Love in Limbo

(1993)

Love in Limbo is a strange oddity from 1993. It's a film in which its lead is a lesser known actor (Craig Adams, who had actually had come off a decent role in the underrated Holidays on the River Yarra) than the two other main actors in the film (Russell Crowe and Aden Young). Hell, it's probably a rare time where you will see Russell playing a nerdy virgin...

Anyway, it's the 50s in Perth and Ken is obsessed with the female form. He is constantly drawing naked women and is perving on his twin sister's (Maya Stange) best friend who lives behind them. He also has a crush on and fantasizes about his teacher. All this sexual energy has his mother (Rhondda Findleton) worried, so she gets her brother to give him a job where he meets a lady-killer salesman Max Wiseman (Martin Sacks) who takes him under his wing, a roguish coworker named Barry (Aden Young), and a nerdy supervisor named Arthur who's always sticking to the rules (Russell Crowe). He becomes friends with Barry and Arthur and they decide to travel to a remote brothel to get laid.

I remember watching this film late on TV back in the 90s, but I could barely remember anything about it. I remember them going to a brothel and Russell Crowe and Maya Stange were in it, but that's about it. Hell, I thought Maya played one of the prostitutes. She doesn't, they are played by actresses with few roles. Not a bad film with some excellent period detail and a nice smattering of nudity throughout, but I doubt Russell Crowe thinks much about it anymore, although his character is very similar in tone to his character from A Good Year.

Emily Bott film clips

Rhondda Findleton film clips (collages below)

In the Red

(1999)

In The Red is a late 90s car action film set in Sydney. It's about a leader of a gang, Dymo, who is shot up at his home by a rival who wants his turf. The cops know who it was and take in the rival, but let him go as they try to get him on something bigger. With his gang, Dymo goes about tracking down who is responsible and getting revenge.

Oh, and everyone has hotted up cars, so plenty of car chases. And thank fuck for those pretty well done car chases because the rest of the film is absolutely fucking awful. The lead actor is a complete block of wood (laughably described in the IMDB synopsis as 'charismatic') and his gang are hardly worth cheering for. Usually, if you are making a bunch of criminals the 'good guys', you'd make them at least likable, but they all a bunch of arseholes and I couldn't have cared less for them. Terry Serio is OK as the rival and it's good to see him behind the wheel again after 80s cult classic Running on Empty, but his role is barely written and he doesn't have much to do. Allison Cratchley gets lumped with a shit of a role, which is great for the pervs, but something you wouldn't tell future employers about. This film is hard to find, and thank fuck for that cos I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. This goes on the list of all time terrible Australian films for sure.

Film clips: Allison Cratchley and Vanessa Steele

Cratchley collages

Steele collage

Film clips: Coralie Eichholtz (no collages for this one)