Jamie Lee Curtis Movies
The daughter of film stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis launched her film career as a "scream queen." After a nondescript supporting role on the TV series Operation Petticoat, Curtis rose to cult stardom playing the straight-laced teenage babysitter imperiled by an unknown slasher in Halloween (1978). Upon appearing in the film's sequel and in such spookers as The Fog (1979) and Prom Night (1980), she seemed in danger of being limited to blood-splattered horror films. But Curtis wasn't about to be typed this early in the game: with a meaty secondary role as a prostitute -- featuring several well-publicized nude scenes -- in the big-budget comedy Trading Places (1983), she made the transition from imperiled teen type to knowing adult with nary a hitch.Curtis didn't exactly have a string of box-office smashes after Trading Places, but she was always worth watching even when the films weren't. And when the good parts did come along, notably her roles in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and My Girl (1991), she proved she was an actress of range and stature and not just another "movie star's kid." Taking a potentially humiliating role as the unknowing wife of a secret agent in the megabucks Arnold Schwarzenegger adventure True Lies (1994), Curtis delivered a sparkling performance, emerging as the only truly likable character in a loud and misogynistic melodrama. In 1997, she was reunited with the cast of A Fish Called Wanda (Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Michael Palin) for Fierce Creatures, another comedy farce in the same vein as Wanda. Unfortunately, the film was largely disappointing; but, the following year, Curtis rebounded with a return to familiar territory in Halloween: H2O. The slasher flick, although less than a critical favorite, proved to be popular with audiences. In 1999, Curtis again ventured into the big-budget realm with the action thriller Virus, and had a supporting role in Daddy and Them, Billy Bob Thornton's sophomore writing/directorial effort. She could then be seen in Drowning Mona, a black comedy in which she played a waitress caught up in an affair with the husband of her town's most infamous dead woman.
The 2000s have brought Curtis several interesting opportunities, including a live performance at Paul McCartney's benefit for the controversial animal rights organization PETA in 2000, and a no-holds-barred photo shoot with More magazine in 2002 -- the then 44-year-old actress wanted to emphasize that even high-profile celebrities look "normal" without the help of a team of makeup artists and digital alterations. In 2001, Curtis starred alongside Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush and James Bond front man Pierce Brosnan in the espionage thriller The Tailor of Panama, and returned for a cameo appearance in Halloween: Resurrection, which supposedly marked her final role in the Halloween franchise. Curtis would return to more family-oriented pictures in 2003's spirited Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan, which featured the forty-something actress playing a punky teen whose spirit had magically been transferred to her mother's body; the success of that film led to the curdled comedy of the critically drubbed Christmas With the Kranks.
Married to actor Christopher Guest since 1984, Curtis became a Baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, when her husband inherited the Barony in 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A psychotic estranged wife attempts to sabotage her husband's new romance by turning her children against his lover in this thriller. Jude (Jamie Lee Curtis) had abandoned her husband Robert (Peter Gallagher) and their three sons several years earlier. Unfortunately, now that Robert has filed for divorce after falling in love with Callie (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer), the sweet-natured assistant principal at his son's school, Jude is back for revenge. At first she merely tries to convince the children that Callie is an intruder on the rightful family, but the psychotic Jude's actions soon turn dangerous, as she attempts to frame the educator for assault. Things become particularly sticky when she tries to win over her 12-year-old son Kes (Luke Edwards), involving him in a potentially deadly scheme. Director Yves Simoneau borrows from numerous other stalker dramas and attempts to ratchet the action to a feverish pitch in the conclusion, but Jude's behavior remains unbelievable, and most critics found Mother's Boys an unconvincing, often over-the-top psychodrama. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Gallagher, (more)
The mock heavy-metal band Spinal Tap (actually comedians Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer) return to duty in this made-for-TV sequel to Rob Reiner's 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, filmed to promote the group's album Break Like the Wind. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, (more)
