Australian/New Zealand movies: 1998

Banner year for nudity in Australian film with a number of movies with plenty of nudity plus further movies with excellent singular nude scenes. Part 1 for the year features excellent nudity in movies Hurrah and Dance Me to My Song while there's a great nude scenes in 15 Amore and nudity from soapie stars Melissa George and Rebecca Elmaloglou.

1998

15 Amore

Drama about an Italian immigrant family in Australia during World War II. It's really been a while since I've seen it...

An excellent nude scene from Heartbreak High star Tara Jakszewicz showing full frontal and rear nudity.

You can find a synopsis with collages and videos from 15 Amore here. A preview is below.

Tara Jakszewicz in 15 Amore

    
    
    
    
    
    

 

 

The Boys

Searing drama set the day of release from jail of older brother Brett (David Wenham). He arrives home with his younger brother Stevie (Anthony Hayes) where his mother Sandra (Lynette Curran) and Brett's long-suffering girlfriend Michelle (Toni Collette) are waiting. Older brother Glenn (John Polson) is coming to visit with his reluctant girlfriend Jackie (Jeanette Cronin). Brett gets in some alone time with Michelle before getting together with his brothers to be menacing at the bottle shop which he robbed then he comes home and intimidates Stevie's pregnant girlfriend Nola (Anna Lise Phillips), who Stevie treats like dirt. Brett tries to have sex with Michelle but can't get it up so he takes it out on her causing Michelle to leave and Nola to call the police further pissing off Brett. Things get incredibly tense when Brett gets into an argument with his mother and he and his brothers beat up her partner, With all the women gone, the brothers are mad, bored and looking for trouble, they leave and are about to commit a heinous crime that will tear their family apart. Solid, tense drama with a great break out performance from Wenham who towers over the movie and intimidates everyone including his own mother who is scared of what he could and does end up doing. At times the movie is hard-to-watch, Brett is such a nasty character and there are threads of scenes that suggest something absolutely horrific is about to happen, thankfully unseen, but just the suggestion is hard to stomach.

There's no nudity in The Boys but there's some see-through bra scenes from Toni Collette and underwear scenes from Lynette Curran and Jeanette Cronin which you can find here.

 

 

Casino Reef

First of two Gold Coast thrillers starring Cop Shop star John Orcsik having an unexpected renaissance. Devoted cop and husband Matt Phoenix (Colin Handley) takes down a drug dealer and kills him in the process. To keep up appearances, Phoenix is suspended from the force, but is secretly picked up by the new crime team, the ICA, who have been set up to take down notorious local kingpin Castelano (John Orcsik), the man who supplied the money in that raid. Castelano tries to kill Phoenix with a car bomb but ends up killing Phoenix's wife and severely burning his daughter. Phoenix is then assigned to protect eccentric inventor Smithy (Robin Stewart) who has also pissed off Castelano so much so that Smithy and his niece are kidnapped by a renegade member of the ICA and it's a race against time to get them back and stop Castelano. Awful clichéd plot and script, then there's the terrible acting including one topless actress who looks like she was forced at gunpoint to be in it although former Bless This House/Pacific Banana actor Robin Stewart is having a blast as Smithy. Some scenes are just laughable with anything involving the Russian member of the ICA just ridiculous including shooting a bloke backwards while lying on a moving motorbike. I would say that this is one of the worst movies ever made in Australia, but there isn't any allusions to anything great.

Deanne Imber and Nicole Kelso show their breasts playing strippers while there's numerous other unknown women naked throughout the movie.

