Cullen, Max

December Boys

They share the same birth month so the orphanage calls them December Boys. But these teens ? Maps Spit Spark and Misty ? have much more in common. With no hopes of ever joining a family they form their own familial bonds. Then the unexpected news comes that a young couple may adopt one of them and the long-time pals suddenly share something else: a rivalry to be the chosen one.Running Time: 105 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY UPC: 085391189589 Manufacturer No: 1000027397

Lightning Jack

Paul Hogan, better known as Crocodile Dundee from the popular film series, takes on a new character. He's an outlaw named Lightning Jack Kane who's quick on the draw but not terribly bright. Jack's gang gets wiped out, leaving him to continue his bank robbing career alone... until, by chance, he takes hostage a young mute (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who decides he'd rather team up with Jack than be a put-upon store clerk for the rest of his life. Against his better judgment, Jack agrees, and they embark on a series of criminal escapades, bonding over bank heists, bar fights, jailbreaks, and women. The always lovely and charming Beverly D'Angelo plays Lana, a dance hall girl who's madly in love with Jack. Gooding is his usual exuberant self, even without words, and Paul Hogan is Paul Hogan. If you're a fan of his, you'll enjoy this movie, and if you're not, you probably aren't reading this review in the first place. Lightning Jack doesn't offer much in the way of historical recreation; this is a Disney-style old West, with women's underclothes that look like they came out of a Victoria's Secret catalog and some pretty 1990's haircuts. But the movie rambles along amiably. --Bret Fetzer

My Brilliant Career

The acclaimed debut of Judy Davis is the best reason to see My Brilliant Career, and the award-winning film is highly recommended as the feature debut of director Gillian Armstrong. This was an early entry in the magnificent "New Australian Cinema" movement that yielded such classics as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, and Breaker Morant, and 27-year-old Armstrong (who would later direct the popular 1994 version of Little Women) brought just the right feminist touch to this stately adaptation of the 1901 semi-autobiographical novel by Miles Franklin. Davis (who was 23 at the time) plays 16-year-old Sybylla Melvyn, on the verge of womanhood in turn-of-the-century Australia and determined to have a "brilliant career" as an independent writer and lover of life, but her attraction to a wealthy bachelor (Sam Neill, charming as always), and the pressures of her family to lead a conventional life of devoted domesticity, turn this into a romantic and highly observant drama of personal dilemma and free-spirited conviction. It's no surprise that Davis and Armstrong went on to brilliant careers themselves (Davis starred in David Lean's A Passage to India just a few years later). --Jeff Shannon

Winner of Six Australian Academy Awards, Including Best Picture and Best Director.

Exquisite 2-Disc Special Edition

This is the film that became a worldwide sensation and remains perhaps the most beloved and acclaimed romantic epic of all time. Oscar -nominee Judy Davis (Passage To India, Husbands and Wives) made her international debut as Sybylla Melvyn, a free spirited young writer who refues to conform to society's expectations of how a 'proper woman' should live her life. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) co-stars as the wealthy suitor who tries to win her restless heart in this Oscar nominated classic by Gillian Armstrong (Little Women, Starstruck). Long unavailable in America, My Brilliant Career has been fully restored and remastered in High Definition from the original negative, under the supervision of Academy Award nominated Director of Photography Donald McAlpine.

Jindabyne

Stewart Kane an Irishman living in the Australian town of Jindabyne is on a fishing trip in isolated hill country with three other men when they discover the body of a murdered girl in the river. Rather than return to the town immediately they continue fishing and report their gruesome find days later. Stewart's wife Claire is the last to find out. Deeply disturbed by her husband's action her faith in her relationship with Stewart is shaken to the core. She wants to understand and tries to make things right. In her determination to help the victim's family Claire sets herself not only against her own family and friends but also those of the dead girl. Her marriage is taken to the brink and her peaceful life with Stewart and their young son hangs in the balance. The story of a murder and a marriage. A powerful and original film about the things that haunt us.System Requirements:Run Time: 123 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396183964 Manufacturer No: 18396

With its subdued emotional tone and superbly subtle performances, Jindabyne is the kind of film you have to be in the right mood for. If you get onto its low-key but ultimately powerful wavelength, you'll find much to admire in this Australian adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story "So Much Water So Close to Home." The same story (available in the Carver collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love) was previously adapted as a segment of Robert Altman's Short Cuts, but here it's been given a decidedly indigenous spin, focusing on the emotional fallout that occurs when four men discover the half-naked body of a 19-year-old Aboriginal woman while fishing in a remote river near their home town of Jindabyne, on the border of outback country in New South Wales. Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) was the one who discovered the body on a sunny Friday afternoon, but he and his buddies didn't report their discovery until two days later, resulting in a local news scandal and deep resentments from the Aboriginal locals. Worse yet, the incident dredges up a storm of emotions in Stewart's wife, Claire (Laura Linney), who's still recovering from a marital separation and post-partum depression following the birth of their young son. Simmering guilt, familial tensions, and strained friendships threaten to tear these residents of Jindabyne apart, and director Ray Lawrence (making only his third film since 1985's Bliss and 2001's underrated Lantana) does a remarkable job of exploring m