A man undergoes a scientific experiment that causes him to wake up after 50 years without aging a day in this romantic science-fiction tale. In 1939, Daniel (Mel Gibson) is a test pilot who is brave in the air but lacks the nerve to ask his girlfriend Helen (Isabel Glasser) to marry him, even though he loves her deeply. When Helen is hit by a truck and is taken to the hospital in a coma, Daniel is despondent, and he approaches his best friend Harry (George Wendt). Harry is a scientific researcher working with the military who has been experimenting with cryogenic suspension; Daniel asks Harry to have him frozen for a year rather than go through the hell of waiting to see if Helen lives or dies. Harry reluctantly agrees, but after the pilot is put on ice, Harry's experiments are shut down, and Daniel is forgotten. In 1992, two young boys, Nat (Elijah Wood) and Felix (Robert Hy Gorman) are playing in an abandoned military warehouse and find a freezing unit. They open it and find Daniel, who before long is all thawed out and physically not much worse for wear. However, the world is a very different place than it was in 1939; the boys bring their discovery home, where their single mother Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis) looks after Daniel and helps him adjust to his new world. A friendship between them begins to grow into something deeper, until Daniel discovers that his beloved Helen is still alive. Forever Young also features Joe Morton, Rob Morrow, and Vanessa Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, (more)
Howard Zieff directed this comedy-drama about the emotional awakening of a young girl in a small Pennsylvania town during the summer of 1972. Anna Chlumsky plays eleven-year-old Vada, a quiet child living with her widowed father Harry Dultenfuss (Dan Aykroyd), a local mortician who prepares bodies in his basement. Vada feels responsible for the death of her mother, who died giving birth to her, and lives in an emotional cocoon, her only friend being a personable local boy, Thomas J. Sennett (Macauly Culkin), who suffers from allergies. Like Vada, Harry keeps to himself, until a freelance make-up artist, Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis), comes to town and gets a job working with Harry. Shelly and Harry fall in love and Vada feels threatened by her presence. But then a personal tragedy forces Vada to come out of her emotional shell. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Macaulay Culkin, Anna Chlumsky, (more)
Ray (Ken Olin) is a young adult and has a girlfriend whom he lives with quite happily. However, the agreed-upon date of their marriage is coming up, and he's not quite sure he wants to make that kind of commitment. His buddies Dennis, Elliot, and Vinny have their own commitment problems. Dennis (Kevin Bacon) isn't sure he wants to stay away from his buddies long enough to get his music career going in Hollywood; Elliot (John Malkovich) knows that he's homosexual but thinks that being gay means fitting all sorts of ugly stereotypes -- stereotypes he is determined to avoid at all costs; and Vinny (Tony Spiridakis) commits himself all too frequently and often to the nearest desirable female. Meanwhile, cousin Al (Joe Mantegna) is in trouble with his wife, and only the intervention of a well-intentioned psychotic (Jamie Lee Curtis) can put him back on the right track. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Linda Fiorentino, (more)
Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie cop who witnesses a robbery in progress on her first night on the job. With her more experienced partner using the men's room, Megan decides to take action on her own. She creeps into the supermarket where a man (Tom Sizemore in a small role) is holding the clerk at gunpoint. Megan gets close enough to shoot the gunman, and calls out for him to drop his weapon. He spins the gun toward her, and she unloads her service revolver into his chest. His gun goes flying, and a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), surreptitiously picks it up and takes it home. Megan's superiors, unable to confirm that the man she shot was armed, suspend her. Eugene, a wealthy commodities broker, becomes obsessed with Megan. He sets up an "accidental" meeting between them and begins dating her, romancing her with fancy restaurants and helicopter rides over Manhattan. He also carves her name into the bullets he uses to gun down strangers in the street. A tough homicide detective, Nick Mann (Clancy Brown of The Shawshank Redemption), gets Megan's gun and badge back so she can help him track down the psycho killer. Eventually, Megan realizes that Eugene is the killer, but he uses his money and influence to elude the law, and he starts coming after Megan's friends and family. Megan's determination to bring Eugene to justice quickly becomes a very personal obsession. This intense cop drama, Blue Steel, was director Kathryn Bigelow's major studio follow-up to her well-received indie vampire flick, Near Dark. Bigelow co-wrote both films with Eric Red (The Hitcher). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, (more)
