Bridge to Nowhere (1986)

"You Cross The Bridge, You Cross The Devil!"When a group of teenagers (Gray, Carl, Julie, Tanya and Leon) from the city go deep in the woods to go camping and see the "Bridge To Nowhere", they run afoul of a bearded, vicious old salt named Mac (Lawrence) who chases them through the woods and hunts them down one by one. Leon loses his mind and goes missing. They played their boombox a bit too loud, apparently.Sadly, Mac never yells "Get off my land!" (while brandishing the prerequisite shotgun), but one of the teens does say "Where's the Bridge To Nowhere?"Bridge To Nowhere is well-made and a better-than-average clone of Deliverance (1972), Rituals (1977), Southern Comfort (1981), and Just Before Dawn (1981), but it bears the strongest resemblance to Damned River (1989). I guess you could call this a wilderness survival movie, New Zealand style.It starts off with some typically-80's sex romp style antics but then it turns deadly. It has a nice new wave contemporary soundtrack to fuel the fun. The highlight there is Marginal Era's "You Fascinate". The kids bring their beloved boombox everywhere, even deep in the woods where they dance their way through a hiking trip (forest dancing) and even on the Bridge To Nowhere (Bridge dancing). They even break out the sleeping bags and sleep on the Bridge itself. If all they wanted to do was dance, couldn't they do that at home?"And Matthew Hunter as Carl" is its own credit, dedicated to the kid who goes camping in patchy jeans and Doc Martens. Interestingly, future famous director Lee Tamahori was a first assistant director on the film.Positives: The picturesque New Zealand scenery is captured well by the cinematographer, the acting is above-average, and it is lean and mean at 85 minutes. Released on the Charter label on VHS in the U.S., if you are looking for a wilderness survival film you may have missed, Cross the Bridge To Nowhere tonight!For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Greetings from Lithuania.An independent movie that is actually leaves to Nowhere.I saw it when there was nothing to watch on late TV, so this movie was a little surprise for my. I was already falling asleep, but this movie got my attention somehow. Don't get my wrong, there's absolutely nothing special in this movie, only a beautiful landscape, some nice acting and disturbing killings.I don't recommend this movie because you won't see here nothing special or very interesting. But if you have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do and there is nothing good on TV, watch it.

A coed contingent of five rowdy street-savvy city kids venture into the remote woods for a weekend of fun and excitement; they get more than they bargained for when they run afoul of a mean, nasty, reclusive, obsessively self-reliant and misanthropic forest-dwelling psycho hermit (a first-rate rip-snorting villainous turn by the always excellent Bruno Lawrence, who confirms his scruffy status as the Down Under equivalent to Warren Oates) who most emphatically doesn't cotton to any meddlesome outsiders trespassing on his fiercely guarded cut off from the rest of civilization secluded sylvan terrain. Naturally, the hapless group must resort to ferocious animalistic tactics to fend off this dangerously antisocial "leave me the hell alone" loony. Tautly directed with considerable muscular élan by Ian Mune (who also co-wrote the lean, tight, compact script with Bill Baer), with breathtakingly lush and expansive outdoor photography by Kevin Hayward and an effectively spare, shuddery, skin-crawling synthesizer score by Stephen McCurdy, "Bridge to Nowhere" sizes up as a tense, edgy and gripping suspense thriller. Although Lawrence clearly dominates the film with his impressively fearsome portrayal of a cunning maniac who's not to be trifled with, the rest of the cast is equally on the money: gorgeous redhead Allison Routledge gives a warm, engaging performance as Lawrence's loyal, loving wife (Lawrence and Routledge previously acted together in the terrific science fiction end-of-the-world pip "The Quiet Earth"), Phillip Gordon is genuinely frightening as a hot-tempered brute, and Matthew Hunter, Margaret Umbers, Shelly Luxford and Stephen Judd are credible and sympathetic as the other scared, vulnerable, totally out of their depth backpackers. An undeservedly forgotten little sleeper that's eminently worthy of rediscovery.

This movie might catch your attention in the video store. Being a huge Bruno Lawrence fan, I liked it.Five city kids cross the land of a hermit while on a hiking trip. They muck up his property and sense of tranquility. This irks him, and he turns out to be a very vicious and dangerous person, especially when angry. He then proceeds to follow their every move and make the remainder of their vacation a living nightmare. Sound familiar? A basic plot for a lot of films, but this one was fairly well done. Bruno makes a decent bad guy. The relationship between him and his "girlfriend" and their characterizations could have been done better, but that's overlookable. The main focus is on the story and chases.The photography of the lovely New Zealand countryside in the film is a plus.See this one if you have time to kill.** 1/2 out of ****