Matthew Lillard Movies
Making a career out of playing either sociopaths or the hyperkinetically weird, Matthew Lillard has established himself as one of the more promising, to say nothing of idiosyncratic, actors of his generation. Originally hailing from Lansing, MI, where he was born on January 24, 1970, Lillard was raised in California. His first break came in the form of Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College (1993), in which he was credited as Matthew Lynn. More auspicious work followed in John Waters' lovably warped Serial Mom (1994), which cast Lillard as the gore-obsessed son of the decidedly unhinged Kathleen Turner. The role was one of the first in which Lillard played the type of superficially normal yet profoundly wacked-out character that was to become his trademark. It was followed by a minor role in the Drew Barrymore/Chris O'Donnell doomed love vehicle Mad Love (directed by Antonia Bird in 1995) and a cyberpunk turn in Hackers (also 1995). Next up was the film that would make him famous, Wes Craven's Scream (1996). The film, in addition to simultaneously parodying and reviving the teen horror genre, helped to enhance the careers of more than a few of its actors, including David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell, and Skeet Ulrich.Lillard's next project of any acclaim (following such disappointments as Dish Dogs, The Curve, and Senseless, all made in 1998) was Robert Towne's Without Limits (1998), the critically lauded, if little-seen, story of the life of runner Steve Prefontaine (played by Billy Crudup, with Donald Sutherland as his coach). Lillard's subsequent film, SLC Punk! (1999), met with similarly good reviews, with praise being singled out for both Lillard's performance and that of his co-star, Michael Goorjian. The film told the story of two punks growing up in staid Salt Lake City during the Reagan years, and contained the type of small-budget charm lacking in Lillard's next two projects, Wing Commander and She's All That. Both films featured Lillard co-starring with Freddie Prinze Jr., as well as a score of bad reviews. However, while the former also succumbed to dismal box-office performance, the latter met with widespread success, virtually guaranteeing future work for Lillard and his young co-stars. Following the release of such efforts as Summer Catch and 13 Ghosts (both 2001), Lillard would take on the role of the fragile-nerved Shaggy in the live-action adaptation of the enduring cartoon Scooby-Doo in 2002. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
One day Jack (Matthew Lillard) shows up at the antiques-laden warehouse apartment of Max (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Jamie (Valeria Golino), two ruthless low-level criminals with higher aspirations than the two-bit thieving they do now. Jack insists he's Max's brother, but Jamie, whose hobby is collecting poison, has her doubts. When Max arrives to find Jack tied to a chair, it's revealed that Jack isn't Max's brother -- he's a hoodlum with a line on a briefcase with a million dollars and a priceless, mysterious antiquity called the Spanish Judges; all he wants is Max and Jamie's help recovering the loot. But when the plan goes awry, and violently so, suddenly loyalties and motives are called into question. Was this Jack's plan all along, or did Jamie have something to do with it? ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Valeria Golino, (more)
Dan Rosen directed this thriller, filmed in and around Baltimore, based on the college urban legend that you get a cool 4.0 semester grade if your roommate commits suicide. Roommates Rand (Randall Batinkoff), manipulative Tim (Matthew Lillard), and good-guy Chris (Michael Vartan) are seniors at a university where this legend is legit. Since Rand mistreats his pregnant girlfriend Natalie (Tamara Craig Thomas), he's the obvious choice. Tim gets Cliff to assist in Rand's "suicidal" leap from a cliff -- but with that foul deed done, Tim points the police in Chris's direction and then seduces Chris' girlfriend Emma (Keri Russell). After Natalie really does commit suicide, students, cops, and the campus psychiatrist (Dana Delaney) begin to ask probing questions. Track tunes include The Cure, Suzanne Vega, Joy Division, and The Smiths. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Lillard, Michael Vartan, (more)
Fast-talking, fast-thinking, fast-living -- oh to be a career dishwasher, without a care in the world other than getting the grime and grease off other peoples' dinner plates. Morgan (Sean Astin) and Jason (Matthew Lillard) have found the Zen in their chosen profession as itinerant dishwashers, scrubbing pots and pans at restaurants at night and by day chasing their dream of finding the perfect wave to surf. They travel up and down the West Coast, insouciantly eschewing a more staid and steady lifestyle, choosing instead to move from one eatery to the next. They brag about what little money and earthly things they possess, and they revel in their romantic freedom. Their peripatetic dishwashing comes to a bubbly stop once Morgan meets topless dancer Anne (Shannon Elizabeth) and decides to make her his -- although she refuses to have anything to do with him. Naturally, a conflict arises with Jason, as this courtship goes against their shared philosophy of rootless rebellion. Can the boys come to a mutually beneficial agreement, or is this the end of the proud "dish dogs"?
