GBH is admittedly one of my favorite Aussie films. I never get sick of it. It is a stylishly done film, with Waters in one of his undoubtedly best roles, as a teacher, infatuated with a beautiful woman, believed to be dead, only he doesn't think so. In one scene, he loses it with a student which took me back to an incident, in a classroom, where my English teacher, kicked a kid out, for saying the F word, though didn't resort to the excessive methods of Waters. Water's character, just can't let the past rest, resorting to murdering woman who won't tell him where his sweet heart is. The other story to this story, is Friels, a hot shot journalist/best selling non fictional author. He's the kind of journo who will break the rules to get the story, while even helping out police, here and there, like in one terrifying hostage situation. On his tale is a corrupt cop (Lawrence) who this time, might really be going down. See he believes Tom is keeping information from him, as well as a big bundle of cash, a criminal gave him, as in act of trust, before carking it. Lawrence becomes quite an important part near the end of the story, in a twist of disbelief to us audience, you could say, when he see what he ends up with. I like too, Friel's cameraman, Kym Gyngell, who was doing a few films around this time. GBS is a very tightly constructed thriller, with all the right scenes in place. The movie chooses great locations in and around Sydney, while also choosing some really visually effective ones, out Blue Mountains way. We see too that this mystery woman, we hope we meet, was partaking in some saucy sex tapes, with another hottie (Lederman) who Waters takes care off, mercilessly and coldly. She was also escorting too. GBH is a slick thriller, with some good performances (Kerry Armstrong as Friel's ex, and of course Lawrence as 'bad cop', Ray) who you'll definitely remember after.

This Australian film tries desperately hard to be 'film noir' with it's convoluted and somewhat confusing storyline. But that's where any similarity ends as lots of action takes place in daylight and massive sunshine, a noir no-no.Once the story of a man searching for his missing wife emerges more, it turns out it isn't that intriguing anyway. And since she's staying what only seems a few streets away, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, except the people in this aren't that smart really...This sort of thing has been so much better in the past with classics like 'Farewell, my lovely' or more recently with 'LA Confidential.'This just isn't in the same league.

I've wanted to see GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM for some time now but never had the chance to see it, either on TV or on video. I finally got hold of a used video cassette on Ebay for 0.50 cents and watched it. Boy, what a waste of time!The script is terrible and the average direction is uninspired. The movie starts with two story-lines which eventually converge into one. One story is with John Waters obsessing over a woman. The other is about a reporter and some huge sums of cash he got from a dying criminal. Anyway, the start of the movie is muddled in the extreme. For some time, I had no idea what was going on. GBH has a very confusing beginning. Eventually things start to make sense halfway through the movie but it wasn't worth watching it up to that point. John Waters, an excellent actor, is totally wasted in an unpleasant one-note character, a serial killer of sorts, that could have easily been played by an unknown actor. Bruno Lawrence is somewhere in the movie. He's also wasted. The other actors are serviceable.The funny parts of this film noir wannabe are these two points: the fact that the film actually shies away from all the interesting action. In the end, we always see the dull moments before or after the pivotal moments. Such as what happens to John Waters' character, which is completely unsatisfactory, certainly when you consider that he's the character that drives the whole story along it's murky, clunky way. We don't see any scenes of fighting or discussion between Waters and the woman. If you blink, you'll miss what's in store for him. It's totally ridiculous.And second, the woman who's supposed to be this amazing creature that no one can resist is played by a beautiful but boring actress, who's voice is dubbed. She hardly registers any "femme fatale" aura that's needed for such a story. One really wonders why Waters' character is so obsessed with her. She hardly seems to be worth the time and effort.After watching GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM, I knew why it was so hard to get a hold of it. It's because it's not very good.

This movie was a confusing one, and I found myself struggling to comprehend it. From what I could gather, a man receives photos of his wife in rather suggestive poses and hires a cop (who turns out to be crooked) to investigate. Ordinarily, I like Bruno Lawrence films, but this one just didn't cut it.** 1/2 out of ****