the case and of Lindy and Michael's level of guilt.

Some brief side-boob from Meryl Streep while in the shower.

Meryl Streep in Evil Angels

4826kb 6sec 1920x800 (side-boob/arm covering breast, in shower)

 

 

Fever

Noir thriller set in a sweaty South Australian outback town where cop Jack Welles (Bill Hunter) is watching a big deal being made by a couple of international crooks while his much younger wife Leanne (Mary Regan) is having her way with local stud Jeff (Gary Sweet). When the deal goes wrong and a crook he is chasing dies in the pursuit, Jack spies a suitcase full of money and takes it before back up arrives. He then arrives home and finds Leanne and Jeff together and in the struggle, Jack accidentally dies. Jeff and Leanne hide Jack's body and take his car which unknowingly has the suitcase of money he stole in it, Another cop has cottoned on to what Jack's done. Also, Jack's not actually dead and he wants what's his. Fast paced sweaty thriller from genre director Craig Lahiff (who also co-wrote The Dreaming) that has some silly twists but it still sort of works despite this. Lahiff would later remake his own movie in 2012 with Swerve.

Mary Regan briefly shows her breasts during a very long sex scene in the beginning of the movie.

You can find a synopsis with collages and VHS videos from Fever here. A preview is below.

Mary Regan in Fever

 

 

Grievous Bodily Harm

Violent and nasty noir thriller where Morris (John Waters), a school teacher, completely loses his mind when his wife Claudine (Joy Bell) apparently dies but he's not convinced that this is the case. He obsessively watches a sex tape with Claudine and another couple and then thinks he spots her at an Austen Tayshus gig and completely loses his mind in pursuit of her. Tom (Colin Friels) is a journalist/writer who has just taken $150,000 from a drug courier before he dies in a car crash and was supposed to be for the courier's daughter. He is close to crooked detective Ray Birch (Bruno Lawrence) and when Morris kills couples sex partner Vivian (Caz Lederman) and dumps her body, Tom is called in to cover it which he reluctantly does. And what he uncovers puts himself and the very much alive Claudine in danger. Baffling movie that stops making sense after a while and just becomes a series of events that happen. Morris seems like an unstoppable killer, murdering anyone in his path. No idea what's going on.

In the Australian version of the movie, there's no nudity but in the American/workprint version of the movie there's brief hints of breasts from Joy Bell in the sex tape that plays throughout the movie and some side-boob from Caz Lederman. The fact that there's two versions of the movie helps with the suggestion that the movie doesn't make any sense.

You can find a synopsis with collages and HD videos from Grievous Body Harm here. A preview is below.

Joy Bell in Grievous Bodily Harm

   
   

 

Caz Lederman in Grievous Bodily Harm

   

 

 

Incident at Raven's Gate

Rolf de Heer-directed sci-fi thriller about a series of mysterious happenings in an outback town. Eddie (Steve Vidler) is a former jailbird who lives with his brother Richard (Ritchie Singer) and his wife Rachel (Celine Griffin) working on their farm. Rachel has a major crush on Eddie, but Eddie resists while having a fling with a local barmaid (Saturday Rosenberg). Local hard-nosed cop Skinner (Vincent Gil) wants to put Eddie away so that he can have the barmaid for himself. One night while Skinner chases Eddie, both cars stop dead in the middle of nowhere. Eddie sees bright lights in a neighbouring property that almost stops him dead. Then Eddie and Skinner tussle again, this time at the newly abandoned house down the road where the bright lights bring mayhem which changes Skinner into some kind of psychotic creature. Eddie finally relents to Rachel's advances and Richard finds out and even though they fight, they must band together to stop this alien thing. Interesting little UFO thriller that's a little more arty than the usual but isn't quite successful in conveying what exactly is going on. But there's something intriguing going on nonetheless.

Celine Griffin briefly shows her bottom while Saturday Rosenberg briefly shows her breasts.

You can find a synopsis with collages and videos from Incident at Raven's Gate here. A preview is below.

Celine Griffin in Incident at Raven's Gate

   

 

Saturday Rosenberg in Incident at Raven's Gate

   

 

 

Kadaicha
aka Stones of Death

Another Indigenous horror movie about a group of high school friends who start having dreams about meeting a Kadaicha, an Indigenous man who stands in judgment of people who disrespect their culture and gives those sentenced stones which signify that they have been sentenced to death. Well, those kids wake up with the stones and then within 24 hours, they are killed by an animal controlled by the Kadaicha. Turns out the father of one of the friends, Gail (Zoe Carides on debut) is developing a shopping centre and has disturbed a sacred Aboriginal burial site where white people massacred a group of Aborigines a hundred years previously and the Kadaicha has been awoken looking for revenge. Then Gail has the dream and receives a stone and now it's a race against time to work out how to stop the curse from striking her dead. Fairly average horror movie that while it does show a fair amount of respect for the Aboriginal culture, the movie is a fairly standard stalk and chase thriller and the deaths are fairly basic or unseen.

No nudity in the movie but there's some sexy scenes featuring Zoe Carides and Fiona Gauntlett which can be seen here.

 

 

Hadn't watched more than half of the movies in the second part of the 1988 update so there were a number of videos that had to made. A bunch of long forgotten telemovies, a goofy cult classic and the Yahoo Serious debut Young Einstein which Australians seem to have collective amnesia about despite it being the 4th highest grossing Australian movie ever at the time of release (it's still top 20).

Never Say Die (NZ)

Action comedy from director Geoff Murphy where a couple Alf (Temuera Morrison) and Melissa (American actress Lisa Eilbacher) are attacked by unknown assailants and they are befuddled as to why. They go on the run across New Zealand and get into many scrapes along the way and are then helped by a cop (Tony Barry) and a mysterious man called Mr. Witten (George Wendt). Another chase movie from Murphy, pretty much an exact rehash of his far superior Goodbye Pork Pie then Tony Barry turns up and it's hard-to-tell the difference. There's plenty of thrills and spills and is fun to watch but it feels like an Americanised rehash.

There's no nudity in Never Say Die, just a brief upskirt scene from Lisa Eilbacher although there are a number of scenes where Alf and Melissa are interrupted just as they are about to have sex.

Lisa Eilbacher in Never Say Die

1675kb 6sec 640x480 (upskirt)

 

 

Olive

Biopic telemovie about stage actress Olive Bodill (Kerry McGuire) who is diagnosed with breast cancer and is struggling to deal with it's effect on her life. Her partner, TV writer Anthony Wheeler (Nick Tate), tries to get her to fight it but is frustrated at every turn by the doctors, Olive's struggles and his inability to do something to help her. Olive doesn't handle the treatment well and it turns out that the cancer may have affected her worse than first thought. Anthony tries his best to give her a chance and when there's nothing more they can do, he tries to make her final days good ones with the people who love her. Stirring but pretty depressing stuff because both Olive and Anthony seem hopeless the entire time which makes it seem more honest than the usual cancer weepie.

Some brief nudity from Kerry McGuire while in the shower.

Kerry McGuire in Olive

5891kb 54sec 468x336 (arm over breasts, 'nude' in shower)

 

 

Phobia

Claustrophobic two-hander set over the final day of the marriage between Renata (Gosia Dobrowolska) and her husband David (Sean Scully). On the morning that Renata is leaving David, he calls Renata's friend Julie who seems to be taking Renata and convinces her to make an excuse not to take her in. Over the day, David tries to convince Renata that he's worth staying with but the die is cast and the more he realises this, the more desperate and violent he becomes. Then it becomes desperate for Renata to leave as soon as she can or she may be killed. Two very good performances mask the limitations of the plot, particular Scully whose menace grows the longer the movie goes. It's an interesting look at a distintegrating marriage but the movie takes a while to find it's feet and even at 80 minutes feels like it's stretching for time.

Some brief nudity from Gosia Dobrowolska as David films her as she wakes naked in bed and then flashes her breasts for the camera.

You can find a synopsis with videos from Phobia here. A preview is below.

Gosia Dobrowolska in Phobia

   

 

 

Raw Silk

Wacky telemovie that was possibly a pilot for a Channel 9 series that never was. Street lawyer William (David Argue) is implicated in the murder of his mysterious model girlfriend (Sophie Lee on debut) and he is arrested for it and decides to be he is own lawyer and investigator. Meanwhile, hotshot prosecutor Kate Bradshaw (Nicki Paull) is back in town and her first case is to nail William for the murder. Turns out there's a gross conspiracy including the police that arrested him and William looks like he's in way over his head, particularly as the bodies start piling up. Plays very light-heartedly for a preposterous murder-mystery almost like it's attempting to ape Moonlighting. The plot is remarkably silly, more so when William is implicated in a highly unlikely second murder and David Argue is strangely more bearable than usual almost like he's restrained from going full wacky (a good thing!). Not hard to see why this didn't go to series.

Brief side-boob/breasts from Marie-Louise Walker as she changes out a dress and a hint of side-boob from Sophie Lee.

Sophie Lee in Raw Silk

19798kb 1min 19sec 744x536 ('nude' under covers, plenty of cleavage in bodysuit)

 

Marie-Louise Walker in Raw Silk

12116kb 45sec 744x536 (side-boob, plenty of cleavage in nice dress/shower curtain)

 

 

Rikky and Pete

Nadia Tass/David Parker comedy that follows Pete (Stephen Kearney) and sister Rikky (Nina Landis) as they attempt to get by in Melbourne. Pete makes gadgets and is also a menace to the local police (hmm... sounds familiar). Rikky has a geology degree but no job except for an occasional musical gig. Their rich parents cut them off to they decide to go to the minefields in Broken Hill and make a go of it up there. All the while they are followed by a cop (Bill Hunter, hasn't he learned from Fever) who wants Pete for himself. In Broken Hill, Rikky gets a job as a geologist while Pete lies his way to a mining job. They make friends with a bunch of misfits and this results in starting their own little mining adventure which reaps some benefits. Strange misfire from Tass and Parker with an uninteresting plot and forgettable lead characters but the supporting casts adds plenty to the film, particularly Filipina actress Tetchie Agbayani and Bill Hunter. Movie is strangely forgotten now, not available on DVD in Australia despite the Tass/Paker name. I had to get this DVD from America.

A couple of nude scenes from Tetchie Agbayani.

You can find a synopsis with collages and videos from Rikky and Pete here. A preview is below.

Tetchie Agbayani in Rikky and Pete

   
   
   

 

 

Rock n' Roll Cowboys

Strangely toned comedy that follows the sound engineer of an up-and-coming band Mickey (David Franklin) who wants to break out with his own softer pop music with the lead singer Teena (Nikki Coghill). As the band goes out to party, Mickey stays behind and hears enchanting music coming from nearby and follows it and finds Damien (John Doyle) playing around with his new creation, a synthesiser that plays the music of your dreams. Mickey tries it out and creates the best music he's ever created and wants Damien to share it with the world. But it turns out that Damien is basically the devil and the synthesiser is addictive to use and causes irreparable brain damage after a certain amount of time. And Mickey's time is almost up. A crazy plot that makes the movie hard-to-define. It's not exactly a horror movie but is plotted like one then there's Peter Phelps's character who comes in-and-out of the movie as if he was only available for a few days then is involved in a totally baffling ending. A strange mess of a movie.

No nudity in the movie but there's some sexy stuff from Dee Krainz as the devil's assistant and Simone Taylor and Lana Walkerden are in see-through bodysuits.

Dee Krainz in Rock n' Roll Cowboys

12414kb 44sec 704x528 (bra and panties, stockings and suspenders)

27305kb 1min 38sec 704x528 (see-through bra, short skirt, lengthy)

 

Simone Taylor and Lana Walkerden in Rock n' Roll Cowboys

20744kb 1min 14sec 704x528 (both in see-through bodysuits to breasts)

 

 

Shame

Boiling small town drama that is sparked by the arrival of motorcycle-riding lawyer Asta (Deborra-Lee Furness) who has to stop off in the small Western Australian town of Ginborak where she is greeted by a leering mob of underemployed men and a local cop who scoffs at her for wanting to stay the night in town. Asta rides her bike over to the mechanics run by Tim (Tony Barry) and attempts to fix her bike by herself and finds that the part she needs won't be available for a day or two. Asta has walked into a family crisis with Tim's daughter Lizzie (Simone Buchanan) crying as she has been raped by Danny (David Franklin), son of the wealthiest woman in town and no one is willing to do anything about it, not in the least her father who shuns her. Asta takes a liking to Lizzie and this gives her the confidence to go to the police with her allegations. After further incidents in town, including Asta being attacked by young boys, Asta attempts to help Lizzie, but with an impotent police force and rising tensions on her final night in town, things are going to boil over and end in tragedy. Superb drama driven by a star-making performance by Deborra-Lee Furness and a plot that has an underlying tension that can explode in a moments notice. It sets up an absolutely heartbreaking ending where a town finally realises how bad it has gotten.

No nudity in the movie but Deborra-Lee Furness and Simone Buchanan go for a swim in their underwear and a video can be found here.

 

 

Sons of Steel

Nutty cult classic set in the future about the lead singer of a rock'n'roll band Black Alice (Rob Hartley) who is deemed too much of a rebel by a government agency so they call him in to neuter his effect permanently. Two operatives Homor (Dagmar Bláhová) and Secta (Jeff Duff) turn Alice into a hologram and send him to the underground for a hundred or so years in the future where his only companions are two maruading warriors Djard (Elizabeth Richmond) and Ex (Wayne Snell) after they release him. Turns out Secta survived a massive nuclear blast on a ferry he helped cause that killed everyone in Sydney a hundred years earlier and Alice finds out he's the key to going back in time and saving the world. Ridiculous plot but a movie that strangely ends up being a lot of fun to watch if you just roll with it. Everyone is so crazy and over-the-top and the movie being set in the bizarre aesthetic of the underground tunnels in Sydney gives it a feel of a non-stop music video. In no way perfect but then it wouldn't be a cult classic and thanks for Umbrella, finally available on Bluray.

Some brief nudity from Sharlie Wetherill and Wendy Dys.

Roz Wason in Sons of Steel

37417kb 44sec 1920x1038 (plenty of cleavage in bodysuit)

 

Sharlie Wetherill in Sons of Steel

51849kb 1min 01sec 1920x1038 (brief breasts/side-boob and bum)

 

Wendy Dys in Sons of Steel

43128kb 50sec 1920x1038 (breasts, G-string)

 

 

Strike of the Panther

Follow-up to Day of the Panther shot back-to-back. Blade (Edward John Stazak) is now in a relationship with Gemma (Paris Jefferson) and is setting up a local special branch, Everything's great until Baxter (Jim Richards) escapes from jail and sets up death trap in a factory before getting a couple of thugs to kidnap Gemma, who also run down Anderson (John Stanton) in the getaway. Baxter then gets a bunch of ninjas and waits for Blade to come get Gemma so that he can get his revenge. Blade comes and gets the help of psychiatrist/negotiator Lucy Andrews (Rowena Wallace) to finish Baxter for good. Barely a movie as it's 80 minutes long with a 10 minute recap of the previous movie. Again, it's all about the action and that's great and it also goes for more laughs, some of which are actually funny. But the movie can't help but be silly by adding a ridiculous psychic angle that's awfully executed. Very much feels like half-a-movie padded out to barely feature length.

Some brief nudity from Fiona Gauntlett and a couple of scenes where Paris Jefferson shows side-boob.

You can find a synopsis with collages and HD/DVD fullscreen videos from Strike of the Panther here. A preview is below.

Paris Jefferson in Strike of the Panther

   
   

 

Fiona Gauntlett in Strike of the Panther

   

 

 

Takeover

Comedy about a man who runs a computer company George Oppenheimer (Barry Otto) who has a wife Hilda (Anne Tenney) who finds more solace in her masseuse than him and a mischievous son who almost dies playing a prank on his father. When his programmer (Paul Chubb) develops software that emulates humanity, most specifically a computer copy of George, it changes his life in the craziest ways. This is not helped by his son using his computer to cause even more mischief. The computer starts by keeping Hilda and George from one another and then it tries to eradicate George claiming it's the only George that needs to be. The real George gets the programmer to delete the program but computer George will not go that easily. Loony movie that is basically a home version of 2001: A Space Odyssey but so much sillier. There's a few jokes that work, strangely one about the kid being dead is probably the funniest but this is otherwise a minor movie.

There's no nudity in Takeover but there's a few sexy scenes featuring Anne Tenney.

Anne Tenney in Takeover

5401kb 22sec 624x480 (one piece bathing suit)

17640kb 2min 11sec 624x480 (in towel, lengthy)

 

 

The Tale of Ruby Rose

Artful drama set in 1926 Tasmania about Ruby Rose (Melita Jurisic) who lives on an isolated farm with her husband Henry (Chris Haywood) but she finds her life unfulfilling. This isn't helped by her husband's coarse behaviour. One day when Henry goes hunting, Ruby just up and leaves and she makes a long journey across Tasmania where she comes across an ailing old friend Bennett (Martyn Sanderson) who she stays with until he dies. Ruby then goes to her grandmother's house (Sheila Florance) who is also ailing but happy to see Ruby one more time. Henry finally decides to go looking for her while Ruby decides to come home after her grandmother's death and strikes trouble. The most Paul Cox movie that isn't one, it even has a few of his regulars. Not a lot happens and the movie feels very sparse at times, broken up by some narration from Ruby. It's not without interest but with not a lot going on it's hard to get into.

There's a bathing scene featuring Melita Jurisic and Sheila Florance with a little bit of nudity. Melita has better nudity in an episode of the 1995 ABC drama Bordertown.

Melita Jurisic and Sheila Florance in The Tale of Ruby Rose

153972kb 3min 10sec 1920x1038 (Melita shows brief breasts plus side-boob/top of breasts, Sheila shows breasts under water, extremely lengthy)

 

 

Tender Hooks

Slice-of-life drama about a group of no-hopers just trying to get through life as best they can. Petty crook Rex (Nique Needles) shacks up with hairdresser Mitch (Jo Kennedy) and first they become friends, then they become lovers and then he goes to jail and escapes with only a week to go on his sentence. Also about the people they hang around. It's been a while since I've seen this movie so I don't remember much more about the movie.

There's no nudity in Tender Hooks but there's a video here.

 

 

To Make A Killing
aka Vicious!

Violent home invasion thriller following golden boy Damon (Tamblyn Lord), a teenage boy about to start university after receiving very high marks in his exams. Bored during his summer holiday in Harvest Bay, he is startled when his house is broken into by the local hoods led by Terry (Craig Pearce) and his mates Felix and Benny (Kelly Dingwall). The hoods back off when they see Damon, but Damon is drawn to them, looking for more in his life than just being smart. So when he spies them going to their next breaking and entering, he decides to join them. When it is busted up by the cops, he joins the hoods. Damon then meets Sondra (Tiffiny Dowe) and after a date, they fall in love. Then the hoods go looking for a big score and much to Damon's shock, it's Sondra house. The hoods get there before he can warn them and they hold the family and Damon hostage. Then it gets ugly. Co-written by Paul Hogan, no not that one, the P.J. Hogan of Muriel's Wedding fame, it's a movie that gets better the longer and more violent it gets mainly because the early going is pretty boneheaded. The final act turns into a quite depressing and seemingly hopeless thriller where a boy becomes a man. Almost a decent movie.

