Another early Kidman film (coming after BMX Bandits, not too long ago). This may be the world's only windsurfing movie, and main actor Tom Burlinson is up to the job. At heart, this is an old-fashioned romance with a windsurfing angle. It's light-hearted and charming, with some surprisingly casual nudity from Kidman. Nice soundtrack, too.
Second review!! But it's worth it.
Sex and death and a liberal dose of Hitchcock... that's the Brian DePalma formula. This one features Michael Caine as a psychiatrist whose patient is murdered, and the investigation is the main concern of the film. There are shades of Psycho, Vertigo, and other Hitchcock classics here, like the famous museum sequence, ripped from Vertigo, with Hitchcock's famous subjective tracking shot used liberally. Mirrors suggest duality, and so on.
It's hard to discuss this without spoilers, especially the giant twist at the end. So I'll say all the acting is good, the plot is interesting enough, the style very high... I enjoyed this thriller.
This is really a 70s holdover in every way. It's Australian, which might explain some of it, based on a popular novel from 1979. Two girls hang out with the "cool" kids over one summer, even though that's a bad idea from all angles: the cool kids just worship the surfer boys, giving themselves over to casual sex, hard drugs, and so on. But as the movie points out, if you're an upwardly mobile lower-middle-class girl, you don't have much choice. It's nothing or a very little something, and they choose ... something. Everyone is deeply unsympathetic. I found this movie profoundly depressing. Avoid.
The exact opposite of the previous movie. This is basically Hulk Hogan vs The World, and in this case the world is represented by the amazing character actor Kurt Fuller, who is so snakish and villainous it's almost unbelievable. Here Fuller plays Brell, a TV exec whose failing network desperately needs a boost. He tries to hire wrestling star Hogan, but Hogan won't bite.
So Fuller starts a no-holds-barred show featuring Tiny Lister, who is scary as hell in this movie, and challenges Hogan to a match. Hogan declines... until Fuller injures his brother and kidnaps his love interest. Then Hogan and Lister have to battle it out in a massive brawl. Interesting that this debuted at #2 behind Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, though it basically only broke even overall. I remember it being VERY popular with my friends, but I never saw it until now. I enjoyed this MUCH more than Puberty Blues. Whisper it with me: "Zeeeuuuusssssssssssss"
It's interesting that a hero-worship fantasy concocted by a businessman and a wrestler would engage me a hundred times more than a coming-of-age story about an Australian girl caught in a bad social situation. But one movie has a lot of soul and one doesn't. When the love interest in Puberty Blues falls out and dies from a heroin overdose, I simply didn't care. One less character I hate, I thought. When Hulk hits Zeus right through the ring at the climax of No Holds Barred, I got up and did pushups. Just saying.
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