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

Deanne Imber and Nicole Kelso in Casino Reef

    
    
    

 

Unknowns in Casino Reef

    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

 

Crackers

A rare Australian Christmas movie featuring a very dysfunctional family. Joey (Daniel Kellie) is a depressed young boy who jumps off a school building leaving his frazzled mother Hilary (Susan Lyons) clueless as to what to do with him. The annual Christmas party is at Hilary's parent's place and she's bringing her new boyfriend Bruno (Peter Rowsthorn) and his angry son Angus (Christopher Chapman), both of whom Daniel hates. After an eventful car ride where they almost die, the four arrive at Hilary's parent's house and are greeted by her dad Jack (Terry Gill), her mother Vi (Maggie King), Vi's sister Dottie (Valerie Bader) and a barking dog Bomber. After lunch, they are joined by her wacky grandfather Albert (Warren Mitchell) who causes immediate havoc with his rooster. Joey and Albert share the garage and end up getting into all sorts of trouble and Albert helps Joey protect himself from Angus who doesn't miss an opportunity to bully him. But after Joey sets Bomber loose, it sets off a series of events that will cause mayhem for the whole family with a number of deaths and end with Joey takings Albert's boat out to sea by himself. Billed as the next big Australian comedy after The Castle was a big hit, Crackers didn't quite live up to expectations and it's not hard to see why. The Castle is a lovable, knockabout comedy while Crackers goes for crude jokes and is surprisingly hateful with a lead character who while distressed by the death of his father, acts like a complete shit and it's hard to have a lot of sympathy for him. While dysfunction can be funny, when mixed with a unhealthy dose of hatefulness, it doesn't seem so funny.

Susan Lyons briefly shows her breasts.

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

Susan Lyons in Crackers

    

 

 

Dags!

Awkward comedy where a group of male and female 'dags' (basically different types of losers) attempt to make their way through life. Cheryl (Tanya Bulmer) is an unemployed twentysomething whose boyfriend Daryl (Brian Roberts) is a massive stoner and 'dole bludger' and completely useless. After her father has a heart attack while perving on her 'slutty' friend Tina (Sheena Crouch), Cheryl's mother gives her ultimatum to marry Daryl and move out of home. Cheryl is then 'hit on' by nerdy video store employee Kevin (Daniel Cordeaux) which she is sort of into until the store is robbed by Kevin's hopeless friend Trevor (David Callan) who takes Cheryl hostage. The hostage situation becomes a national sensation with Tina jealous of Cheryl's fame. Also, dopey lothario Enzo (Sam McCool) is going out with Cheryl's friend Charlene (Penny Cooper) but is cheating on her with Tina who desperately wants to stop Cheryl's wedding because she's getting all the attention. And Prozac (Angus Sampson) and Miles (director Murray Fahey) are chronically unemployed and try to keep it that way. Silly low budget comedy that has quite a few laughs and is funnier than it has any right to be although most of the humour is very Australian. The plot is ridiculous but it sets up some good jokes plus at 80 minutes, the movie doesn't muck around.

Sheena Crouch briefly shows her breasts during a sex scene.

You can find a synopsis with VHS quality videos from Dags! here. A preview is below.

Sheena Crouch in Dags!

    
    

 

 

Dance Me to My Song

Rolf de Heer's annual movie is a drama about Julia (Heather Rose) who has fairly severe cerebral palsy although she lives in her own home but needs care which she gets from her harried, abusive at-home nurse Madelaine (Jo Kennedy from Starstruck). Not only is Madelaine unreliable, she impersonates Julia on the phone, brings men to the house to have sex with and also steals from Julia and sometimes remembers that she's supposed to be looking after her. One day while Madelaine is out, Julia goes out the front of her house and gets the attention of a man who is walking by, Eddie (John Brumpton) and gets him to help her despite him not really wanting to be there but he ends up taking a liking to her. Eddie keeps coming back to visit Julia and they strike up a friendly bond but Julia wants more and gets Madelaine's help in initiating it. The first attempt ends with Julia chickening out and Madelaine decides to seduce Eddie. Then Julia makes another attempt to go further with Eddie without Madelaine's help and when Madelaine finds them together, she flips out and takes it out on Julia causing incredible tension between the two and an increase in the abuse Madelaine gives towards Julia. Things come to a head when Julia gets Madelaine fired and she doesn't take it well. Co-written by Rose (who briefly appears in Bad Boy Bubby), this is a fairly charming movie that doesn't down play Heather's disability for a nice movie and instead becomes a far more rewarding movie. The first 15 minutes are a tough slog, there's no sugar-coating about Julia's disability or of the abuse that Madelaine performs on Julia with and without her knowledge. The three lead performances are very good and the relationship between Julia and Eddie is handled quite well without getting overly sexual.

