Searing and luscious, "Beautiful" tells the story of Daniel, a shy and introverted 14 year old boy residing in Sunshine Hills, a suburb living in the grip of fear following the rumoured abductions of three teenage girls. Daniel's two main obsessions are photography and Suzy, a 17 year old Lolita, a dangerous combination of youth and sexuality.
In 1929 Arthur Upfield, Australia's premier crime writer, plotted the perfect murder for his novel The Sands of Windee. Meanwhile, one of his friends, stock-man Snowy Rowles, put the scheme into deadly effect, even before the book was published. This true story resulted in one of Australia's most sensational murder trials of the 1930's and catapulted Upfield's name onto the world stage.
In 1831 a young amateur scientist, Charles Darwin, boarded HMS Beagle on an epic five-year voyage of discovery. 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, 'Origin of Species'. The Voyage that Shook the World retraces Darwin's journey, exploring the places and discoveries crucial to the formulation of his Theory of Evolution. Filmed in South America, UK, North America, Australia and Europe, The Voyage features dramatic period recreations and stunning nature cinematography interwoven with scholars sharing their perspectives on the man and the controversy. A fascinating and thought provoking opportunity to gain new insight into The Voyage that Shook the World.
Tells the story of a woman's journey to overcome the events of the past and to find a way to move on. It is a story of dark secrets and the power of and celebration of letting go.
A group of friends whose leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when they, along with a fellow tourist embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins.
A man is kidnapped from his city home in the quiet hours of the night and, the kidnapper, John Kelly, embarks on a journey into the Australian Outback towards the place where his hostage is due for delivery. As time and distance roll by, the strength and endurance of both men will be tested to the very end.
Inspired by true events, THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI is a portrayal both sweeping and intimate of people who, thrown into an unexpected and desperate situation, discover their capacity for love and responsibility. It tells how a young Englishman, George Hogg came to lead sixty orphaned boys on an extraordinary journey of almost a thousand perilous miles across the snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to safety on the edge of the Mongolian desert. And of how, in doing so, he came to understand the true meaning of courage. During his journey, Hogg learns to rely on the support of Chen, the leader of a Chinese partisan group who becomes his closest friend. He soon finds himself falling in love with Lee, a recklessly brave Australian adventurer whom war has turned into an unsentimental nurse on horseback. Along the way Hogg befriends Madame Wang, an aristocratic survivor who has also been displaced by war, who helps the young Englishman, his friends and their sixty war orphans make their way across awesome (and rarely filmed) mountain and desert regions to a place of safety near the western end of the Great Wall of China.
Two unhappy people's lives become entwined when they have a life changing romance. Adrienne is a woman who's trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not. Her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is traveling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn in a North Carolina beach town where she is staying.
An eccentric biopic of George W. Bush directed by Oliver Stone follows one of the most controversial American presidents in his wild student years and public service that leads him to the top of the political career. Surrounded by easily recognisable teammates such as General, Vice and Rummy, George makes absurd decisions that change the world but rarely cares about consequences. Oliver Stone brings together Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks and Richard Dreyfuss to act in this hilarious caricature of the Bush dynasty.
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by Japanese forces firsthand.
One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.
A cricket team are dismissed by a moustachioed serial killer with a razor sharp cricket glove and an arsenal of sharpened stumps. One by one the killer exacts revenge for the torment he endured 20 years earlier.
Eleven-year-old city girl Julia is excited about meeting her country grandfather for the first time. But once she arrives at the farm, nothing is as she imagined.
Newly divorced, Achilles Pumpkinseed lives alone in the house left to him by his deceased mother. Depressed and adrift, he spends his days smoking pot and watching television, usually alone but sometimes with his equally rootless friend Patroclus. Although he owns a small business, Achilles cannot face working any more than he can muster the energy to deal with the world he used to be a part of. Then one day, an unexpected visitor named Homer shows up at Achilles' doorstep, bearing an unusual gift: an old dilapidated camping trailer painted like a child's image of a watermelon. Insisting that delivering this improbable gift to Achilles is his "mission", sworn to at knife-point for the young man's hated stepfather Creon, Homer forces Achilles to accept the bizarre object. As fate would have it, the Watermelon acts as a magnet, luring all manner of oddball humanity to Achilles' home - a flaky artist, a pushy photo-journalist, a pedantic television reporter, and even the ghost of his beloved mother. At first, Achilles rejects the intrusions, until one day he discovers a young runaway sleeping in the trailer. Rather than chase her off as he did the others, Achilles invites the vulnerable Persephone into his home... and his life. Eleventh-hour appearances from his ex-wife and deranged step-sister ensure that Achilles' life will never be the same. Until it is. Sort of.
James Tresswick and Mark Vincent are victims of a brutal bully Gary Parker who has maltreated both boys, marking their bodies and spoiling their young lives. In their last year of high school, James and Mark find a way to stop being victims. They're going to kill Gary; Wandering alone around an isolated forest - the suspected site of the disappearance of a local girl - 17 year old Mark strays upon an adult male filling in a trench. It's suspicious and tantalizing. Mark returns with his friend James and Chasley Keys and they bring shovels to exhume what will probably be rotting garbage or someone's dead pet - or so they tell themselves. They find the ghostly white body of a woman. She's a tourist - a Canadian backpacker. The "trench" is a grave. The "adult male" is her killer. And they've got him by the balls. Responding to Mark's intimations James floats an idea to seek out "the sicko". It'll be a bit of fun. He's confident the guy lives in their suburb; Mark saw his car parked on a trail; Mark knows what the car looks like; Mark knows what he looks like. It can be done. Chasely goes along with it. No surprise. James has done all her thinking since they started a relationship. Mark agrees because he's got a thing for Chasely and he'd like to appear a bit more like her boyfriend, but mostly Mark agrees because he carries a culpable secret. They find the car and the killer 24 hours later. He's got the same house as everyone else and a kid and a wife. Jeez, it's anticlimactic. Then, in Chasely's bedroom, as the girl cleans up the latest damage done to Mark's face by an animal called Gary Parker, James floats another idea; What if the killer were contacted and told the name of a guy that they'd like to see dropped in a hole of his own? He's their secret, isn't he? They kind of own him, don't they? If he thinks they might let him go he'd do anything, wouldn't he? What could go wrong? James, Mark and Chasley are about to cross a line of no return as serial killer Ian Wright lures the vulnerable teenagers into his violent world.
'Newcastle' is a coming-of-age/family drama/surfing movie. 17-year old Jesse lives in the shadow of his older brother Victor's failure to become surfing's Next Big Thing. Even when he's in his natural habitat of magnificent surf breaks, his blue-collar future is brought home by the coal barges that constantly line his horizon. Jesse has the natural skills to surf his way out of this reality and onto the international circuit but can he overcome his equally natural ability to sabotage himself? A momentous weekend away with his mates that includes first love and tragedy leads him to discover what's really important, and also to the performance of a lifetime.
Something has gone terribly wrong at research station 320, a secret research facility one mile beneath the earth's surface. All communications are gone, all means of escape destroyed and an extremely dangerous horde of rapidly mutating ancient flesh eating creatures are consuming everything in their path. Eight survivors of the outpost, two research subjects, three mercenaries, two research technicians and a medic barricade themselves inside a remote area of the facility with little food, almost no means of defense and little hope of rescue. Their one possible escape route is through thirteen levels of terror that will lead them to the surface. And one of them is not who they seem to be, but the darkness itself which has taken human form.
