Share
Clip description
Goose (James Lugton) tells a ‘horror road movie’ story by candlelight as the three friends retrieve stolen walkie-talkies. Judy (Nicole Kidman) wonders why they don’t make ‘nice movies’ anymore, where happy couples end up at the altar. Soon trouble appears in the form of baddies in pursuit by car. Goose, Judy and PJ (Angelo D’Angelo) take a shortcut through a cemetery.
Curator’s notes
In a break from the chase sequences which make up the main body of the movie, our heroes talk movies by candlelight. Goose tries to scare his friends by describing the plot of a horror film while Judy bemoans the loss of old-fashioned love stories. Ironically, BMX Bandits, a children’s movie, was director Brian Trenchard-Smith’s break from directing a steady diet of exploitation movies which he made in Australia in the 1970s and ‘80s.
English-born Brian Trenchard-Smith features prominently in the documentary Not Quite Hollywood (2008, see clip three). He has directed over 40 feature films and television series across a variety of genres, dating back to The Marty Feldman Show in Australia in 1972. It was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald in 2003 that Quentin Tarantino is a 'huge fan’ of Trenchard-Smith, able to recite slabs of dialogue from Turkey Shoot (1982), and was surprised to learn that Trenchard-Smith is not a household name in Australia.
