Michael Wren Movies

In the early '90s, Brian Bosworth made the seamless transition from football bad boy to onscreen bad ass. In Stone Cold, the Boz plays cop Joe Huff, a brute force specialist. The FBI contracts him to take down a biker gang known as the Brotherhood, who have been implicated in drug trafficking and several murders. Joe assumes the personality of John Stone and goes undercover. His mission seems not to bust the gang but rather to kill with excessive force. Before he can take the law into his own hands, however, he has to get in with the gang's leader, the impressively tough Chains. The Boz doesn't disappoint, and he gets his chance in the final confrontation where he takes on several score of the Brotherhood in the street battle to end all street battles. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

The producers of this black and white art film showed it around at every film festival they could get it entered into, from Melbourne to Cannes. An enigmatic and very poetic drama with an inconclusive storyline, it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The story concerns a somewhat disoriented young man, Jack (Noah Taylor), who turns up on the streets of West Berlin speaking only Russian. Not only that, but everything he says is a quotation from classic Russian novels by Gogol and Dostoyevsky. He is treated like the curious character he appears to be. It is not until he runs into a girl who reminds him of a favorite character in one of the novels that he begins speaking a language anyone can understand, and it begins to seem as though he might be a slightly deranged Australian. He wanders the streets of Berlin with the girl and her female friend, talking about anything and everything in English, falls in love with one of them, and fantasizes about the the girl and himself in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Cynical Philadelphia lawyer-turned-p.i. Jamey Sheridan aims his investigatory skills at an international smuggling ring. Sheridan wants to know who's supplying the weapons that are leaving the country, and who's supplying the drugs that are rolling in. The deeper he digs, the dirtier it gets; Sheridan unearths unholy alliances among idealistic freedom fighters, Central American drug lords, and corrupt American officials. Shannon's Deal was written by John Sayles, directed by Lewis (Jewel of the Nile) Teague, and scored by musical wizard Wynton Marsalis. Those concerned about Jamey Sheridan's wellbeing in this film should be advised that there was no way he'd turn up dead: Shannon's Deal was the pilot for an unsold TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The valor and anguish of the Alamo is resurrected in this '80s effort that features a considerably accomplished cast. Brian Keith plays Davy Crockett and James Arness is Jim Bowie who, although at odds at times with his leader Colonel William Travis (Alec Baldwin), is able to focus upon the battle against the Mexican soldiers. Highlights of this film are the battle action scenes. ~ All Movie Guide

Barry Bostwick is top-billed in the made-for-TV western Down the Long Hills, but the largest role in the film goes to Thomas Wilson Brown, playing Bostwick's teenaged son. Travelling westward by wagon train, Brown and fellow teen Lisa McFarlane find themselves the sole survivors of an Indian massacre. The two youngsters head into the wilds of Utah in the company of a magnificent red stallion. The situation is hardly idyllic: Brown and McFarlane must not only elude a pair of rustlers (Bo Hopkins and Michael Wren) who covet the horse, but also must steer clear of a huge, rampaging grizzly bear. In honor of contractual commitments, this film was originally telecast on the Disney Channel cable service under the title Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide