Rik Mayall Movies

Youthful wizard Harry Potter returns to the screen in this, the second film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of novels for young people. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) return for a second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris), Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), and Hagrid the Giant (Robbie Coltrane) are joined by new faculty members Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a self-centered expert in Defense against the Dark Arts, and Sprout (Miriam Margolyes), who teaches Herbology. However, it isn't long before Harry and company discover something is amiss at Hogwarts: Students are petrified like statues, threats are written in blood on the walls, and a deadly monster is on the loose. It seems that someone has opened the mysterious Chamber of Secrets, letting loose the monster and all its calamitous powers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to find the secret chamber and slay the beast, speculation is rife that one of the heirs of Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of the school, opened the chamber as a warning against the presence of "mudbloods" (magic-users of impure lineage) at the school -- and that the culprit may be fellow student Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets featured Richard Harris' second and final appearance as Headmaster Dumbledore; he died less than a month before the film was released in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jesus Christ Superstar was Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's first international success, first as a top-selling concept album and then as a hit stage production. In 1996, a successful new production of the show was staged in London, and this home video release preserves this bold new adaptation of the show. In Jesus Christ Superstar, the story of Jesus (played by Glenn Carter) is retold in a modern setting from the perspective of Judas (Jerome Pradon), Christ's friend and disciple who becomes disillusioned and turns against Jesus when he becomes close friends with Mary Madgaline (Renee Castle), a prostitute. This television version was directed by Nick Morris and Gale Edwards in 2000. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A team of writers and artists from France, Great Britain, and Germany came together to create this animated fantasy about a monkey who unwittingly confronts the fears and superstitions that have held back his kind. In a lush jungle untouched by human civilization, monkeys are divided into two tribes -- the Woonkos, who live in the trees, and the Laankos, who live on the ground. Many years before, all the monkeys lived together, but a great flood separated them into two factions, and after the passing of several generations, no one remembers that they once lived in peace. The Woonkos believe that the monkeys living below them are demons, while the Laankos consider the tree-dwelling apes to be dangerous savages who must be executed if they are ever captured. Kom (voice of Matt Hill) is a free-spirited Woonko who doesn't put much stock in the tales of the demons living below, and one day, while swinging on a vine near a canyon, he falls in and is captured by a group of Laankos. The King of the Laankos (voice of Michael York) becomes curious about the invader, and asks that Master Martin (voice of Michael Gambon) examine Kom before he is put to death. Kom is certain that he is surrounded by demons at first, but as he adjusts to his surroundings, he is impressed with the Laankos' more advanced society -- and he becomes quite fond of Gina (voice of Sally-Anne Marsh), a servant working in the king's compound. A Monkey's Tale also features the voice talents of John Hurt as the devious Chancellor Sebastian and Rik Mayall as the buffoonish Gerard; top-selling British pop group Westlife contributed the film's theme song, "We Are One." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A British-Canadian coproduction (seen on ITV in Britain), Watership Down was a serialized TV cartoon version of Richard Adams' classic allegorical novel (previously filmed as an animated feature in 1978). The story concerned a group of rabbits who, after experiencing a vision of their warren's destruction, set out in search of a new home. Led by Hazel and Fever, the not-so-timid woodland creatures ended up in Watership Down, where a Hitler-like rabbit dictator named Gen. Woundwort held the populace in thrall. John Hurt, who provided the voice of Hazel in the 1978 feature, is heard as the villain in this TV version. Watership Down first aired in 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Radioactive fish, Italian bombshells, and vomit. These are the key ingredients of this over-the-top gross-out fest about the worst guesthouse in Britain. Former Young Ones star Rik Mayall is Richie Twat (pronounced "Thwaite" as he labors to explain to one and all) who runs the titular hotel with his dull-witted cohort Eddie (Adrian Edmondson). Balancing precariously on a cliff overlooking a nuclear power plant, the hotel is a nightmare from the standpoint of customer service. Richie gleefully abuses the guests, rummages through their luggage, and serves them vile, rotten food. When a nice but impoverished family and an Italian starlet (Gina "Nipples from Naples" Carbonara, played by Helene Mahieau) makes the mistake of staying at their abode, events grow more bizarre and scatological with each passing frame until the film's delirious finale, which has to be the one of the longest and most involved mass puking scenes ever committed to celluloid. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

