Anthony Michael Hall Movies
Anthony Michael Hall was 14 when he essayed his first screen role in the Kenny Rogers vehicle Six Pack. With his cracked voice, skinny frame, and unkempt hair, Hall went on to play nerds and dweebs in such films as Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Breakfast Club (1985), working so well under the direction of John Hughes that there were those who assumed that Hughes was treating the young actor as an alter ego, reliving his own "misfit" high school years. Hall's film career temporary eclipsed in 1985, partly as the result of a disastrous personal-appearance tour during which the actor behaved in a fashion that could charitably be described as bizarre. He showed up as a regular on TV's Saturday Night Live later that year, and as he grew older, became too athletic and self-assured to continue in his previous "clueless" vein. Hall's professional second life as a character actor began with his villainous performance in Edward Scissorhands (1990). He turned to directing with the 1994 theatrical feature Hail Caesar, in which he cast himself as a relentlessly obnoxious rock star. In 2001, he starred as Whitey Ford in Billy Crystal's made-for-TV movie 61*. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The first film in the Vacation comedy franchise stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, an ad exec who becomes consumed with taking his family cross-country to Wally World, a California amusement park. Less a vacation than a descent into a peculiarly American kind of hell, the Griswolds suffer through an endless series of catastrophes, culminating in a run-in with the law. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
- 1982
Inasmuch as Mark Twain thoughtlessly neglected to mention all the "secret adventures" of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in his own books on these colorful characters, this CBS TV movie performed a public service by taking up the slack. According to Rascals and Robbers, Hannibal's own Tom (Patrick Creadon) and Huck (Anthony Michael Hall in his first important role) enabled a slave to purchase his sister's freedom, saved an entire town from a confidence scam, came to the rescue of a failing circus, and foiled a particularly scurrilous villain, "in between" their more familiar exploits up and down the Mississippi. A strong supporting cast helps to make this film palatable for Twain purists. Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn originally aired on February 27, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When a retired stock car driver, Brewster Baker (Kenny Rogers), meets up with a group of orphans intent on dismantling his car, he takes them under his wing and sets them to work helping him return to the racing scene. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Diane Lane, (more)
