Australian filmmaker Simon Wincer had such a run in the 1990s. He made movies throughout the '80s -- including D.A.R.Y.L., a childhood favorite of both me and Erika -- but it's his '90s filmography that really puts him on my radar and contains the movies to which I return again and again. For practically each of his movies that I love from this period, though, he's got one that doesn't quite work as well. Here are some of his highs and lows.
High: Quigley Down Under (1990)
Quigley Down Under isn't just a great Simon Wincer western, it's one of the great underrated westerns of the 1990s full stop. Tom Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, a renowned sharpshooter who travels to Australia for a job posting requesting his unique set of skills. Once there, though, he learns that the man who hired him (Alan Rickman, once again in fine villain form) wants him to kill Aboriginal Australians. Refusing, Quigley is left for dead in the outback alongside a female companion, "Crazy" Cora (the great Laura San Giacomo). Selleck is so charismatic, so good at holding the screen here, that this is the movie that should have made him a big screen star but was unfortunately released during a time when TV stars could rarely make the leap to movies. Released just a year after Wincer's Lonesome Dove -- often considered to be the best TV western ever made -- Quigley got overlooked as both a western and as a movie, but it's sneaky great with gorgeous Australian outback photography by David Eggby and a banger Basil Poledouris score.
Low: Lightning Jack (1994)
As both an Australian and a director of Westerns, I get why Wincer would make Lightning Jack, a comic western that teams him for the first time with fellow Aussie Paul Hogan. What I don't get is how Wincer could direct a comic western this inert, even with the considerable charm of Hogan at the center and a supporting cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr., Beverly D'Angelo, and Roger Daltry. The film -- scripted by Hogan -- goes so hard at being affable that it crosses a threshold and becomes too laid back and low energy. The star feels miscast in a role he wrote for himself and Gooding mugs as his mute sidekick. The biggest saving grace is the location photography once again shot by David Eggby.
High: Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man (1991)
A recent revisit of this semi-futuristic buddy actioner confirmed that it wouldn't quite make my Top 3 Wincers, but it's a lock for #4. Mickey Rourke is openly miserable as Harley Davidson but Don Johnson works overtime to compensate as the Marlboro Man, two best buds who rob an armored truck to keep their friend's bar open and run afoul of shady businessmen and trenchcoat-clad hitmen in the process. Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man is the best kind of silly, never taking itself too seriously while still managing to offer stakes, squibs, and fun stunts. Though a bit technically sloppier than most of Wincer's movies, the movie has personality to spare. Personality goes a long way.
Low: Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)
This movie is not actively bad. I just don't know who it is for. A war "comedy" based on true events, the movie tells the story of a team of soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war who are tasked with transporting a live elephant across the country. The story is fairly interesting and the climax certainly offers something I've never seen in a movie before, but none of the movie's various elements gel together in a way that works: it's ostensibly a Disney "family" film but it's about the Vietnam war and casts Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, and Denis Leary, three actors who are great in movies for adults but none of whom scream "kid movie" energy. I get why Simon Wincer was hired to make this one, having struck gold a few years prior with a family film about a giant animal, but Operation Dumbo Drop ends up being such a mixed bag.
High: Free Willy (1993)
Any regular visitor to this site or listener to the podcast knows that Adam Riske is one of my closest friends and I'm so glad that I wrote this article if only because it forced me to finally sit down and watch one of his favorites. I've seen the sequel already because it's directed by Dwight H. Little -- I love that two of my guys have worked in this franchise -- but I have to admit that the original Free Willy is the superior movie by a wide margin. In fact, this is Top 3 Wincer. It's a kids' movie that deals with real emotions in a sincere and adult way, never pandering the way so many movies directed at families do. Jason James Richter gives a great kid performance, the whale stuff is great, and the supporting cast (give or take an overdoing it Michael Ironside) is excellent, as is Basil Pouledouris' score. I love how well Wincer nails basically every element of this for-hire gig.
Low: Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001)
Wincer reteams with Paul Hogan nearly a decade after Lightning Jack for the third entry in the successful Crocodile Dundee franchise. Like John Landis being handed the reins of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise for the third installment, Wincer takes over Crocodile Dundee about 10 years too late (it had been 13 years since Crocodile Dundee II) for a comedy that does hacky jokes about the people in Los Angeles when it isn't repeating fish out of water gags from the original film. Despite being a fellow Aussie, Wincer doesn't seem the right fit for this material, even when it ventures into more action/adventure in the second half. This is the first Simon Wincer movie I've seen that feels like it could have been directed by late period Howard Deutch.
High: The Phantom (1996)
I won't say this is my favorite Simon Wincer film -- it's really a three-way tie for first -- but it's probably his last best movie, one that was at once too ahead of its time and yet too old-fashioned to find its audience upon release in 1996. Billy Zane plays the title role, a costumed hero straight out of the 1930s comic strip, trying to stop a plan for world domination courtesy of Xander Drax (Treat Williams, having so much fun it's contagious). This is great two-fisted adventure from the days of analog action movies, with Wincer expertly balancing the cheeky and self-aware humor with the sincerity of the throwback serial vibes. It's a deft juggling act, one that the filmmaker wasn't able to accomplish on some previous efforts but which he gets perfectly right here.
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