Extensive nudity from both Jo Kennedy and Heather Rose including full frontal nudity.

You can find a synopsis with collages and VHS quality videos from Dance Me to My Song here. A preview is below.

Jo Kennedy in Dance Me to My Song

    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

Heather Rose in Dance Me to My Song

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

 

Dark City

Alex Proyas takes his success with The Crow and comes back to Australia to make this beguiling mystery. John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes in a hotel with no memory of how he got there but quickly finds out that he's wanted for murder. As he tries to work out what has happened to him with the help of ex-girlfriend Emma (Jennifer Connelly), John finds out that the world is controlled by a group of white glowing freaks named The Strangers who can alter the city and mess with people's minds. John desperately tries to avoid The Strangers and a determined cop (William Hurt) while getting to the bottom of who he is and what he's supposed to have done. Proyas's movies have high ambition and lots of visual flair that doesn't always come together but Dark City may be the closest he's been to a great movie. At once interesting and confusing, this is probably Proyas's most accomplished movie.

Brief nudity from Melissa George (in her first movie post Home and Away stardom) and Natalie Bollard.

You can find a synopsis with collages and HD videos from Dark City here. A preview is below.

Melissa George in Dark City

    
    
    
    

 

Natalie Bollard in Dark City

    

 

 

Dead Letter Office

Drippy drama where Alice (Miranda Otto) is haunted by her father's disappearance when she was young, so much so that she continues to write letters to him. As an adult, Alice gets a job at the Dead Letter Office where her letters to her father ended up and she still believes that she will reunite with her father. But what she finds working there is a bunch of oddballs plus Chilean immigrant Frank (George DelHoyo), who she falls for. Ooof, utterly forgettable movie of little interest with a dopey idea which is shame as it's from the director of the excellent Death in Brunswick which goes to show how hard it is to get the movies you want made.

No nudity in Dead Letter Office but there's an underwear scene from Jillian O'Dowd and some sexy stuff from Miranda Otto.

You can find a synopsis with collages and videos from Dead Letter Office here. A preview is below.

 

 

Duran Duran

Amateurish sci-fi drama which strangely has a decent cast of known young Australian actors. Set in 2037 where the world was taken over by women, Rittyay (writer/director Garnet Mae) and his friend Measles (Jade Gatt), skateboard away the days with his drug dealer cousin Wiff (Ben Oxenbould) and his friend Drongo (Rob Carlton) hoping to get laid but women aren't interested in men anymore. One day, an all girl group take over their skate ramp, lead by Bum Fluff (Rebekah Elmaloglou) who beat up Wiff. Later, they meet up at a dance party and Rittyay and Bum Fluff hit it off and over time they fall for one another but Bum Fluff is being 'initiated' in a week to a higher calling. They wile down the days skating and snowboarding and when Bum Fluff finally gets horny for Rittyay, he goes missing and she ends up sleeping with Wiff. Barely a feature at 52 minutes but at least it's short which is to its advantage because the plot holds together just long enough that anything else would be padding. While the movie is very poor and plot is remarkably silly, at least it has a drive that is seriously lacking in the director's later movies and it riffs off Barbarella (see title) which isn't the worst thing. Duran Duran is in no way a good movie but it tries hard, it's writer/director has passion but lacks skills and money and it shows big time. Hard-to-know when this movie was made/released so I've somehow placed it in 1998.

Rebekah Elmaloglou shows her breasts during a sex scene.

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

Rebekah Elmaloglou in Duran Duran

    
    
    
    

 

 

Freedom Deep

Almost a silent movie with a grunge soundtrack, this post-apocalyptic drama is set over two time periods: 1998 and 2018. In 1998, Liam is a dopey kid who is abandoned by his parents and taken in by two drug-addled weirdos where he discovers the art of poetry. 20 years later, Liam (Peter Benson) has survived an event that has left only a few people alive but he's still plugging away with the poetry and garners the attention of a mysterious Stranger (Lorelei Gardner) who doesn't seem to know whether to fuck him or kill him. Oh and Kurt Cobain gets sacrificed. A true baffler that's hard-to-know what it all adds up to. It seems that Liam is some great writer that everyone knows his words but also some undiscovered genius or something. The grunge soundtrack is relentless and loud and it's use of grunge tropes not very subtle. I really can't explain what this movie is...

There's a brief nude scene from an anonymous actress and there's some side-boob action from Lorelei Gardner. Videos are below.

Lorelei Gardner in Freedom Deep

4070kb 14sec 720x544 (hint of side-boob, implied nudity)

23652kb 1min 29sec 720x544 (side-boob, implied nudity, plenty of cleavage in singlet top, down blouse)

 

Unknown in Freedom Deep

640kb 2sec 720x544 (breasts)

 

 

Head On

Full on gay drama about young Greek-Australian boy Ari (Alex Dimitriades) who is obsessed with having relations with other men while trying to reconcile who he is with his parents who are a traditional Greek family. No-holds-barred type approach to Ari's life and is an early successful attempt at a gay drama.

A hint of pubic hair from Elena Mandalis before cunnilingus is performed on her.

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

Elena Mandalis in Head On

    

 

 

Hurrah
aka Heaven Sent

Two-hander drama where city boy Raoul (Marton Csokas) buys an abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere to get away from everything, mainly the horrific death of his girlfriend. Raoul survives on little and interacts with no-one except occasionally with his far neighbour who tells him that the previous owners died horribly and not by their own hand and to watch out for the jealous locals. One day, Julie (Tushka Bergen) comes walking down his driveway looking for help having crashed her car outside his place. Turns out that there isn't much wrong with the car but Julie is insistent on staying the night at his place, which he agrees with. The next day Julie leaves reluctantly having hit it off with him and Raoul goes off for a night away from the house with his dog. When he arrives back, he finds Julie is back and he agrees to let her stay for a while as she seems to be running from something. Over time, they become closer while an outside threat lingers. They finally have sex but Julie tells Raoul that she doesn't want to fall for him and that he can 'love her body, but not her' but of course they end up falling for one another. Everything seems to be in place for Raoul to be with Julie but then we find out why Julie is there and let's just say that it's something to do with the alternate title, Heaven Sent. The movie is basically about two broken people who find one another and bond over avoiding their own issues until the final 15 minutes where a bizarre and badly explained twist is added to bring life to a relatively lifeless movie. Not much happens and when it does it's pretty predictable although the sex scenes liven up things. The movie seems to be heading towards an inevitable confrontation with the unknown threat on a motorcycle but then there's a twist into something else. Movie was never properly released in Australia and was only ever available via a Spanish DVD.

Extensive nudity from Tushka Bergen including full frontal and rear nudity.

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

Tushka Bergen in Hurrah

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

 

I'll Make You Happy (NZ)

Comedy caper movie that follows young sex worker Siggy (Jodie Rimmer) who has complicated relationships with everyone. She wants to help her on-off boyfriend/roommate Lester (Carl Bland) get to Tibet but he's a shiftless loser. She also constantly gets into tangles with her 'caring' pimp Lou (Michael Hurst) who's taken a keen interest in her but when Siggy suggests she's moving on from him, they get into a tussle and Siggy finds herself knocked out in another weirdo's house, Drew (Ian Hughes). When she comes too, she formulates a plan with Drew, Lester and Lou's girls to rob Lou who seems to be getting into drug dealing. Their plan involves having a party at Lou's house while the deal goes down and 'borrowing' a police car and using Drew to 'take down' Lou and get the drug money in the commotion. Silly stuff but Jodie Rimmer holds the movie together pretty well as the movie ambles along to a highly unlikely robbery.

No real nudity in I'll Make You Happy but Sandy Ireland's breasts can be seen while wearing pasties over her nipples. Jodie Rimmer is also in her underwear in a number of scenes. Videos are below.

Jodie Rimmer in I'll Make You Happy

19474kb 57sec 768x576 (bra and panties)

46230kb 2min 23sec 768x576 (see-through top to bra, shorts, lengthy)

44058kb 2min 17sec 768x576 (plenty of cleavage in midriff revealing top, short skirt, lengthy)

13210kb 41sec 768x576 (bra)

 

Sandy Ireland in I'll Make You Happy

47124kb 2min 26sec 768x576 (plenty of cleavage in see-through top to breasts with pasties over nipples, lengthy)

 

Part 2 continues the excellent nudity from part 1 with plenty of nudity in the movies Praise and Welcome To Woop Woop plus further nude scenes from Miranda Otto and Claudia Karvan.

In the Winter Dark

Another adaptation of a Tim Winton book. Murray (Richard Roxburgh) lives by himself on his farm after his wife died tragically and during a rainstorm he finds the pregnant Ronnie (Miranda Otto) who was abandoned by her boyfriend and takes her in. Meanwhile down the road, Maurice (Ray Barrett) and Ida (Brenda Blethyn) are an old couple who are counting down the days until they die. Then Murray finds dead animals on his farm, apparently savaged by an unknown animal and fear and panic begins to overwhelm the four of the them. OK movie, dark and dour, even more than the usual Winton story. Winton adaptations are always a bit fraught because he's such a distinctive writer that's more about vibes and moods which doesn't necessarily lend itself to movie adaptations.

Miranda Otto shows her breasts and a hint of her bottom as she is undressed after being soaked in a storm.

You can find a synopsis with collages and videos from In the Winter Dark here. A preview is below.

Miranda Otto in In The Winter Dark

    
    
    

 

 

Justice

Perth set thriller about an alcoholic homeless man Bobby (Marcus Graham) who begrudgingly befriends teen runaway Kat (Tessa Moncreiff) who can't stand her mother Annie's (Kerry Armstrong) latest abusive boyfriend. One night as Bobby hunkers down in his usual spot at an abandoned power station, Bobby witnesses corrupt cop Blake (Simon Westaway) brutally kill the Internal Affairs cop that is investigating him and when Blake spots Bobby, he decides to pin her murder on him. Bobby seeks refuge with Annie and Kat but after a manhunt, he hands himself in newly sober and freshly shaved which turns out to be a big mistake. An even bigger one when he decides to represent himself. Not helped by prison guards giving him alcohol to help stifle his abilities in court and a fuzzy drunken memory of what happened, Bobby looks certain to go down for the crime until... Stock-standard courtroom thriller when all hope seems to be lost before a miraculous last minute Hail Mary saves the day. The plot is pretty silly and has the feel of a TV movie, I mean did nobody think to ask as to why a drunken homeless man would tie up and brutally murder an Internal Affairs cop in a calculated manner. The movie is helped by some good acting from Graham, Armstrong and the teen girl while Westaway plays a contemptible villain even when he blows his brains out immediately after being caught out in the court room. If only the movie didn't feel like the movie of the week.

We see Rosemarie Lenzo's breasts as she's been tortured and after she is killed.

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

Rosemarie Lenzo in Justice

    

 

 

Love Brokers

Second Garnet Mae movie for the year after Duran Duran which at least got a release. I remember seeing a segment on Weekend Today in the late 90s/early 2000s that talked about the making of this movie in an excited way, mainly because it starred Ben Mendelsohn. He seemed excited. Then nothing... There is a trailer online which looks exactly like a Garnet Mae movie and Ben Mendelsohn even appears in it a little bit. But at one point he is poorly dubbed and his name is conspicuously missing from the credits which suggests Mendelsohn has distanced himself from the movie. Malina Hamilton-Smith is the female lead in the movie, she also appeared in Mae's Duran Duran and she briefly shows her breasts in the trailer. There's also a bunch of other sexy stuff in the trailer but I have no idea who's who.

Melina Hamilton-Smith in Love Brokers

   
   
   

 

 

Never Tell Me Never

True story telemovie from Channel 10 back when they made some good ones. This is about Janice Shephard, a marathon skier who was knocked off her bike and makes a miraculous comeback to being able to walk once again despite being told she wouldn't. She would also learn to fly a plane while recovering, so she was pretty determined.

Claudia Karvan briefly shows the side of her breast and a hint of pubic hair as she crouches in the shower.

