Vernon Wells Movies
Supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s. ~ All Movie Guide
In this lusty romantic adventure, a young wanderer returns to his Venice home and discovers that his wealthy father has squandered the family fortune on gambling and is deeply indebted to a cruel countess from Germany. When she sees the young man, she decides she wants him and decides to make one final wager with his father with the young man as the stakes. The father is unable to resist and promptly loses, causing the hapless lad to flee the terrifying Teutonic tart and take up with a beautiful runaway. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Jennifer Beals, (more)
- 1987
- R
After spending eight years in an insane asylum, Roo (Vernon G. Wells) takes a job in a gym owned by Napoleon (Michael Copeman). Tormented by memories of shock treatments and inhumane conditions, he channels his pent-up aggression and becomes a bare-knuckled street fighter. He soon goes up against the champ Razor (Real Andrews). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vernon Wells, William Sanderson, (more)
- 1987
- R
When newspaper editor Charles Bradley (Anthony Zerbe) makes a call uncovering corrupt Los Angeles cops selling drugs, his phone is tapped and his architect son Joey (Clayton Rohner) is endangered. A detective is killed in Joey's apartment and detective Ryan (Ray Sharkey) is assigned to protect him. Ryan is in league with the crooked cops and tries to kill Joey. Joey escapes but is hit by a car driven by Jenny Fox (Talia Balsam). She takes him back to her place where Joey is nursed back to heath and the seeds of love are planted. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Director Joe Dante infuses this science fiction comedy with the visual razzle-dazzle and manic, goofball performances typical of his cartoon-inspired sensibilities. Navy test pilot Lt. Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid) has volunteered for a highly dangerous medical experiment. A submersible craft, with Tuck at the controls, is to be shrunk down to molecular size and inserted into the body of a living rabbit. If successful, the test could result in radical breakthroughs in surgical techniques, but some high-tech thieves attempt to steal Tuck and his ship while both are in miniature form. Enter Jack Putter (Martin Short), a mild-mannered, hypochondriac retail store clerk, a nerd who suddenly finds himself injected with Tuck and his tiny ship. Now poor Jack's got to rise above his mundane existence to help an American hero get back to safety, while also trying to reunite Tuck with his beautiful estranged girlfriend Lydia (Meg Ryan). Innerspace (1987) won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, (more)
- 1986
Hunter (Fred Dryer) knows that the murder of a hooker is somehow connected with a huge pharamaceutical theft, but he can't figure out why the woman was killed. In order to get the answers and flush out the villains, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) goes undercover as a "working girl." This strategy may ultimately prove fatal to both Hunter and McCall, thanks to the deadly persistence of sadistic soldier-of-fortune Johnny Zajak (Vernon Wells). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In an Australian outback town so small that children of all ages share a single classroom, teacher Sally (Rachel Ward) suffers the typical frustrations of life in the provinces. She really finds something to fret about when a gang of gun-toting, mask-wearing criminals kidnaps her and the students and drives them to the remote wilderness. With the kids' safety, perhaps survival, in the balance, Sally must appease the lewdly suggestive bandits while scheming for a way to escape their clutches. After several abortive attempts result in multiple deaths, she and the oldest children manage to usher the young ones to at least provisional safety. Free but stranded in a mountain hideaway, the class must band together to survive and perhaps turn the tables on the men who continue to hunt them. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
John Hughes's third directorial effort, Weird Science, follows in the tradition of his previous teen-centered films, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith play the wannabe hipster Gary and his nebbish weak-willed best friend, Wyatt, a pair of high-school geeks who are hapless with members of the opposite sex. Using Wyatt's computer, they create what they believe is the ideal woman. A lightning storm brings that woman to life, and she takes the form of Kelly Le Brock. Lisa sets about building their self-confidence, but trouble begins brewing when Wyatt's cruel, military-minded older brother, Chet (Bill Paxton), begins to realize that something is not as it should be. Hughes would finish his cycle of high-school themed films with his next movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, (more)
Shortly after The Terminator wrote his name in bold neon lights across box-office grosses, this action thriller took advantage of the hitherto (almost) unexploited comic side of star Arnold Schwarzenegger and paired him with Rae Dawn Chong. Colonel Matrix (Schwarzenegger) is retired and living peaceably with his 10-year-old daughter when she is kidnapped by the henchmen of an exiled Latin American dictator. The dictator's plan is to reinstate himself in power by eliminating the president of his country, using Matrix to kill him (or he will kill the kidnapped daughter). Matrix escapes from the plane that is supposed to be carrying him to his mission and then proceeds to go from one violent confrontation to the next as he hunts down the dictator and moves to rescue his daughter. Helping him is Cindy (Chong), who has her own reasons for wanting the dictator dead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, (more)
Director George Miller's follow-up to his own 1979 hit Mad Max is proof that not all sequels are inferior to their originals. If anything, this brutal sci-fi action film is even more intense and exciting than its predecessor, although the state of its post-apocalyptic world has only become worse. Several years after the deaths of his wife and child, Max (Mel Gibson) has become an alienated nomad, wandering an Australian outback that has fallen into tribal warfare conducted from scattered armed camps. After a road battle with psychotic villain Wez (Vernon Wells), Max meets up with the odd Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), who takes him to the camp of a sympathetic group led by Pappagallo (Mike Preston). As Pappagallo's people are camped at a refinery, Max plans to take their oil -- more precious than gold in this world -- but eventually joins them to fight a band of marauders led by the evil Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). The stunning climax features a heart-pounding chase scene involving an oil tanker-truck and a frenzied rush for the coast, with Humungus and his forces in hot pursuit. Nilsson is a scary villain, with huge muscles and a sinister pre-Jason hockey mask, but the stunt work is the key here, and it is more flamboyantly dynamic than ever, edited at breakneck pace and staged with manic fury by Miller and stunt coordinator Max Aspin. Savage and kinetic, Mad Max 2 is a must-see for action buffs. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson, Virginia Hey, (more)
