Dax Shepard Movies
With a background in improvisational comedy and a reputation as a class clown, Dax Shepard seemed the obvious choice for the role of a Punk'd field agent -- and the opportunity to put one over on some of the biggest names in show business must have been impossible to resist. Though it wasn't his first onscreen role, Punk'd provided Shepard with the recognition needed to further his onscreen career, and just a year after debuting with Ashton Kutcher's merry band of pranksters, the up-and-coming comic actor was scheduled to appear in no less than three major film releases. A native of Milford, MI, Shepard studied improv with the famed Groundlings troupe before moving to Los Angeles to study anthropology at UCLA. A minor part as a partygoer who couldn't hold his liquor in the 1998 romantic comedy Hair Shirt offered Shepard his first film role, and though there would be a five-year gap between that role and a minor supporting role in the 2003 comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, the exposure that he would subsequently gain from Punk'd more than made up for any lost time before the cameras. In 2004, Shepard appeared opposite Seth Green and Matthew Lillard in the wide-release comedy Without a Paddle, with supporting roles in Sledge: The Untold Story and Mike Judge's long-delayed sci-fi comedy Idiocracy following soon thereafter. Small-screen work on My Name Is Earl and Robot Chicken served well to keep the bills paid as Shepard climbed into astronaut gear for Jon Favreau's enjoyable 2005 fantasy Zathura. He co-starred in the Bob Odenkirk-directed comedy Let's Go To Prison! In 2006, and had a brief but memorable appearance in Baby Mama two years later. In 2010 he was cast in the NBC drama Parenthood.As 2006 dawned, Shepard continued to stick with his genre roots for several screen comedies. The typically placid and low-key actor donned a sav-mart clerk's uniform and waged war on Dane Cook to vie for the affections of bombshell Jessica Simpson in the madcap comedy Employee of the Month, produced by The Cosby Show's Carsey-Werner Entertainment and released in November 2006. At about the same time, Shepard geared up for a quartet of roles throughout 2007 and 2008. He would appear in Let's Go to Prison!, a kind of scaled-down comic update of the 1940 Millionaires in Prison, about a career criminal (Will Arnett) and a rich man (Shepard) thrown into the same prison cell (Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk directs). In Car Wars, Shepard plays the owner of an auto dealership who opens shop across the street from snooty Mercedes-Benz dealer Dustin Hoffman's glitzy establishment. And the Paramount venture Get 'em Wet (from a script penned by Shepard) re-teamed Shepard and Arnett as hot-tub salesmen who travel to Japan to corner the market on whirlpools. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
An ex-getaway driver flees from determined feds and vicious gangsters after quitting the witness-protection program in order to drive his girlfriend to her new job in Los Angeles. Once upon a time, Charlie Bronson (Dax Shepard) was a getaway wheelman for a quick-triggered gang of bank robbers, comprised of unpredictable Alex (Bradley Cooper), smoldering mastermind Neve (Joy Bryant), and their sharp-dressed sidekick (Ryan Hansen). But after being placed in the Witness Protection Program and falling for pretty Annie (Kristen Bell), Charlie's criminal past has faded into the rearview mirror. When Annie lands an interview for her dream job in L.A., Charlie vows that she won't be late, and they hit the road in his custom-built muscle car. From the moment they leave town, however, Annie's obsessive ex-boyfriend Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) is hot on their trail. Gil is interested in Charlie's shady past, and after learning his true identity with the help of his policeman brother, Gil rats him out to Alex and the gang -- who promptly gas up their station wagon and give chase. Now, with bumbling U.S. Marshal Randy (Tom Arnold) trying to keep pace and protect Charlie, the former criminal finds every escape route blocked by his old gang -- a vengeful group who aren't about to let his past sins go unpunished. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A couple hatches a highly dubious scheme to put the spark back in their marriage in this independent comedy drama. Annie (Katie Aselton) and Darren (Dax Shepard) have been married for seven years, and they love each other as much as the day they were wed; they're affectionate, have fun together, and enjoy games such as crossword puzzle races. They would seem to have a perfect relationship, except for one thing -- they haven't had sex in ages, and seem to have lost all interest in making love with one another, no matter how they try to put each other in the mood. Hoping to put some adventure back into their lives, Annie and Darren come up with an unusual idea -- they each get one night in which they're free to find someone and have sex with them, scot-free. But is this going to help their relationship, or is it just going to turn a small problem into a big problem? The Freebie was the first directorial assignment for actress Katie Aselton, who also plays Annie (and is married to another actor and filmmaker, Mark Duplass); the film was an official selection at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kathryn Aselton, Dax Shepard, (more)