In A Fish Called Wanda, Jamie Lee Curtis plays an ambitious con artist who uses every ounce of her sexual wiles to obtain a fortune in jewels stolen by her gangster lover Tom Georgeson. First, she romances Georgeson's dimwitted but deadly henchman Kevin Kline (who won an Academy Award for his performance). Then, to clear the path for her getaway with Kline, Jamie woos Georgeson's starched-shirt attorney, John Cleese -- and it's Cleese whom she genuinely falls in love with. Michael Palin, Cleese's former Monty Python cohort, plays a stuttering mob flunkey who continually messes up his one big assignment: killing a little old lady (it isn't that he has any qualms about knocking off the old dear; it's just that her pet dogs keep getting in the way). A Fish Called Wanda was scripted by star John Cleese. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, (more)
Dominick Luciano (Thomas Hulce) is the moderately retarded twin brother of highly intelligent young intern Eugene (Ray Liotta). Anxious to become a successful doctor, Eugene finds he must devote most of his time to caring for Dominick. For his part, Dominick has been contributing to the family unit as a trash collector; in fact, it is his earnings that keeps food on the table. All Dominick wants out of life is a house by the lake where he and his brother can be together for all time. But the ambitious Eugene can't always bring himself to share that vision. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hulce, Ray Liotta, (more)
- 1987
When young Chuck Murdock (Joshua Zuehlke) visits a nuclear missile site, he learns that one bomb would destroy the earth in less time than it would take a piece of silverware to drop from his hand to the floor. This information sends the sensitive boy into existential angst. Wondering why anybody should do anything when the world can be destroyed so quickly, and hoping to raise consciousness about nuclear weapons, Chuck quits his Little League team. He gains a little bit of local press. One of those stories is read by NBA star "Amazing Grace" Smith (Alex English), who is so moved by the boy's story that he too quits playing his sport. This produces a great deal of national press, as well as a handful of stars from other sports that decide to join the ranks of Amazing Grace and Chuck. Some powers that be in the sports world, as well as the government, do not look kindly upon these "strikes" and set about to end the movement. Amazing Grace and Chuck came near the end of a cycle of nuclear anxiety films that included Testament, The Day After, and Threads. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Alex English, (more)
- 1987
- R
A married American actor (Peter Coyote) falls in love with his on-screen flame (Greta Scacchi) while filming an Italian biography of author Cesare Pavese. France's 1987 entry to the Cannes Film Festival, this was the first English-language film for director Diane Kurys. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Coyote, Greta Scacchi, (more)
- 1986
As Summers Die was produced as an "HBO Premiere" attraction. Set in the segregationist South of the 1950s, the film pits the wealthy but decadent members of a landed-gentry white family against a feisty old black woman, on whose property oil has been discovered. Idealistic attorney Scott Glenn bucks the family--and the inbred prejudices of the community--to protect the woman's interests. He finds himself with two unsuspected allies in the forms of young Jamie Lee Curtis and ancient Bette Davis, two "renegade" members of the very family that wants to grab the oil-rich land. As Summers Die had its cable-TV debut on May 17, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This compilation tape is a collection of clips and trailers from low-budget, cult-type movies. The "framing" device of having two guys on a couch (one of whom is future cult-icon Steve Buscemi) watching TV and making cracks about the movies is fairly lame, and many of the films showcased have been included in other compilation tapes. However, there are clips and trailers from some rarely seen gems, such as Al Adamson's sleazo western Five Bloody Graves, Herschell Gordon Lewis' Living Venus (featuring an early appearance by Harvey Korman), and Doris Wishman's "masterpiece," Bad Girls Do Cry. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
Based on a series of Rolling Stone articles by Aaron Latham, this romance was set in the world of L.A.'s hip fitness scene. Rolling Stone reporter Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) comes to L.A. to write a story about a prominent businessman who's been arrested for drug dealing (shades of the John DeLorean scandal). He's also decided to research a piece on the exercise fad and how health clubs have become the "singles bars of the '80s." His boss (real-life Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner as himself) OK's the project. At a club called The Sports Connection, an incognito Adam meets the regulars, including promiscuous Linda (Laraine Newman), airhead Sally (Marilu Henner) and aerobics instructor Jessie (Jamie Lee Curtis), a former Olympic swimmer. Adam and Jessie begin a romance, but it ends when she discovers that he's there to trash her and the club in print. Conflicted, Adam wrestles with publishing the story, but the final decision isn't his. A director of sincere, sober dramas, James Bridges was an odd choice to helm the romantic Perfect (1985), widely considered one of the decade's notorious cinematic misfires. Bridges had enjoyed much greater success with his previous collaboration with Travolta, Urban Cowboy (1980). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, (more)
- 1985
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This episode of Shelley Duvall's American Tall Tales tells the rip-roaring story of Annie Oakley, one of the Old West's greatest sharpshooters and popular star of Buffalo Bill's traveling Wild West Show. The program includes some legendary episodes -- part fact, part fiction -- and shows some actual footage of Annie Oakley in action (filmed in 1903 by Thomas Edison). Jamie Lee Curtis plays the title role. ~ Alice Duncan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
This made-for-TV biography appeared as part of the Shelley Duvall series, Tall Tales and Legends, and stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Annie Oakley and Brian Dennehy as Buffalo Bill Cody, who Ms. Oakley accompanied on a hugely successful Wild West show. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1984
This 1984 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis and features musical guest the Fixx. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, The Fixx, (more)
- 1984
- R
The Saroyanesque Grandview USA focuses on a sleepy Midwestern town and its younger denizens. Bored out of his gourd, recent high-school graduate Tim (C. Thomas Howell), befriends the much-older Michelle (Jamie Lee Curtis), who runs the local demolition derby. Michelle's top driver is "Slam" (Patrick Swayze), who though a star on the track is a washout when it comes to affairs of the heart. As the three characters grow closer, each does a lot of growing up. When it sticks to business, Grandview USA can be quite charming; it falters only in a couple of rock-video and fantasy sequences, reportedly tacked on at the insistence of the distributors. The highly appropriate supporting cast ranges from such TV regulars as Troy Donahue and William Windom to such stars-to-be as Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Cusack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, C. Thomas Howell, (more)
- 1983
- R
Unmarried disc jockey Jamie Lee Curtis happens across a packet of love letters, written by her late mother. As she peruses these missives, she learns that her mother had carried on a lengthy extramarital affair. At firt appalled by mom's "double life," Curtis is slowly brought around to another way of thinking. Soon she has embarked on her own romance with an older man, the very married James Keach. Well cast and sensitively directed, Love Letters is a purposely "small" films that deserves a larger audience. The film was also released as My Love Letters and Passion Play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, James Keach, (more)
- 1983
Made for video, Coming Soon is a 60-minute compilation of Universal "coming attraction" trailers. This being a John Landis project, it's no surprise that the films represented herein are all Universal horror flicks, ranging from Frankenstein to Creature From the Black Lagoon. Distinguishing this from other similar pastiches are several interview sequences, in which the participants in the films offer insights and behind-the-scenes stories. Jamie Lee Curtis, no slouch herself when it comes to "scare flicks", narrates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The "nature-nurture" theory that motivated so many Three Stooges comedies is the basis of John Landis's hit comedy. The fabulously wealthy but morally bankrupt Duke brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) make a one-dollar bet over heredity vs. environment. Curious as to what might happen if different lifestyles were reversed, they arrange for impoverished street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) to be placed in the lap of luxury and trained for a cushy career in commodities brokerage. Simultaneously, they set about to reduce aristocratic yuppie Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd to poverty and disgrace, hiring a prostitute (Jamie Lee Curtis) to hasten his downfall. When Billy Ray figures out that the brothers intend to dump him back on the streets once their experiment is complete, he seeks out Winthorpe, and together the pauper-turned-prince and prince-turned-pauper plot an uproarious revenge. With the good-hearted prostitute and Winthorpe's faithful butler (Denholm Elliott) as their accomplices, they set about to hit the brothers where it really hurts: in the pocketbook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, (more)
