Paradiso di fuoco

Admittedly I'm a dedicated Crowe fan and have almost all his old movies but when I first got Heaven's Burning I found it a bit odd and would have said - well all great actors have to put in time on mediocre movies before they get to the top stuff. However after watching it again today for about the sixth or seventh time, I have to say that it really is very watchable. Even those awful sideburns. But thanks for not inflicting them on us again Russell. Yes its a road movie crossed with Bonnie & Clyde,Aussie version, but the tender little love story, the fast pace, the violent bits and the collection of grotesque characters met on the way make for an interesting ride.

Well, I watched this again after seeing Russell Crowe in The Insider.

THE reason to watch this movie, in my mind, is the last five minutes. If you've read the title, I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that it's the sort of poetically cataclysmic ending you'd expect from the best of film noir...bringing to mind a vague connection with Kiss Me Deadly...and the only way to end any good road movie. That said, the rest of the movie is pure B...true to the noir roots...and whether or not the mistranslations and boom mike shadows were intentional is somewhat irrelevant. You may laugh, you may not, but at worst it's a quirky, passably interesting vehicle to the "good" part.

As for Crowe, well, fans may enjoy, but no one's really given enough time or lines to shine in this movie. Or establish believable relationships for that matter. They're grim characters on a silent march to their doom, leaving a path of carnage and (I must insist quite relevant) dead bystanders in their wake.

This is a wild fun Austrailian movie that is well worth the ride The action dominates the movie with a collection of odd broken characters that you so often find in Australian movies. The story sometimes borrows themes from other 'road movies' which are fairly familiar, but the unique characters in the movie make this road movie unique in its own very strange way. Russell Crowe a la sideburns is still very cool, yet he does not dominate each scene as he has done in every movie he has made in the past 5 years. His somewhat understated presence allows his co-star Yidori (?) shine - a wonderful Japanese actress whose ingénue childlike looks contrast sharply with her bizarre change or metamorphosis from the gentle opening scenes. The classical musical romantic score is placed in a wild funny contrast to the plot,sometimes in a very campy way--yet it still works. This is not a great movie or a classic--but it has the zany features of movies like "TRUE ROMANCE', (a cult classic) I would highly recommend this movie for what it it is -- a wild action packed funny bizarre ride with a good run of crazy people--- This movie may be a 10 if you view it the Austrailian way --with a keg of good beer--wish I 'd seen this movie on the big screen but I don't recall this movie in the theater years ago-Enjoy--there are even a few good lines that will make you want to go back to it someday so a DVD purchase would not be wasted....

I first saw this movie in a late night slot on a satellite movie channel. The movie has a more than interesting cast of quirky and disturbing characters that appear throughout is length, in some respects quite similar to a Coen brothers film. The two central characters meet in the most unusual of circumstances and have more than one reason to hide themselves from their respective pursuers. The film portrays a different side to Australia, especially with the mixture of cultures presented. There are enough action scenes within film to keep the pace up and is accompanied with a good soundtrack. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it.

I picked this up at the local video store recently as I am always looking for something that might not have been first run but still might turn out to be interesting. I wasn't disappointed with this noirish little flick that featured a rather sweet love story between Russell Crowe (Colin) and Youki Koudoh (Midori)as the lovers on the lam from just about everyone - the cops, the Afghan gangsters and Youki's husband Kenji Isomorua (Yokio).

The film is essentially a road movie as the two ill-fated lovers come together after Midori leaves her husband and Colin becomes a driver for the Afghan gangsters in a robbery that goes awry resulting in Midori been taken as a hostage. What follows is chase across the Australian Outback as the naive Midori falls for the quiet Colin and they try to elude their chasers to reach their paradise on the beach.

There is some lapses of logic as the chasers find the ill-fated lovers as well as some jarring violence but this tidy little Australian film is a worthy addition to the noir genre. Worth seeing.