- 2010
- NR
Parenthood star Dax Shepard makes his feature directorial debut with this mockumentary-style showbiz satire that finds the sitcom player abandoning his comedy career to become a committed martial artist. Together with his producer Nate Tuck and their friend Tom Arnold, Dax begins drafting a screenplay for an ambitious large-scale action epic. Trouble is, none of the big studios will go near the project, and Dax's martial arts skills are mediocre at best. Now the harder that Dax fights to get a green light on his dream production, the faster his career skids into a tailspin. Brother's Justice features special appearances by Bradley Cooper, Jon Favreau, Ashton Kutcher, and David Koechner. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dax Shepard, Tom Arnold, (more)
Disillusioned with romance during her whirlwind trip to Rome, an ambitious New Yorker defiantly swipes a few magic coins from a "foolish" wishing fountain, inadvertently igniting the passions of a motley crew of suitors as she's pursued by a handsome reporter with charm to spare. Beth (Kristen Bell) is at a point in her life where love seems like a luxury she just can't afford. Years of waiting for that perfect romance has made Beth bitter, and one day, while vacationing in Rome, she cynically plucks a handful of coins from a local fountain of love. Almost immediately thereafter, Beth finds herself fending off the advances of a diminutive sausage magnate (Danny DeVito), a lanky street magician (Jon Heder), a doting painter (Will Arnett), and a narcissistic male model (Dax Shepard). Meanwhile, a smitten reporter (Josh Duhamel) does his best to convince Beth that true love isn't just a topic of fairy tales and romance novels. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, (more)
When an everyday thirtysomething is fired from his job, his unemployment woes are soon compounded as the ticking of his wife's maternal clock reaches a deafening pitch, and his overbearing mother announces plans to move in with the struggling couple. Dax Shepard, Liv Tyler, and Diane Keaton star in a film directed by Vince Di Meglio, co-scripted by Di Meglio and Tim Rasmussen, and produced by Rasmussen, Bill Johnson, and Jay Roach. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Dax Shepard, (more)
Former Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" co-anchors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-star in this baby-fever comedy about a single, career-oriented woman who previously put parenthood on hold, and is forced to hire a surrogate mother when she discovers there is only a one-in-a-million chance that she will be able to get pregnant. Kate Holbrook (Fey) is a 37-year-old business executive who has always put her professional life before her personal life, but these days her biological clock is ticking louder than ever before. As with everything else she has accomplished in life, Kate is determined to have a child on her own terms. Unfortunately for Kate, the chance of her ever becoming pregnant is slim to none. Undaunted, a willful Kate drafts South Philly working-class girl Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler) -- a woman who may just be her polar opposite -- to be a surrogate mother. Subsequently informed by the head of the surrogacy center (Sigourney Weaver) that her surrogate is indeed pregnant, the excited mother-to-be soon purchases every child-rearing book she can find and excitedly begins the nesting process. But life hasn't quit throwing Kate curveballs just yet, because when a pregnant Angie shows up on her doorstep with no place to live, the woman who once thrived on order finds her life descending into chaos. Now, as Kate attempts to transform Angie into the ideal expectant mother, this odd couple will discover that families aren't always biological, but occasionally formed through friendship as well. Writer Michael McCullers, who authored the screenplays for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Undercover Brother in addition to working on Saturday Night Live, makes his feature directorial debut with a self-penned screenplay. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, (more)
Mike Judge wrote and directed this offbeat sci-fi comedy which gives a new meaning to the expression "people are getting dumber all the time." In 2005, Pvt. Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) is a soldier chosen to take part in a secret military scientific experiment in which he will be put into induced hibernation for one year, along with a woman named Rita (Maya Rudolph). Bowers is chosen for the assignment because he is statistically the most average man in the Army, while Rita is a hooker ordered to do some community service; however, Bowers and Rita are forgotten when the military base where the experiment took place is closed down, and when they wake up in the year 2505, Bowers finds himself living in a society where intelligence has taken such a landslide he's now the smartest man in the world. Can Bowers save America from its own remarkable stupidity, and he can he get the dunderheads around him to believe what he says? Produced under the title 3001, Idiocracy also stars Dax Shepard as Bowers's numb-skull lawyer, Stephen Root as a judge, and Terry Crews as Camacho, a former porn star and professional wrestler who is now president of the United States. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, (more)
When a pair of ultra-competitive clerks at a discount super store discovers that a beautiful, newly-transferred cashier has a reputation for only dating employees who have won the coveted Employee of the Month award, their desperate efforts to earn the title and get the girl lead to a hilarious war of one-upmanship in this winner-takes-all comedy starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, and Dax Shepard. Zack Bradley (Cook) and Vince Downey (Shepard) have been working at the cavernous Super Club for ten years and counting, but while the ambitious Vince has advanced to the position of head cashier and landed 17 consecutive "E of M" awards, laid-back Zack is content to simply sit back and enjoy the company of his fellow box boys. Longtime rivals whose conflicting attitudes as to what constitutes success has led to more than a few conflicts, Vince and Zack find their bitter battle for Super Club supremacy coming to a head when attractive new employee Amy (Simpson) transfers over from another store. When word quickly spreads that Amy only has eyes for the cream of the crop, slacker Zack attempts to clean up his act and break free from his box boy roots while uptight Vince tries to impress by maintaining his top dog position and keep cool in the face of competition. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, (more)
Bob Odenkirk's jail comedy Let's Go to Prison!, stars Will Arnett as Nelson Biederman IV, the son of a judge who ends up being sentenced to serve time in Rossmore State Penitentiary. During one of his rare stints out of incarceration, career criminal John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) learns of the conviction. John holds a grudge against Nelson's father and decides to get his revenge by going back to jail and making Nelson's stay there as horrible as possible. Chi McBride co-stars as a fellow inmate. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, (more)
An old and forgotten game develops magical powers in this fantasy for the whole family. Twelve-year-old Walter Budwing (Josh Hutcherson) and his younger brother, Danny (Jonah Bobo), figure they're going to be in for a boring time when their father (Tim Robbins), who was supposed to spend the day with them, is suddenly called away on business, and gives them strict orders not to leave the house. Walter, who doesn't have much use for Danny, is motivated by boredom more than anything else when he agrees to play a board game Danny has found in the basement during a round of hide-and-seek. However, the boys quickly discover the space-themed game Zathura has some unusual qualities -- a roll of the dice unexpectedly launches the Budwing home into outer space, and Walter and Danny are suddenly fending off menacing robots, angry aliens, and showers of interstellar debris outside the Earth's atmosphere. As the boys try to figure out a way back home, they get some unexpected help from an earthling astronaut (Dax Shepard) who has also lost his way. Based on the book by children's author Chris Van Allsburg -- who also wrote The Polar Express and Jumanji -- Zathura was directed by Jon Favreau, the actor-turned-filmmaker who enjoyed a breakthrough success with Elf. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson, (more)
Just as the old saying goes, a trio of hapless city-dwelling friends (Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, and Dax Shepard) find themselves spiraling out of control up a very brown river in this raucous comedy from Little Nicky director Steven Brill. Heading out for a weekend canoe trip in search of an elusive 200,000-dollar treasure, the trio must contend with everything from raging rapids to backwoods mountain men if they're ever going to uncover the secret of the missing booty. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.