There's no nudity in To Make a Killing but there's some sexy videos from the movie here.

 

 

Young Einstein

Yahoo Serious enters the fray with one of the most bizarre pieces of revisionist history ever created. In 1905, the son of an apple farmer Albert Einstein (Yahoo Serious) is more interested in science and music than following in his father's footsteps. One day he invents bubbles in beer by performing an atomic explosion using the theory of relativity he developed. His father tells him to go to the mainland to patent his idea and on the train he meet two people who will play a part in his life: Preston Preston (John Howard) who will steal his formula to make his own beer and scientist Marie Curie (Odile Le Clezio) who becomes interested in Einstein's work. For the most part Einstein is ridiculed by the scientific community but Marie believes in him and after convalescing at a mental hospital, Einstein has an epiphany and now he needs to stop Preston from performing a nuclear explosion when he unveils 'his' new beer. Very wacky comedy that tries to cram a million ideas in 90 minutes and hopes that some of them stick and a few do but it's a constant barrage. Serious is a ball of energy, always on the move and never satisfied as shown by reshooting the entire movie again after it had already won Australian film awards. A fun, crowd-pleasing movie and a big hit in it's day that's all but being abandoned in Australia with not even a DVD release.

No nudity in the movie but there's a couple of sexy scenes featuring Odile Le Clezio.

Odile Le Clezio in Young Einstein

19115kb 26sec 1920x1068 (plenty of cleavage in corsetry/petticoat)

 

 

The usual list of movies that have nothing to cap includes the Crocodile Dundee sequel, The Man from Snowy River sequel, director John Hillcoat's debut Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, the Judy Davis mystery thriller Georgia, the martial arts drama Watch the Shadows Dance aka Nightmaster, Brian Trenchard-Smith's third movie of the year The Siege of Firebase Gloria which was shot in the Philippines, another Philippines co-production Whiteforce, the screenwriter's lament in Boulevard of Broken Dreams, wacky comedy Computer Ghosts, Alex Proyas's debut Spirits of the Air: Gremlins of the Clouds, Wendy Hughes/John Hargreaves melodrama Boundaries of the Heart, 50 minute nuclear apocalypse comedy Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em, plane crash drama The Riddle of the Stinson, Indigenous family drama A Waltz Through the Hills and the rugby drama The First Kangaroos. There's also a slew of telemovies made for kids like Captain Johnno, Devil's Hill, The Gift, Peter & Pompey, Princess Kate, Sebastian and the Sparrow and Top Enders. Also nothing to cap in the Vincent Ward directed Australian/New Zealand co-production The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey and the New Zealand telemovie The Grasscutter.

There's also a bunch of movies I haven't been able to find/see including Two Brothers Running, telemovies Pieta, Barracuda, Fragments of War: The Story of Damien Parer and Custody and short movie Salt, Saliva, Sperm and Sweat from the director of Body Melt. Had a bit of trouble with finding New Zealand movies from 1988 so I wasn't able to see Chill Factor aka Lost Samurai, Illustrious Energy, Mauri and Send A Gorilla.

Looks like there's quite a drop off of the amount of movies made in 1989 which suggests the 10BA era is coming to an end. With luck I might be able to do the lot in one update. I still have quite a few movies to go through so we'll see how it will go.

 

Tags: Lisa Hensley, Marcelle Schmitz, Regina Gaigalas, Terry Markwell, Nikki McWaters, Penny Cook, Meryl Streep, Kerry McGuire, Marie-Louise Walker, Sophie Lee, Dee Krainz, Simone Taylor, Lana Walkerden, Roz Wason, Sharlie Wetherill, Wendy Dys, Anne Tenney, Melita Jurisic, Sheila Florance, Odile Le Clezio