Ryan Johnson Movies
- 1986
One glance at the title and you know this ain't a Merchant-Ivory film. Reversing the premise of the 1967 masterpiece Mars Needs Women, this one features a covey of gorgeous space babes who come from a planet without men. Having perused a teen fan mag, the female extraterrestrials assume that all males on earth are handsome hunks. They beam down and invade a typical high school, disguised as typical teenagers. Soon the outer-space vixens have infuriated every earth girl within miles because they have better luck scoring with the guys. Earthling Amy Crumpacker organizes a united front (in every sense of the word) against the invaders, only to discover that her own mother is an alien, having landed on Terra Firma during the Elvis craze. After this, things really start getting unbelievable. Revenge is engagingly acted in the sober, straight-faced fashion of a typical 1950 sci-fi flick. Despite the title, there's nothing remotely offensive in the film-unless you count the deliberately awful special effects. Break down and rent it: you'll come down with a loose case of chuckles in spite of yourself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Schwedop, Howard Scott, (more)
Six characters go in search of meaningless pleasure over the course of one night in Brisbane. At a fast-food pizza joint called Speedie, chef Dom (Sullivan Stapleton) kicks things off by trashing the place, sticking the body of a dead cat in the oven, and behaving in a less-than-genial manner. Misha (Ryan Johnson) boasts to co-workers that he had sex with his last pizza delivery customer; when his colleagues don't believe him, he runs off to the apartment of Sophie (Jessica Napier) and goes about seducing her. Meanwhile, fellow deliverers Robert (Brendan Cowell) and Erin (Kellie Jones) are best friends, but Erin, unknown to Robert, would like to be more. Their manager Katie (Haley McElhinney) amuses herself by having sex with someone wearing a Mr. Speedie mask, and Stacey (Megan Dorman) occasionally works at Speedie but prefers to spend most of her time hanging out with thugs. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sullivan Stapleton, Ryan Johnson, (more)
- 2000
Even as security is beefed up in Australia in anticipation of the 2000 Olympics, someone manages to slip a deadly nerve gas device -- and a detonator -- on a 747 jet bound from Sydney to L.A. The authorities are uncertain as to whether the person responsible for this outrage is a terrorist or merely a lunatic; whatever the case, they scour the world in search of the perpetrator. Meanwhile, the 747 may well be unable to find a suitable landing place before the detonator goes off, forcing pilot John Prescott (Jack Wagner) and copilot Kim McGee (Christine Elise) to make some extremely tricky life-and-death decisions. As for the 300 passengers -- well, each one has his or her own story to tell, and the viewer hears practically all of them before the almost unbearably suspenseful denouement. The made-for-cable Nowhere to Land debuted March 12, 2000, on the TBS superstation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Wagner, Christine Elise, (more)
- 2001
Created by Chris Roache, the Australian drama series Headstart spotlighted seven young adults who endeavored to "make their mark" in the business world by promoting their revolutionary new ideas. They were given this chance by Project Head Start, a program underwritten by Pac Star Banking Corporation. The seven twentysomethings were each given 20,000 dollars as a start-up fee and were moved into a rent-free loft for the duration of their contract. Mentoring the protagonists was reformed financial shark Garret Quinn (Blair Venn), who hoped to repair his shattered reputation by steering the younger characters away from those unscrupulous types (like himself) who would take advantage of their naïveté and hubris. Forty episodes of Headstart were aired in Australia beginning March 4, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gareth Yuen, Nadia Townsend, (more)
Long before his legendary association with the Alabama Crimson Tide, football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was athletic director at Texas A&M University. In this made for TV movie, the hard-as-nails Bryant (played by Tom Berenger) shepherds 100 potential college football players into the desolate village known as Junction, Texas, in the summer of 1954. Determined to find out which of his boys has the guts and fortitude to play winning football, Bryant forces the applicants to train eight hours a day in 120 degree heat, without food or water. Ultimately, only 35 players make the cut, among them such gridiron luminaries as Gene Stallings and Jack Pardee (though, outside of Bryant, none of the players' actual names is mentioned in the script). "Bear"'s grueling regimen is tough, relentless and perhaps unfair, but the football players emerge as a unified whole, dedicated both to victory and to their tireless coach. The second feature film produced especially for the ESPN cable network, The Junction Boys was based on the book by Jim Dent, and originally aired on December 14, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Fletcher Humphrys, (more)
- 2003
- R
A bumbling group of jewel thieves become the hottest thing since The Wiggles after dressing up like a children's singing group in order to snatch a priceless necklace. Danny (Nick Giannopoulos) isn't much of an entertainer, so when Marcus (Russell Dykstra) tries to recruit him to lift a necklace from wealthy Aurora Van Dyke (Lena Cruz) he senses an opportunity for some quick cash. Aurora has scheduled a birthday party for her child, and the best-loved children's performers from miles around are coming in for the big event. When the heist hits a hitch and the robbers ditch the necklace to make a daring escape, they thought their ordeal was over. Little did they realize that their group, The Wannabes, made quite an impression at the party, and they've since developed a nation wide following. Now, as Aurora attempts to prove that it was they who tried to swipe her necklace, Marcus does his best to win the heart of Kristy (Isla Fischer), the head criminal ringleader's sister. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Giannopoulos, Russell Dykstra, (more)
Thunderstruck begins with the death of a boy who shared with his closest friends an affinity for the music of the rock band AC/DC. The survivors pledge to pay tribute to their fallen friend by burying him next to the late lead singer of the band Bon Scott. Over a decade later the survivors reunite to follow through on their commitment, but soon learn that the intervening years have affected them and their relationships. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Damon Gameau, Stephen Curry, (more)
- 2007
Feeling as if her life has grown stagnant after all of her friends jump town in search of greener pastures elsewhere, an aimless office worker is urged by a platonic male friend to carve her own path in life and not simply go with the flow like a dead fish. Anthea (Charlotte Gregg) has sat idly by as all of her friends and acquaintances packed their bags in hopes of finding meaning in the big city. While there's little evidence that any of them really have achieved all of their wildest dreams, dejected twenty-something Anthea, too is beginning to consider the prospect of relocating if for no other reason than to escape the daily drone of her miserable office job. Anthea's longtime friend Michael (Matt Zeremes) is stuck in his own rut, and is currently doing his best to convince her to stick around the sleepy eastern Australia town. To this point the relationship between Anthea and Michael has been strictly platonic, but as Anthea starts to take the prospect of relocating increasingly serious it begins to appear as if Michael has not been completely honest about his feelings for his downcast friend. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gregg, Matt Zeremes, (more)
When a motorcycle-riding stuntman offers his soul to Mephistopheles in order to save the life of the one he loves most, he is forced to play host to a powerful supernatural entity whose flaming skull visage strikes fear into the heart of his enemies in this feature-film version of the long-running comic series. By day, Johnny Blaze (actor and comic-book devotee Nicolas Cage) is one of the world's best-known stuntmen, but when the sun goes down and he is in the presence of evil, the death-defying daredevil bursts into flames to become the indestructible, motorcycle-riding antihero known to the world as the Ghost Rider. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, (more)
