Heaven's Burning

REVIEW
Crowe stars in this pre-L.A. Confidential role as the driver in a bank robbery gone wrong: to make their escape, the thieves take a hostage, a young Japanese woman (Kudoh) who has just left her husband on the last day of their honeymoon. When his cronies decide to kill the hostage, Crowe shoots one of them to save her, thus instigating an oath of vengeance from the slain lad's loony dad. With the jilted hubby and vengeful pop on their trail, Crowe and Kudoh drive through the Outback and fall in love. Their scenes are genuinely, sweetly romantic -- Crowe makes a greatly appealing, chivalrous hero; and Kudoh is an incredibly cute, resilient and likable heroine. The scenes featuring the cuckolded husband, though, are atrocious, and Heaven's Burning tends to be too jokey and mean-spirited at times. There's an amusing cameo by Colin Hay, formerly of seminal '80s band Men at Work.