Crwthod
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Stoutor
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
jonb-29
A fairly mediocre film with three wasted talents. That's wasted as in not used to their full potentials, not what you might think. This movie could have been so much more, but seemed to just "get-by". Neil is wooden, really wooden, he makes an old growth forest look like it's made of PVC and polycarbonates. Clarke is his usual self but doesn't have much to work with and Zoe does a good job. Especially given that she got her assets out in a scene. Aside from that it feels dated, and boring. The "ethnic" Australian angle wasn't used to it's best potential. Although other reviewers comment on the "nastier" aspects of this movie it's really very tame and the nastiest thing about it is the horrible 80's leather pants. Straight to DVD stuff.
rcathcart
Death in Brunswick is a smashing wee film. It comes from that venerable antipodean tradition of the "cooky" movie - see: almost anything by Baz Luhrmann or films like The Team, Goodbye Pork Pie, Don's Party, Cars that ate Paris etc etc. Off beat doesn't describe this kind of film - so talk about refreshing. Just when you think the narrative is heading along in a "I-sort-of-get-this" direction - some new character or plot device comes up and wryly calls you over and says: nah that would be too boring.Fear not though this isn't laboured zaniness or posturing surreality - this is clever, clever, clever stuff - character driven, funny as...and basically something to get you thinking. And get this: someone actually sat in a room somewhere and thought: "Right we'll get that handsome Sam Neill guy and make him a play a weedy loser who lives with his mum." ???Only in Oz. No wonder the man himself ranks this gem among his favourite movies.
cmjl-1
From the moment the film opens, depicting aluminium cans rolling ceaselessly (and noisily) in the wind, along with the elderly Greek ladies putting this year's Christmas trees into the wrecked Austin 1800 (stuffed next to previous year's Christmas trees), you know that this film is going to be a little different.Melbourne, one of the most multi-cultural metropolis's in the world (should that be metropoli?) is the setting for this rather dark comedy drama. Carl, an unemployed and very much down on his luck chef, gets a job at a less than reputable nightclub in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. He falls in love with one of the Greek barmaids, much to the consternation of the owner of the bar who has been betrothed to the barmaid. Not helping matters much is a Turkish kitchen hand, who appears to want to spend more time trading in stolen goods and drugs than actually working as a kitchen hand.When matters escalate out of hand, Carl needs the specialist help that only his friend, Dave can provide. If it can be said that a good friend will help you move (house), it's fair to say that only a true friend will help you move - a body, and as a gravedigger at the local cemetery Dave is in the ideal position to help "dispose" of one of Carl's kitchen disasters.Along the way, Dave is pestered by his Feminist-rights movement wife who spends most of her on-screen time berating Dave for his pathetic life, while Carl spends his time being roughed up by the nightclub bouncer, roughed up by a Turkish crime syndicate, or, more worryingly, being berated and belittled by his mother.A truly enjoyable Australian film from the early 1990's, though apparently not available in Australia - I had to get my copy from the UK, though fortunately the UK release is region free.
lib-4
Why anyone labeled this a comedy is a mystery to me- the whole movie is downbeat-- from the squalor Cal lives in to the situation at work... It was slow and with the violence not a bit funny.... Sam Neill is kind of cute- but I don't think a 19 year old would fall for him...