The Leo
Awards winner for Best Visual Effects for a Dramatic Series (Andromeda)
Movies that Gordon Verheul has worked on:
The Spring; "Underwritten and straightforward
to a fault, this science fiction morality tale drums up a few chills as it explores
the downside of finding Shangri-La. Vacationers Dennis Conway (Kyle MacLachlan)
and his son, Nick (Joseph Cross), come to the aid of the Lovells, a couple whose
car got stuck in the mud as they fled their village. Porceeding onward to their
destination, Dennis makes a stop in idyllic Springdale. The town's health-consciousness
strikes Dennis as appealing, but he doesn't much care for the unfriendliness
of the locals, starting with Sheriff Josh Gamble (Aaron Pearl).
Unfortunately, Nick is injured in a mishap with a logging truck, forcing father
and son to stay in town for a while. While Nick's broken leg mends, Dennis gets
to talking with the village doctor, Sophie Weston (Alison Eastwood). Meanwhile,
Sheriff Gamble and mechanic Gus (George Eads) track down the Lovells, who've
died of rapid aging. While jogging in the pretty countryside around town, Dennis
spots an off-limits spring. It's actually a fountain of youth, and its waters
are the reason Springdale residents don’t age at a normal rate. Sophie
speeds up Nick’s recovery with a dip in the healing pool, and Dennis begins
to consider setting up house in Springdale. Nick is hesitant about settling
down; new residents must abide by the village’s stringent policies, which
include mandatory euthanasia at age 100. Sophie champions Dennis, but some of
her neighbors are less enthusiastic. The Chamber of Commerce decides that Dennis’s
initiation will consist of drowning Gus on his 100th birthday; the question
is what Springdale’s paranoid residents will do if he refuses. This material
might have made an excellent half-hour entry in an anthology series like The
Twilight Zone, but the film's placid ambience strips the story of suspense."
Fear Of Flying (AKA Turbulence 2: Fear Of Flying):
"Unable to whip up the hysteria of its predecessor, this sequel settles
for standardized action spills. Posing as a student in a "Fear of Flying"
seminar that prepares the chicken-hearted for air travel, terrorist huckster
Elliott (Jeffrey Nordling) actually intends to transport a toxic weapon stolen
from the Czech Republic. Having duped his girlfriend Jessica (Jennifer Beals)
— who has a genuine fear of flying — Elliott boards TransCon's special
Tuscon-to-LA flight with his secret weapon ensconced in the cargo hold. The
crew of scaredy-cats includes Martin (Craig Sheffer), an airplane designer traumatized
by the death of his wife in a crash. When several passengers pass out from spiked
drinks, TransCon security suspects the shifty Czech passengers. But mastermind
Elliott eventually shows his true colors and seizes the aircraft. While Elliott's
busy issuing demands, Martin and Jessica embark on a mission to dump the chemical
weapon over the ocean. But the increasingly rattled Elliott starts dropping
passengers out of the plane and then kills the pilot. Can Martin overcome his
stratos-fear and fly the plane to safety? Although this film;s plot developments
grow increasingly strained, the lunatic exposition is neither bracingly suspenseful
nor liberatingly campy. By the time the Navy aims a missile at the plane (the
top brass are more than willing to shoot it down rather than let it contaminate
Seattle), the screenplay has passed the no man's land of plausibility and landed
in the elephant's graveyard where bad scripts go to die. Nordling's sleek villainy
and the chemistry between Sheffer and Beals are by far the best things about
this nuts-and-bolts action picture."
Heaven’s Fire:
"A high-rise disaster flick with low-rise aspirations, this assembly line,
made-for-TV thriller is strictly for the he-man heroics set. Government agent
Dean McConnell (Eric Roberts) drags his teenaged son, Jeremy (Kaj-Erik Eriksen),
along on a tour of Seattle's Federal Building, in hopes that the adolescent
will bond with Dean's girlfriend, Fiona (Cali Timmins), and her daughter, Aimee
(Lisa Marie Caruk). But Brady Bunch rapport quickly becomes the least of Dean's
worries: Anti-government terrorists have targeted the building because it's
temporarily housing $100,000,000 worth of engraving plates headed for the Mint.
And to Dean's shock, the leader of the extremists is his former co-worker, Quentin
Darby (Jurgen Prochnow), who's nursing a grudge against Uncle Sam and has no
compunctions about taking hostages or blowing them up once he's been whisked
from the roof by an escape chopper. Dean's counter-terrorism training enables
him to force that whirlybird to crash into the building, which screws up Quentin's
getaway. But it also causes a chain reaction that engulfs several stories in
flames. Caught between Quentin's no-goodniks and a towering inferno, Fiona's
tour group doesn't know where to turn — ignoring Dean's advice not to
use the elevator proves the last decision some of them make. And even bigger
shock awaits Dean: Quentin's main squeeze and second-in-command, Michelle (Venus
Terzo), is Dean's ex-wife and Jeremy's mom! Dean must try to persuade the kvetching
cross-section of humanity in his care to hide in a vault while he battles Quentin,
but will the terrified tourists foolishly dash for freedom instead? Once again,
a corrupt federal agent butts heads with a patriotic maverick who possesses
a limitless repertoire of military skills. If you enjoy hogwash about trapped
victims in tall buildings, then this will satisfy your sub-DIE HARD cravings."
by: Robert Pardi
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