John Henderson directed this British comedy, taking a peek inside the British music industry. Record-company owner Marty Starr (Rik Mayall) concludes that Marla Dorland, aka Mavis Davis (Jane Horrocks) is fading. Meanwhile, he has to meet alimony payments to his ex (Jaclyn Mendoza), while he's forced to promote the untalented son of a mobster, Rathbone (Danny Aiello). To get out from under, Marty decides that the death of Marla/Mavis could jolt record sales by turning her into a legend. He hires hitman Clint (Philip Martin-Brown), but eliminating Mavis turns out to be more difficult than they thought. Jane Horrocks does her own singing in the musical production numbers. Shown at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this, the sixth screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic story, Simon de Canterville (Ian Richardson) is trapped in his family's estate after he runs away rather than face another man in a duel. Canterville soon dies, and his ghost haunts the mansion. The fates have decreed that his soul will know no peace until his descendents restore the honor of the Canterville name. Centuries later, a family moves into the former Canterville estate, and they discover that they don't have the place entirely to themselves. The supporting cast includes Pauline Quirke and Rik Mayall. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This animated fantasy is based on a famed fairy tale by late-19th century writer George MacDonald. It is the tale of a brave princess who teams up with the son of a miner to go underground and stop the mischievous goblins from revolting. The film spent many years in production, which explains the vocal presence of Roy Kinnear (who died in September 1988). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Joey (Crispin Glover) thinks he's a writer, even though he's never written (or published) anything. He has advertised this "fact" to everyone he knows, but particularly to himself. He has an acquaintance, Marty (Matthew Hutton), who is mute but who writes like a dream. Of course, people try to ignore him the way they do every other "handicapped" person, and his writings go unnoticed. One day, Joey runs into a literary agent and hands him some of Marty's poetry. When the agent assumes that the work is Joey's, he allows him to believe that. Incredibly, (since poetry is not a big publishing moneymaker), the agent hands Joey some money as an advance on a book. Unable and unwilling to end his deception, Joey accepts the cash. Sooner or later, Joey is going to have to get hold of some more poems, though, and he may even have to face the truth about what he has done. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Phoebe Cates stars in this bizarre comedy that wants to be the kind of stylish comic fable the likes of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and Pee-wee's Big Adventure but ends up looking like a shabby burlesque about schizophrenia. Cates is Elizabeth, who has recently separated from her philandering husband Charles (Tim Matheson) and moved back home with her harridan mother Polly (Marsha Mason). Back in her old little-girl haunts, she regresses into childhood and recalls her imaginary childhood friend Drop Dead Fred (Rik Mayall), a nasty, ill-tempered sociopath. As a child, Elizabeth created mayhem with her imaginary pal, but Polly locked him up tight in a jack-in-the-box. But now, Elizabeth mistakenly liberates him from the jack-in-the-box, and the newly freed Drop Dead Fred proceeds to wreak more havoc than the Id Monster from Forbidden Planet -- taking vengeance upon all the people who have made Elizabeth miserable -- and then some. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

As part of his never-ending efforts to avoid the German ground troops during WWI, Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) signs up with the Royal Air Corps. Crashing behind enemy lines, Edmund is captured by the enemy, forcing Baldrick (Tony Robinson) and Lord Flashheart (Rik Mayall) to race to his rescue -- if only they can outmaneuver Baron Von Richtoven (Adrian Edmondson). "Plan D: Private Plane" made its British broadcast debut on October 19, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi