John Wesley Movies

The Blair Witch Project co-director Daniel Myrick returns to the helm to tell this tale of two paramedics kidnapped and held hostage by a mysterious cult. David Vaughn and Victor Hernandez were on the road when they received a call about a young girl whose mother has lost consciousness. Upon arriving at the remote area to administer treatment, however, both paramedics are kidnapped and confined in an isolated building. David is determined to discover the true motivation of the cult that now controls his destiny, while Victor suddenly finds his entire belief system crumbling as the fine line between religion and science is inexorably crossed. Now, come sunrise, something big is about to happen. Perhaps if David and Victor can escape the compound before dawn, their lives will be spared. But their chances for survival are growing slimmer with each passing hour, and as the first rays of sun shine over the horizon David and Victor's desperation quickly turns to terrified determination. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Realizing that he has made too many enemies to win the presidency of the condo board, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) contrives to have the more popular Martin (John Mahoney) run against him. The strategy is to get Martin elected so that Frasier can be the real power behind the throne -- but Frasier has forgotten that his dad can be just as contrary and intractable as he is. Meanwhile, Daphne (Jane Leeves) takes the first steps to becoming a U.S. citizen, and Roz (Peri Gilpin) misinterprets a "sexual signal." ~ All Movie Guide

Kirk Cameron stars in this made-for-television remake of the 1970 movie. Cameron stars as Dexter Riley, an under-average college student whose brain gets filled with the information from a super computer. He uses his newly found wisdom to sweep some college quiz tournaments, much to the chagrin of his suspicious competitors. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

This 1993 remake of the 1950 film Born Yesterday (based on the 1946 Garson Kanin stage play) was retooled as a star vehicle for then-marrieds Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Roughneck self-made millionaire Harry Brock (John Goodman) wants to become a powerful Washington lobbyist. Brock's efforts to hobnob with DC uppercrust are compromised by his brash, embarrassingly vulgar mistress Billie Dawn (Melanie Griffith). He'd like to unload the ex-chorus girl, but he thinks he's in love: besides, she knows too much about his crooked dealings to be running around loose. Thus, Brock hires bookish Paul Verrall (Don Johnson) to educate Billie. Verrall does his job amazingly well, awakening Billie to her responsibilities as a loyal, honest American: along the way, the two fall in love. Featured in the cast are Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his star reporter (and wife) Sally Quinn, cast as DC power brokers. Also appearing in a small role is 1960s starlet Celeste Yarnell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite his status as a major action star, Sylvester Stallone has made a number of attempts to remodel himself as a comic actor; one of his more infamous efforts in this direction was Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot!. Police detective Joe Bromowski (Sylvester Stallone) has just broken off his relationship with his girlfriend (and fellow police officer) Gwen Harper (JoBeth Williams), so Joe's mother Tutti (Estelle Getty) decides it's time to pay him a visit. Tutti proceeds to make Joe's life miserable by nagging him about his clothes, cleaning his apartment, washing his gun, tagging along on investigations, and somehow getting involved with a gun-running organization that the police have been trying to infiltrate. After this film, Stallone would stay away from comedy until 1997, when he played a cameo in another unenthusiastically received film, An Alan Smithee Film -- Burn, Hollywood, Burn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ashley (Tatyana M. Ali) begins skipping school to avoid being tormented by girl bully Francesca (Rosa Nevin). Upon finding this out, Will (Will Smith) teaches Ashley how to fight, while timorous Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) suggests that his sister bribe her way out of physical abuse. Ultimately, however, Ashley and Francesca become good friends--which is far more than can be said for the girls' respective parents! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The true story of American turncoat John Walker, Jr. is related blow-by-blow in this made-for-TV movie. Powers Boothe stars as Walker, a Navy petty officer who spends half of his career selling secrets to the Soviets. At first the soul of discretion, the hard-drinking, philandering Walker eventually becomes careless enough in his activities to arouse the suspicions of his in-the-dark wife Barbara (Lesley Ann Warren). With the skill and aplomb of the true sociopath, Walker also manages to convince his own son (Andrew Lowry) to join the "family business." The spy ring is ultimately smashed through the joint efforts of the FBI and Walker's embittered ex-wife. Based on the books Family of Spies by Pete Earley and I Pledge Allegiance by Howard Blum, Family of Spies: The Walker Spy Ring was originally telecast in two parts on February 4 and 6, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the autobiographical book by Chris Oyler, the made-for-TV Go Toward the Light is a sometimes wrenching, ofttimes inspirational AIDS drama. Claire and Greg Madison (Linda Hamilton and Richard Thomas) discover to their horror that their hemophiliac son Ben (Joshua Harris) has contracted the deadly virus through a tainted transfusion. Faced with the likelihood that Ben will not live out the year, the grief-stricken Madisons vow to make every day of that year count and to see to it that their son will not have to endure his agony alone. The excellence of the performances are matched by the script (by Susan Nanus and Beth Polson) and direction (Mike Robe). Go Toward the Light debuted November 1, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "history is inviolate" theory so chillingly elucidated in Ray Bradbury's The Sound of Thunder is recycled for the made-for-TV Timestalkers. William Devane plays a genially eccentric professor who teams with time traveller Lauren Hutton to prevent the course of history from being disastrously altered. In a manner slightly reminiscent of the 1984 movie hit The Terminator, Devane and Hutton must deal with Klaus Kinski, a mad scientist from the 26th century, who plans to hopscotch through time, spreading death and destruction wherever he goes. The odyssey takes the main characters to all manner of locales, including the Old West. Veteran actor Forrest Tucker made his final screen appearance in Timestalkers, which originally aired March 10, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, the made-for-television Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story is the tale of a Washington, DC-based Vietnam veteran (Martin Sheen) who fights for America's homeless by staging hunger strikes and battling with various government agencies, eventually winning the attention of several city officials. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The Atlanta Child Murders is a five-hour, two-part dramatization of one of the most tragic and controversial homicide cases of the past twenty years. From 1979 through 1982, some 28 African-American children and young adults disappeared from Atlanta--some without a trace, but others to later turn up as murder victims. Part One (which debuted February 10, 1985) details the beginning of the manhunt conducted by the Atlanta Chief of Police (James Earl Jones). Screenwriter Abby Mann uses the actual events as a springboard for his thesis that the case and its outcome revealed many uncomfortable truths about the still-fragile state of race relations in the New South. Both parts of The Atlanta Child Murders were later combined into one 245-minute "feature film."

The second part of the five-hour TV docudrama The Atlanta Child Murders originally aired February 12, 1985. After 28 African-American children and young adults have either disappeared or been murdered, the Atlanta police finally have a suspect in custody: Small-time show business entrepreneur Wayne Williams (Calvin Levels). Scriptwriter Abby Mann utilizes actual court transcripts of Williams' trial, which results in a conviction on one count of murder. This decision in essence leaves the cases of the other 27 victims unresolved--and in so doing, Mann opens the door to speculations that Williams, a black man, was a "convenient" suspect, who might possibly have been railroaded in the authorities' haste to find a solution to the sordid case. Whatever Mr. Mann may have felt concerning Williams' guilt or innocence, the fact remains that the murders and disappearances stopped cold once Williams was in custody (as of this writing, Williams persists in his efforts to reopen the case, claiming that he was framed by the white power structure). Morgan Freeman served as narrator for both installments of The Atlanta Child Murders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a series of Rolling Stone articles by Aaron Latham, this romance was set in the world of L.A.'s hip fitness scene. Rolling Stone reporter Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) comes to L.A. to write a story about a prominent businessman who's been arrested for drug dealing (shades of the John DeLorean scandal). He's also decided to research a piece on the exercise fad and how health clubs have become the "singles bars of the '80s." His boss (real-life Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner as himself) OK's the project. At a club called The Sports Connection, an incognito Adam meets the regulars, including promiscuous Linda (Laraine Newman), airhead Sally (Marilu Henner) and aerobics instructor Jessie (Jamie Lee Curtis), a former Olympic swimmer. Adam and Jessie begin a romance, but it ends when she discovers that he's there to trash her and the club in print. Conflicted, Adam wrestles with publishing the story, but the final decision isn't his. A director of sincere, sober dramas, James Bridges was an odd choice to helm the romantic Perfect (1985), widely considered one of the decade's notorious cinematic misfires. Bridges had enjoyed much greater success with his previous collaboration with Travolta, Urban Cowboy (1980). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide