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      Heaven's Burning

      R 1997 1h 36m Action List
      Reviews 36% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score In Sydney, the newly married Midori (Yûki Kudô) is honeymooning with her husband, Yukio (Kenji Isomura). She does not love him and fakes her own kidnapping to escape the marriage. Her lover is supposed to meet her, but fails to appear. She goes to a bank to get some cash, only to become a hostage in an unfolding robbery, until the getaway driver, Colin (Russell Crowe), saves her from his fellow robbers. They hit the road together, with the cops, her husband and the robbers in pursuit. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered May 10 Buy Now

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      Audience Reviews

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      Laurie S Every now and again you get the privilege to see a real gem of a movie and this is it. The acting was great, the directing sublime and the simplistic story was top notch. More than well worth a watch. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/25/23 Full Review laurie s Okay, this especially applies to US cops but obviously now Aussie ones too: DO NOT shoot at a getaway car containing a hostage, it's just not cool. Why? OkaY I'll explain in simple language: because you might just kill them. IDIOTS! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review brendan n It's tough to remember a time when Russell Crowe was acting in Australian produced films. Heaven's Burning is a film that feels like a story beat for a Tarantino film, most likely True Romance. There is some good moments, but this is a mess of a film and lacks coherent storytelling. The film feels like it was designed for the Chinese financial assistance and while the fish out of water plot fails to capture anything resembling that plot thread, the actors deliver good performances. I thought this might be a guilty road trip forgotten due to the Australian film market not looking after it's own investments. Sadly it isn't a great film and feels like it is treading water until the forgettable finale. 24/03/2019 Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member What I've done is unforgivable. A desperate man in need of money joins two brothers as a driver for a bank robbery. The bank robbery goes very bad and the driver has to kill one of the brothers to save a hostage. The brothers work for their gangster father who sets out on a mission to kill the driver and collect the money from the bank robbery. The driver has the money and the hostage and goes on the run. "A hand for a hand plus interest." Craig Lahiff, director of Swerve, Fever, Black and White, Ebbtide, Strangers, and The Coming, delivers Heaven's Burning. The storyline for this picture is very cliché and straightforward. The action was okay but the rest of the film was fairly ordinary. The acting is not that great and includes Russell Crowe, Yuku Kudo, Ray Barrett, and Robert Mammone. "I understand this is your karma. I understand! I understand!" I came across this on Showtime Anytime and thought this looked like a surprise random Crowe picture worth a viewing. I generally enjoy these grindhouse like pictures but this was disappointing. This wasn't a complete waste of time but I wouldn't go too out of my way to see it. "He's the best driver I've ever seen." Grade: C Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Frances H An entertaining and unusual Aussie film, with a few funny moments. Definitely different. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/18/15 Full Review Audience Member As Heavenâ??s Burning was an early Australian film to feature Russell Crowe in the leading role, it sounded like it was worth a chance. Although the quality of the camera in Heavenâ??s Burning is pretty grainy and doesnâ??t capture the light of everything all too well, the cinematography in the film is nice because it captures the beautiful landscape of Australia and many of the nice sights of its countryside. Heavenâ??s Burning doesnâ??t put too much emphasis or reliance on the Australian sights, but the film does manage to reveal the nice outback and working class Australian areas. The cinematography also moves at a nice pace when it has to and focuses on the faces of the actors so that it captures the emotional state of them well, and it is always shifting between multiple angles which are fairly atmospheric and give a good view to things. Heavenâ??s Burning is made good enough on the eyes by some nice cinematography, and luckily enough it is of quality to transcend the grainy visual quality and rough lighting job. So it has some appeal to it. But it still isn't really enough to salvage Louis Nowra's story from what it is left in. Heavenâ??s Burning is a bit of a slow film. The problem with the film is that not much happens. It begins with a robbery and turns into a tale about a getaway driver forming a relationship with a hostage. But what the message of the film is proves to be ambiguous. I couldnâ??t really understand what it was trying to say, except for the idea that crime doesnâ??t pay and a criminal act will follow you forever. It seemed like a strange tour of the Australian outback against the backdrop of a criminal love story. It was a very odd blend of genres and didnâ??t have such a great pace to support itself or enough plot dynamics for it to constitute being true entertainment, so it ends up being a long and repetitive film which is slow and ends rather abruptly. After the end of Heavenâ??s Burning, it was too easy for me to simply ask myself â??what was the point of the whole story?â??, but as the film was over there was no answer. Although the ending is dramatised well, it was kind of like the ending to Bonnie and Clyde, although a lot less violent and more senseless as there was less passion and depth in the characters to justify such a strange ending. The story in Heavenâ??s Burning had nothing much happening for most of the film, and then suddenly at the end everything happens at once, so the pacing of the plot dynamics in Heavenâ??s Burning is a little too scattershot for its own good. A lot of viewers are likely to walk away from Heaven's Burning asking themselves "what was the point?" because there doesn't seem to be an underlying message in the story, it doesn't really go anywhere or make viewers care about its characters, and so when the story ends and the fate of them has been decided, it doesn't really serve much of a good purpose whatsoever. Heaven's Burning doesn't really go anywhere and ends abruptly out of nowhere, so it's story is rather pointless and not even Craig Lahiff's role as director is enough to truly tie it up. Russell Crowe is the best reason to see Heaven's Burning. Although the material is rather directionless, Russell Crowe's lead performance capitalises on his ability to deliver lines with natural charisma and a rough edge at the same time without fault. Russell Crowe works with the material in Heaven's Burning easily and delivers his lines with a compelling appeal which makes him an ideal lead, and his skill for easily creating a strong chemistry with the many surrounding actors of the story ensures that he is strong leading material. Russell Crowe's leading effort in Heaven's Burning is terrific and it proves early on in his career precisely what his talents are all about as an actor. But despite Russell Crowe's performance and the presence of some nice scenery, it's hard to walk away from Heaven's Burning without asking questions about it and merely drawing blanks. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Heaven's Burning

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (3) Critics Reviews
      Globe and Mail Rated: 1.5/4 Apr 12, 2002 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com Rated: 2.5/5 Jun 13, 2004 Full Review Dragan Antulov rec.arts.movies.reviews Rated: 6/10 Mar 24, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis In Sydney, the newly married Midori (Yûki Kudô) is honeymooning with her husband, Yukio (Kenji Isomura). She does not love him and fakes her own kidnapping to escape the marriage. Her lover is supposed to meet her, but fails to appear. She goes to a bank to get some cash, only to become a hostage in an unfolding robbery, until the getaway driver, Colin (Russell Crowe), saves her from his fellow robbers. They hit the road together, with the cops, her husband and the robbers in pursuit.
      Director
      Craig Lahiff
      Producer
      Craig Lahiff, Georgina Pope
      Screenwriter
      Louis Nowra
      Production Co
      Duo Art Productions
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Action
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Nov 25, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 36m
      Sound Mix
      Surround, Dolby Digital
      Aspect Ratio
      35mm
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