The Prime Gig

2000

Julia Ormond film clip (collage below)

Spirit Trap

2005

Emma Catherwood film clip (collage below)

Sher Mountain Killings Mystery

1990

Johnny's comments:

Sher Mountain Killings Mystery is a 1990 supernatural thriller (I think) where Davey-Joe (Jeffrey Rhoe) and Conrad (Richard Carter) break into the house of a 103 year-old adventurer and steal a stone that gives eternal life. They meet with intermediary Sole (Ron Becks) who is going to get $500,000 for it but before it can be handed over, Davey-Joe goes on the run and Conrad chases after him but he gets to the monorail and gets away. Davey-Joe's brother Alex (Tom Richards) was going on a camping trip but his friend cancelled so he asks his sister Muriel (Abigail, an Avalon regular) whether their mute, mentally handicapped brother Caine (producer Phillip Avalon), who she looks after, could come instead. Davey-Joe visits sleazy photographer Wacka (David Wheeler) to get more money so he can leave town and sell the stone but Wacka rats him out to Conrad and Sole. Turns out Davey-Joe hid the stone under Caine's bed and Caine finds it and decides to take it with him on the camping trip. Davey-Joe, Conrad and Sole wait until Muriel leaves the house to get the stone, but it's gone and Muriel comes back, so Conrad and Sole take her. Alex and Caine go to Sher Mountains National Park and leave their details with the ranger ('Aussie' Joe Bugner) who gives Caine a badge and says that he will keep him safe. Sole goes to Alex's house to find out where they're going and he ends up threatening his wife Dianne (Elizabeth McIvor) and son Billy (Steven Jacobs). Dianne tells them they are at Sher Mountain National Park. Muriel stabs Conrad and steals his gun but Sole takes Billy and drives off to the national park. Muriel, Dianne and Davey-Joe follow closely after them. During a ride in a boat, Caine loses the bag with the stone in it in the river. Both group of cars go past the ranger who senses something is up. Alex goes shooting and this helps Sole and Conrad find them. Sole threatens to kill Billy but Alex, Caine and Billy get away after Alex kicks Conrad in the balls. Caine loses the badge the ranger gets him. As night falls, the Ranger comes to help and finds the badge that Caine lost then stops Davey-Joe from causing more chaos.

After a night in the park, Caine wanders off to get the missing bag. Davey-Joe wakes up halfway up a tree and doesn't know how he got there. Sole and Conrad catch up with Alex and Billy but before he can shoot them, Conrad is hit in the arm with an arrow shot by the Ranger. The Ranger gives Caine the badge and his glasses that he lost. Conrad is slowly dying and Sole catches up with Caine who takes him to the bag in the river and along the way, Sole puts Conrad out of his misery. Caine points out the bag in the river and Sole goes into the river to get it. Muriel, Dianne and Davey-Joe go back to the ranger hut and find that it's changed completely, now looking like an abandoned house. As he comes back with the bag, Sole comes across a gigantic Ranger who Sole can't kill and takes the bag from him with Sole running away in bemusement. The Ranger then strikes Sole down in fire from the sky and then he disappears before Caine can thank him. The Ranger heads back to the house where Davey-Joe and Conrad stole the stone from and retakes his place as the 103 year-old adventurer.

Absolutely baffling movie and that's just the mouthful of a title that has no real killings in it unless you count the finishing off of Conrad and even then it's only one killing. The movie is apparently an adventure movie but is incredibly low key for an adventure with barely any action and the only interesting character in the whole movie is The Ranger but even he barely registers. The plot is so contrived, we just assume Davey-Joe puts the stone under Caine's bed because we never see it and we don't even know why he just ran away with the stone, I assume it's because the stone flashed in his pocket and forced him too but it's never explained. Then there's the whole ending with Sole and the Ranger which is so baffling, I have no idea what happens (he seems to dissolve into a fire or into the sky or something) and the movie seems to think being baffling is the same as being mysterious. Avalon as a mentally impaired mute is laughably bad, every time he turns up, he comes up with a new way to be incredibly shitty. The movie never really reaches any great heights and doesn't even bother to try, incredibly underwhelming stuff. There's no action, little adventure, the stakes are never more than low and the mystery isn't worth staying around for. Just one big yawn...

Tanya Ross film clip (sample below)