~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Astin, Matthew Lillard, (more)
Robert DeFranco directed this comedy-drama about two New Jerseyites who graduated from college only to operate the oven at Lombardo's Pizza. Phil (Peter Facinelli) and Dennis (Dash Mihok) soon realize that the guys they once laughed at have moved on -- while they have been left behind in Nowhere City. Shown at the 1998 Hollywood Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Facinelli, Dash Mihok, (more)
Penelope Spheeris directed this Marlon Wayans comedy, scripted by the Rocket Man team of Greg Erb and Craig Mazin. Saddled with several on and off-campus jobs, hard-working college student Darryl Witherspoon (Marlon Wayans) is aiming for a position with the Smythe-Bates brokerage firm, but twit Scott Thorpe has the right resumé and connections. A frat failure, Darryl also doesn't score at ice hockey. For extra cash, Darryl becomes a test subject for an experimental drug that heightens the senses by five times. The initial effect is a rectal irritation, but then Darryl finds his enhanced hearing enables him to pick up distant conversations, and his upgraded coordination improves his hockey game. However, an overdose literally leaves Darryl senseless, as he discovers only four of his five senses operative at any given time. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Wayans, David Spade, (more)
One of two filmed biographies of late track star Steve Prefontaine to be produced in the late '90s, Without Limits comes from director Robert Towne, who previously took a stab at the track-star drama with his directorial debut, 1982's Personal Best. Billy Crudup stars as the ill-fated athlete who overcame physical obstacles to win an NCAA championship and compete in the 1972 Munich Olympics. The film follows Prefontaine from his youth in Oregon where, despite one leg being longer than the other, he shows himself to be a talented runner. Later, while attending the University of Oregon, Prefontaine meets and forms a strong bond with his coach, Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland), the man who would later go on to found the Nike shoe corporation. College is also where Prefontaine falls for classmate Mary Marckx (Monica Potter), beginning a romance that lasts until his untimely death in a 1974 automobile accident. The other film about Steve Prefontaine was 1997's Prefontaine which starred Jared Leto in the titular role. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Crudup, Donald Sutherland, (more)
Scream is at once a slasher film and a tongue-in-cheek position paper on the "dead teenagers" movies of the late 1970s/early 1980s that plays as half-parody, half-tribute. Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is having a rough time lately: she's still getting over the brutal rape and murder of her mother a year ago, and now one of her friends (Drew Barrymore) has been killed by a lunatic who harassed her with terrifying phone calls, then stabbed her to death while wearing a Halloween costume. Soon Sydney is receiving similar phone calls, quizzing her on the arcane details of such films as Friday the 13th and Prom Night, and is attacked by the same cloaked maniac. With her father missing, she has hardly anyone on her side except her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowan) and Tatum's brother Dewey (David Arquette), a half-bright cop. As for the murderer, it could be any number of people: Syd's father; her cute but overly intense boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ullrich); Tatum's goofball boyfriend Stuart (Matthew Lillard); or Randy (Jamie Kennedy), who works at the local video store and seems to like horror movies just a little too much. Much like Halloween, Scream spawned a series of sequels and inspired a large number of similar films -- its original working title, Scary Movie, became the title of the 2000 parody film by Damon Wayans. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette, (more)
A lonely teenager thinks that he's found love, but it turns out to be more than he bargained for. Matt Leland (Chris O'Donnell) is an intelligent but awkward high school student who is in the market for a girlfriend but not having much luck finding one. One night, while looking at the stars through his telescope, Matt accidentally trains his vision on Casey Roberts (Drew Barrymore), a high-spirited girl who lives on the other side of the lake near their home. Matt is smitten with her, and he maps out a scheme to meet her. He finds her brash and charming, and she seems just as fond of him. However, Matt doesn't know that Casey is manic depressive and has been in and out of mental institutions for most of her life. Her father Richard (Jude Ciccolella) wants to keep her in an institution, while her mother Margaret (Joan Allen) wants the best for her daughter but isn't sure what that is. Casey, however, wants to be with Matt, and she convinces him that her parents mean to harm her. They run away, planning to go to Mexico, but Matt begins to realize that Casey's mood swings are more serious than he imagined. Set in Seattle, Mad Love features an on-screen appearance by the Washington-based all-female hard rock band 7 Year Bitch; the soundtrack also features music by Nirvana, Luscious Jackson, Los Lobos, Cracker, and Grant Lee Buffalo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris O'Donnell, Drew Barrymore, (more)
- 1995
In this drama, a young professional photographer, Diane Di Sorella, must suddenly return to her long- abandoned family home in New Jersey after her mother unexpectedly dies. Once back amongst her fellow Italian-American neighbors she begins to rediscover the heritage she rejected some many years before. She also begins to remember her embittered mother whom she abandoned. This is a tough time for Diane and she finds support with the best friend of her late grandmother who gives her a secret journal kept by Diane's mother. It is in Italian so the woman must read it to Diane. Passages from it are illustrated via live action vignettes and through puppet shows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew Lillard star in writer/director Craig Singer's violent tale of rehabilitation gone horribly awry. When high school student Arnold Mosk (Neil Patrick Harris) is busted for using drugs, he's immediately placed in an experimental isolation program known as "The Animal Room." "The Animal Room" is a rehabilitation center where the rules of normal society don't apply, a kind-of lawless clubhouse inhabited by the most dangerous and disturbed youth imaginable. When Arnold shows up in "The Animal Room," sadistic gang leader Doug Van Housen (Lillard) immediately targets the frightened newcomer for torment. Doug is the kind of kid who's just too far gone to care what society thinks of him, and he places precious little value on human life. Should Arnold remain in "The Animal Room" he will almost certainly die. Now, it's up to Arnold's childhood friend Gary - a popular student and talented athlete - to break his old pal out of the controversial treatment program before the situation turns deadly. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
In this high-tech thriller, Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) has been fascinated with computers all his life; at the age of 11, he was able to break into the computer network of several top Wall Street investment and banking firms, and he nearly caused a major stock market crash in the process. As punishment, Dade was forbidden to use a computer until his 18th birthday, but now that he's of age, he's diving back into his PC head first. Dade meets up with a group of fellow hackers: tough-talking cyber gamer Kate, aka Acid Burn (Angelina Jolie), junior hacker Jesse Bradford, born prankster Cereal Killer (Matthew Lillard), Nikon (Lawrence Mason), named for his photographic memory, and telephone expert Phantom Phreak (Renoly Santiago). Dade and his pals aren't out to destroy systems or do cybercrime for profit; they simply want to know more about the systems they encounter, and they like raising some good-natured havoc. But in their travels through cyberspace, they discover The Plague (Fisher Stevens), a former hacker turned computer security expert with a huge multinational corporation. The Plague has not only done the unthinkable and gone into anti-hacker enforcement, he's secretly allied himself with a group of criminals and is using his expertise to drain funds from corporate bank accounts and transfer them to himself and his mistress, Margo (Lorraine Bracco). The Plague is also smart enough to leave clues that would lead investigators to someone else -- in this case, Dade and his friends -- and has a secret weapon at his disposal, a computer virus that could wipe out the entire world wide web in a matter of minutes. Several sequences for Hackers were shot at New York City's Stuyvesant High School, where coincidentally several months after filming, several students were arrested by F.B.I. agents for their involvement in computer hacking. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, (more)
Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) is the perfect suburban housewife and mother. She likes to cook, her home is immaculately clean, she's always well-groomed and cheerful, and she loves her husband Eugene (Sam Waterston) and her two children, Misty (Ricki Lake) and Chip (Matthew Lillard). There's just one problem with Beverly -- if you do anything to make someone in her family feel bad, you're dead meat on a stick. While she does a great job of hiding it, Beverly has a vicious and vengeful streak, and when she's not making obscene prank calls to the neighbors or bribing her garbagemen to save embarrassing items from her neighbors' trash, she's mowing down whoever would be so rude as to make her husband go into his office on a Saturday, break up with her daughter, or suggest that her son watches too many horror movies. Taking John Waters back to R-rated territory after the relatively sedate Hairspray and Cry Baby, Serial Mom captures a comfortable middle ground between Hollywood professionalism and Waters' subversive sense of humor, and Kathleen Turner has a field day as the sweet-on-the-outside, evil-on-the-inside Beverly. The supporting cast includes such Waters favorites as Patty Hearst, Traci Lords, Mink Stole, and Susan Lowe; Joan Rivers and Suzanne Somers appear as themselves, and all-female grunge-metal band L7 plays the all-female grunge-metal band Camel Toe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, (more)