You can find a synopsis with videos from Never Tell Me Never here. A preview is below.

Claudia Karvan in Never Tell Me Never

    

 

 

Occasional Coarse Language

Ultra-low budget comedy that got a bit of love locally thanks to a push by its distributor Village Roadshow giving it a brief cinema release. Min (Sara Browne) has the worst day of her life when she loses her job, finds her boyfriend cheating on her and is kicked out of her flat. Thanks to her best friend Jaz (Astrid Grant) she gets a new flat with a student doctor David (Nic Bishop) and now she needs a job and boyfriend. Gen-X female comedy that was all the rage at the time but watching it now and I wonder what the fuss was about. Had a makeover thanks to pilfering a whole chunk of the Triple J playlist at the time but it's a very minor movie and the comedy is pretty limited. The movie is not helped by a strange development where the main character hits it off with her best friend's boyfriend which is resolved with an overseas trip to find herself.

No nudity in Occasional Coarse Language but there's a few videos from the movie available here.

 

 

Praise

Sweaty Brisbane-set Gen-X drama where no-hoper Gordon (Peter Fenton) begins a relationship with casual acquaintance Cynthia (Sacha Horler) who has issues with her weight and eczema which causes her to lash out occasionally. The two bond through a neverending supply of alcohol and drugs and an interest in having better sex. But as the Brisbane summer goes on-and-on, the relationship cools off and Cynthia becomes more unhinged. Gordon also gets interest from Rachel (Marta Dusseldorp) which Cynthia is none-too-happy about. A decent movie where pretty much nothing happens except talking, drinking, smoking and sex and there's plenty of everything listed. Strangely fascinating and suprisingly funny, the movie is very much a Gen-X movie and is quite watchable despite minimal story. Both Fenton and Horler are great but Horler is a real stand-out here although she never really broke out as a star mainly because of beauty standards but turns up very regularly as the best friend in movies/TV for the past 25 years.

Extensive nudity Sacha Horler throughout.

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

Sacha Horler in Praise

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

 

Shadows of Paradise

Second John Orcsik starring Gold Coast based thriller, this time playing the 'good guy'. Nathan Vaughan (John Orcsik) is an aging standover man-for-hire who gets by doing jobs for local strip club owner/king pin Curtis Starr (Ron Vreekan) while being desperately haunted by the death of his cop wife. In his spare time he also looks out for stripper Cheryl (Tonia Leigh), who has a kid. Meanwhile, a low rung drug dealer Wade (Steve Morris) is tooling around with his group but he's a hothead on the edge and he's about to become a problem for everyone. As the bodies pile up, Curtis gets antsy and decides that Nathan is marked-for-death and he hires a psychotic hitman who kidnaps Cheryl. But Nathan isn't going down that easily. Strangely this movie is from the director of the martial arts dud Black Neon who played the bad guy in the Strike of the Panther/Day of the Panther movies. This movie is slightly more enjoyable mainly because it has a competent B-grade plot and John Orcsik is a pretty solid actor even if it's more than a bit implausible that this paunchy middle-aged man is the best standover man in the city. Much more watchable than Black Neon but still a pretty ordinary movie. This movie is so obscure that it isn't even listed on IMDB.

Body double nudity from Melinda Alker for Tonia Leigh while like Casino Reef there's plenty of nudity from strippers throughout. It is the Gold Coast after all.

You can find a synopsis with videos from Shadows of Paradise here. A preview is below.

Tonia Leigh with Melinda Alker in Shadows of Paradise

    
    

 

Unknowns in Shadows of Paradise

    
    
    
    
    

 

 

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Rare Tasmanian made movie based on a very popular novel at the time. It's a drama about Sonja (Kerry Fox) who arrives back in Tasmania after running away from her abusive father Bojan (Kristof Kaczmarek), newly pregnant and looking to make sense of her past. She finds her father a broken alcoholic. Sonja settles in with old family friend Jenja (Evelyn Krape) and begins a job at a pub. Sonja also remembers her childhood and particularly her mother (Melita Jurisic) who abandoned her at age 3 and growing up with her father barely scraping by thanks to her father's alcoholism. Long forgotten movie is mostly boring and uninteresting. The book must have been a masterpiece for it to be so popular and strangely it was directed by the author in the only movie he ever made. Even stranger that Rolf de Heer is listed as a producer but didn't make the movie. Shame no-one saw the movie when it came out as I remember it being only a limited release.

No nudity in The Sound of One Hand Clapping but there's some videos of Kerry Fox available here.

 

 

The Sugar Factory

Drama about 18 year-old Harris (Matt Day, looking quite a bit older than 18), who is a very troubled boy. He has a crush on the much older lady down the road Helen (Rhondda Findleton), who he mows the lawn for. One day when he is asked to look after her kids, the young daughter is found dead in the fridge while playing hide and seek. This sets off a chain reaction of events which ends with Harris being sent away to a halfway house run by Sam (John Waters) who has a radical way in treating his young patients. While he befriends the other patients, Harris tries to work out who is this little girl in his dreams who is being taken away from him. He also tries to become friends with Helen once again, who seems very accommodating. Baffling psychodrama where Harris is sent to the shonkiest psychiatrist ever portrayed on film. I have no idea what his practices are, but he seems to let his 'patients' do whatever they want like wander around the town late at night. Turns out Harris solves his own issues by going even more 'mental'. I got nothing...

Brief nudity from Rhondda Findleton and Michela Noonan.

You can find a synopsis with collages and VHS quality videos from The Sugar Factory here. A preview is below.

Rhondda Findleton in The Sugar Factor

    
    

 

Michela Noonan in The Sugar Factor

    
    

 

 

Via Satellite (NZ)

With the Olympics currently on, how about an Olympics themed movie? Carol (Danielle Cormack) is on the verge of swimming gold for New Zealand and everyone is excited except for her twin sister Chrissy (also Danielle Cormack). She's coming home from a fling with a man the night before. Meanwhile, Carol's mother Joyce (Donna Akersten) gets a call from a local TV station who want to film the family cheering Carol onto victory. She gathers the family, daughters Jen (Rima Te Wiata) and Lyn (Jodie Dorday) and Jen's husband Ken (Timothy Balme), at her house and things slowly but surely go bad from there. Jen and Ken are trying for a baby. Lyn is heavily pregnant and no-one knows who the father is. Then the journalist Brian (Brian Sergent) arrives with his cameraman Paul (Karl Urban) to set up. Turns out Paul is the man Chrissy slept with the night before and when she arrives home to see Paul, she runs off and Brian tells Paul he needs to bring her back. Meanwhile things get increasingly tense in the house as Jen finds out Ken is the father of Lyn's child then Joyce takes a turn. Can things get right before Carol swims for gold? Pretty standard dysfunctional family comedy that's not really all that funny and goes about as predictable as you'd expect. Strangely got a rare wide cinema release for a New Zealand movie in Australia based on it's similarity to The Castle that could've paid off but unsurprisingly didn't. It just isn't all that funny.

No nudity in Via Satellite but there's a few videos the movie below.

Danielle Cormack in Via Satellite

6274kb 23sec 744x560 (bare back, implied nudity)

17650kb 53sec 744x560 (bra)

 

Rima Te Wiata in Via Satellite

22528kb 1min 18sec 744x560 (plenty of cleavage in singlet top, panties)

 

 

Welcome to Woop Woop

Director Stephan Elliott had the world at his feet after the success of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, so what did he do? He made one of the most repulsive movies ever made and somehow managed to get the Rodgers and Hammerstein back catalog when no-one else was able to. Respect!

Teddy (Johnathon Schaech) is a shyster on-the-run from the mob in New York so he goes on a trip to Australia. While driving around, he comes across the very forward Angie (Susie Porter) and the two hit it off immediately, so much so that they decide to get married. Then Angie knocks out Teddy and he wakes up in Woop Woop in the middle of nowhere constantly bathed in searing heat. Turns out Angie has baited another dupe for herself and Teddy is in the shit, even more so when he sees a reluctant husband of Angie's sister Krystal (Dee Smart) try to escape and get absolutely slaughtered. So Teddy reluctantly decides to join in, buddying up to Angie's father Daddy-O (Rod Taylor) and making friends with the various weirdos inhabiting this special place in Hell, all the while trying to figure out a way to escape while putting up with the always horny Angie becoming a worse person by the minute. Teddy forms an alliance with Krystal to help him escape but no-one escapes Woop Woop. At first I despised this movie but a recent re-watch when in played on the Indigenous channel NITV has softened my view to merely an unholy mess, a bizarre mix of just about every busted up cliché about the dead heart of Australia, Rodgers and Hammerstein songs and an assault of every despicable character you've ever seen including Teddy. There's even a scene after the credits which would need so much explanation as to why it exists even though it's only 30 seconds long. Just the most baffling Australian movie ever made.

Decent nudity from Susie Porter throughout the movie.

You can find a synopsis with collages and HD videos from Welcome to Woop Woop here. A preview is below.

Susie Porter in Welcome to Woop Woop

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

 

 

When Love Comes (NZ)

Drama about Fig (Nancy Brunning) and Sally (Sophia Hawthorne) who are in a fledgling band together and love one another. They form an alliance with songwriting wunderkind and complete mess Mark (Dean O'Gorman) who writes his best songs when he's in that state. This is helped by Mark being in love with music producer Stephen (Simon Prast), who doesn't like him messed up particularly as he is looking after former singing star Katie (Rena Owen), who has come home to New Zealand to find herself before filming her big comeback showcase, leaving her on-off 'married' lover Eddie (Simon Westaway) in Los Angeles. Stephen wants Mark to write a new song for Katie but they have a fight after Mark comes over in a drugged up state and things get tense between the two. Fig and Sally meet Katie and concoct a plan to get her to sing backing vocals during their studio session that they managed to finagle. Katie is struggling to find her voice so Stephen, Mark and Katie go to a beach house to get away for a little while. Eddie arrives in New Zealand looking for Katie but finds Sally and Fig and they end up taking him to the beach house and joining in. At the beach house, everyone comes together to find out who they really are. OK drama, very 90s indie feel where a small group of people become interconnected but very talky and the movie doesn't really resolve much. Fig and Sally tell the story but they don't have much to do in the movie and end up just being 'there' for the most part. Mark, Stephen and Katie are the ones with issues and even then they are not overcoming insurmountable odds. Apart from that it's fairly watchable as the characters do have a fair bit of depth and Fig and Sally are fairly fun to watch when they're together.

Sophia Hawthorne is nude in a couple of scenes while Nancy Brunning shows some side-boob.

You can find a synopsis with collages and videos from When Love Comes here. A preview is below.

Sophia Hawthorne in When Love Comes

    
    
    

 

 

Movies that didn't have anything to cap in them include the very good interrogation drama The Interview, Indigenous drama Radiance, pretentious dinner drama A Little Bit of Soul, Tass/Parker's first drama Amy, silly psychological drama Reflections, US TV sci-fi drama Meteorites!, wacky sci-fi Weird Ones, telemovie starring Ally Sheedy The Fury Within, docudrama about the Newcastle earthquake Aftershocks and family movies Babe: Pig in the City and The Real Macaw. Also from New Zealand there's telemovies Tiger Country and gay drama One of Them!. There's also the American co-production Heaven with Martin Donovan and Richard Schiff about a transwoman who can see the future and is neck deep into a bunch of violent incidents that are about to happen (or not happen at all). There is nudity in the movie but only briefly from random strippers.

I could not find copies of the movies including The Silent Scream, the disastrous production of The Venus Factory (that's a story worth seeking out) or the James Wan/Leigh Whannel debut Stygian which is strangely impossible to find. There's also Lost Valley from New Zealand I was unable to find. I decided not to cap the telemovie series Chameleon as it's only available in VHS rips and I still hold out hope for a much better release, no matter how delusional that seems.

1999 is absolutely teeming with movies, so much so that I'm considering a third update depending on what I find in the movies I haven't look at yet.

 

Tags: Lorelei Gardner, Jodie Rimmer, Sandy Ireland, Danielle Cormack, Rima Te Wiata