Movie Nation » John Bric

Coussins Makes His Mark at the LA Film Festival

John Bric — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 05:07:17 +0000

The LA International short film festival gets underway for another year in June, bringing with it a swag of entertainment and fun.

Each year, more than 15 thousand movie lovers, film-makers an entertainment professionals embark on the event, in search of the hot new talent and upcomers in the industry.

The festival boasts an impressive record of producing 37 Academy Award nominated films, including 12 Oscar winners.

This time around, we’re being told the talent pool is bigger and better than ever before, and stretching even further across the globe.

No Australian has ever taken out a major award at the event, but this year we have a few hopefuls, including Melbourne director/actor David Coussins.

On the back of the Tropfest success that came with his film One Night Stand (finalist), Coussins joins the likes of Jessica Beil, Eva Mendes and Hillary Swank in having his work screened during the event.

Since moving to America at the start of the year, the 26 year old has gone from strength to strength in the industry.

We’ll be seeing him soon on our small screens as a star of the upcoming ABC comedy Woodley, but word is, we may also see him in some upcoming US productions.

Coussins has met with three top agents since arriving, and is likely to sign with one of them before the end of the year.

However, the 26 year old is playing down the news, and says his main focus is to continue to work on improving where he can.

“My main motivation in moving over here was just to get a feel of how things work in Hollywood, and learn as much as i can,” Coussins said.

“If i end up getting signed and things work out, then great, but the real goal for me is to take everything in and slowly work my way into he industry.”

You’ll be able to check out his film, One Night Stand, at the LA International Short Film Festival, from July 16 – 26.

TROPFEST REVIEW: One Night Stand

John Bric — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:15:27 +0000

It’s that time of year where movie buffs, directors, actors and of course, the public, converge for the worlds biggest short film festival.

Tropfest 2011 gets underway across Australia February 20th with more than 150,000 people expected to turn up at live sites across the nation.

Those in the know say this year will produce some of the greatest films in the history of the event with the talent pool exceeding what we have seen in the past.

One of the shortlisted films in this year’s competition is One Night Stand – directed, written, and produced by Melbourne local David Coussins.

The basic plot of the film is fairly simple: a young man, Joel (David Coussins) wakes in bed only to realise he’s lying next to an unknown female bed-mate, Caitlin (Rhona Rees).

The exact details of what happened the night before appear to be fairly sketchy, but as far as Joel is concerned, the quicker he gets out of there, the better.

Unfortunately for Joel, Caitlin has taken a liking to him and doesn’t let him go too easy.

Any attempts for a quick getaway are thwarted by the love sick Caitlin, who shows all the characteristics of a female obsessed stalker.

To say what happens next would spoil or the fun but it’s safe to say that anything that could go wrong, does go wrong for Joel.

The film is edited with fine precision and continues to provide laugh after laugh at a zip line pace.

David Coussins is hilarious in the lead role and conveys the perfect amount of awkwardness and fear to make the audience cringe in sympathy throughout the film.

You know you have a talented comedic actor on board when he’s able to provide some of the biggest laughs in the film by facial expressions alone.

Rhona Rees is also hilarious as Caitlin – playing out the obsessive one night stand that every young man fears to a tee.

One Night Stand proves that as far as short comedies are concerned, the simpler, the better!

When it comes to Laugh Out Loud moments, One Night Stand wins hands down, and if is anything to go by, this years Tropfest looks to be a winner.

Rating: 4.5/5

Tropfest 2011 kicks off February 20th and live sites all around Australia

Live Festival Sites:
Sydney – The Domain
Melbourne – Federation Square
Hobart – Salamanca Square
Canberra – Commonwealth Park
Adelaide – Glenelg Bay
Surfers Paradise – Cirlce on Cavill
Perth – Princess May Park, Fremantle

And live on Movie Extra Channel from 7pm.

Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos

John Bric — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:26:04 +0000

Nick Giannopoulos gave us a bundle of laughs with his last version of the comedy film The Wog Boy

The film was a great satirical take on Greeks and Italians in the Australian community and was a hilarious hit for its time.

Now, almost a decade later, and the Wog Boy is back for a long awaited sequel.

The Kings Of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2 is a follow up to the first one, and is full of the big names that made the film so loveable back in its day.

Talking off where it left off, we find Steve Karamitsis back alongside Frank in a story that takes our heroes from one Greek paradise (Melbourne) to another (Mykonos) in order to reclaim a family inheritance.

Another wog, Peter Andrikidis takes over as main director, while the stars in the movie are more like a who’s who of Australian wog celebs.

Nick Giannopoulos, Vince Colosimo, Alex Dimitriades, Zeta Makrypoulia, Dimitris Starovas, Cosima Coppola, Manos Gavras and Kevin Sorbo all star in the film, and are all sure to give some credible acting to it as well.

The movie is expected to make a world premiers, bit with Australia and Greece to be the places with the highest expectations.

The Kings Of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2 will be out on the big screens around Australia May 20, a couple of weeks later for Greece, and even later for the rest of the world.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjeKlC9uyWg

Harry Brown Trailer

John Bric — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:23:07 +0000

Harry Brown is all about a modest law-abiding citizen called Harry Brown (Michael Caine) who is a retired Marine and a widower who lives alone on a depressed housing estate.

His only company is his best friend Leonard (David Bradley).

When Leonard is murdered by a gang of thugs, Harry feels compelled to act and is forced to dispense his own brand of justice.

Check out the trailer for your own opinion.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

John Bric — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:13:16 +0000

Horror movies were cool back in the day. They were scary as hell, made viewers jump in fear, and really gave us an insight into the minds of a psychotic killer, which we all enjoyed to some degree.

But after a few decades we got bored of the standard plots, with similar killings and no real special effects.

That’s why we’re seeing a whole new breed of slashed type horror films being remade in the current era.

The latest to take to the remake able is A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The horror series was one of the most popular releases in the early 80s, and the chain of almost ten titles was a huge hit with the viewers.

Wes Craven was the mastermind behind the originals, but now we are seeing Samuel Bayer take over as head director.

The script will be written by Wesley Strickland Eric Heisserer and will be produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller.

The basic plot is the same as it is for almost any other Nightmare in Elm Street, where a group of suburban teenagers are being haunted in their dreams by the horrible evil character known as Freddy Krueger.

Jackie Earle Haley takes the role as the killer, with support from Rooney Mara, who plays one of the main teens, and Kyle Gallner, who plays Quentin, another main teen.

The movie opened in the states this week, as was welcomed with it being the 12th largest R rating film in the US.