Melanie Lynskey Movies
When Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures was released to international acclaim in 1994, it launched the career of a then-unknown actress by the name of Kate Winslet. Unfortunately, it didn't do the same for Winslet's co-star, the similarly unknown and equally talented Melanie Lynskey. As Pauline Parker, a New Zealand schoolgirl who, along with best friend Juliete Hulme (Winslet), brutally murders her mother, Lynskey turned in a performance that combined sullen adolescent alienation with cold-blooded brutality. Although marked as a promising newcomer, she did not enjoy a subsequent breakthrough of the magnitude of Winslet's but instead worked quietly for a few years, gradually earning belated recognition from audiences and industry figures alike.Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on May 16, 1977, Lynskey was a high school student when she was discovered by Peter Jackson's wife, Frances Walsh, who cast her in Heavenly Creatures. Following the film's success, the fledgling actress moved to Los Angeles, but encountered endless rejection thanks to her non-blonde, non-waifish physique, and after only six weeks returned to her native country. Eighteen months of film, theatre, and English studies at Victoria University followed, as did a supporting role in Jackson's The Frighteners (1996).
A self-professed attitude change -- the result of her friendship with director Gaylene Preston, who encouraged the actress to make herself a stronger person -- also altered Lynskey's approach to acting, and she subsequently won a role in her first Hollywood film, Andy Tennant's Ever After (1998). Cast as the not-so-evil stepsister of Drew Barrymore's Cinderella-like heroine, Lynskey enjoyed the greater recognition the film's success afforded her and went on to supporting roles the next year in Detroit Rock City, in which she co-starred with Natasha Lyonne and Edward Furlong, and Michael Cacoyannis' adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, which also starred Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, and Katrin Cartlidge. With another successful independent film, Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and a Jerry Bruckheimer chick flick, Coyote Ugly, also under her belt, Lynskey began the new decade on a decidedly promising note. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
A young woman is faced with the disturbing reemergence of a man she once loved in this psychological thriller. Embry Langan (Charlie Hunnam) was a wealthy but reckless student at an exclusive private college until he mysteriously vanished, with airline tickets to Europe left unused and plenty of money still in the bank. Two years later, Katie Burke (Katie Holmes), Embry's girlfriend, is still dealing with his disappearance as she goes into the home stretch of her college career. With exams, a thesis, and job interviews to think about, Katie is already walking an emotional tightrope when Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt), a police detective, enters the picture. Handler, a recovering alcoholic, has been ordered to reopen the Langan case, and as he questions Katie about the missing man, she finds her obsession with her former beau taking over her life, which leaves her all the more unnerved when she begins seeing Embry around the campus. Meanwhile, Handler's investigation begins to suggest Langan's disappearance may have been more sinister than imagined, and could be connected with other cases of missing students. Abandon marked the directorial debut for screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for his script for Traffic. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, (more)
When slacker thirtysomething couple Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) discover that his parents are moving overseas, the duo -- who expect their first child in a few months -- set off on a cross-country tour to figure out where they should lay down some roots in Sam Mendes' poignant comedy Away We Go. They visit a number of different cities, and meet with a different friend or family member's family at each stop. Their hosts include a set of emotionally detached parents (Allison Janney and Jim Gaffigan), a pair of overprotective new-age parents (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton), and old college pals (Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey), who have adopted a number of kids. Novelist Dave Eggers wrote the script with Vendela Vida. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, (more)
In this satire, parents who are worried that their children might not be walking the straight and narrow path discover a rehabilitation camp designed to curb alternative lifestyles. Megan (Natasha Lyonne), a high school student and member of the cheerleading squad, seems like an ordinary enough teenage girl, but her habit of honestly expressing herself and lack of romantic enthusiasm for her boyfriend convince her very repressed parents, Peter (Bud Cort) and Nancy (Mink Stole), that Megan is becoming a lesbian. So Megan is shipped off to True Directions, a camp for gay and gay-leaning teens, where Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty) attempts to deprogram kids with homosexual tendencies. The first step in the process is to get each teen to admit to their homosexuality, which Megan is loath to do, since she doesn't believe she's a lesbian -- or at least she didn't think so before she met her new friend Graham (Clea DuVall), who seems quite sure that she likes girls. Meanwhile, Mary's son Rock (Eddie Cibrian) may be exempt from the camp's activities, but he turns more than a few heads among True Directions' male inmates. Noted female impersonator RuPaul appears as a camp guide, and Julie Delpy has a cameo as a "lipstick lesbian." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natasha Lyonne, Cathy Moriarty, (more)
An aspiring musician becomes one of the most famous bartenders in New York in this high-spirited comedy-drama. Small-town girl Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) dreams of making a name for herself as a singer and songwriter, so she moves to New York City in hopes of landing her big break. Needing to support herself until stardom rolls around, she takes a job as a barmaid at a new nightspot called Coyote Ugly, where the owner Lil (Maria Bello) and the staff of attractive young women dance on the bar, flirt with the mostly male clientele, sing along with the jukebox, and goad the customers into matching them shot for shot. Soon, local media pick up on the bar's success, turning the staff into unexpected celebrities, a situation that presents its own set of problems. Coyote Ugly also stars John Goodman as Violet's straight-laced father, Adam Garcia as a customer Violet becomes involved with, and Tyra Banks, Melanie Lynskey, Bridget Moynahan, and Izabella Miko as the barmaids; action-film titan Jerry Bruckheimer produced. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, (more)
Are you ready for the hottest band in the land? It's 1978 in Detroit, and pretty much any teenager who isn't a total wimp is totally stoked for the upcoming Kiss concert (as anyone who ever listened to Kiss Alive! knows, Detroit has always loved this band). But four proud members of the Kiss Army find themselves without tickets to the show, and one has to deal with a mother who is convinced that Kiss and their music are evil incarnate. Will they be able to foil scalpers, security, and paranoid parents to witness the fire-spitting, blood-puking, hard rock frenzy that is Kiss on stage? Detroit Rock City stars Edward Furlong, Sam Huntington, Natasha Lyonne, Giuseppe Andrews, and James DeBello as the representative members of the Teenage Nation; the original four members of Kiss (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss) play themselves, and Simmons also co-produced. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Furlong, Giuseppe Andrews, (more)
- 2007
An amalgam of Death Race 2000 and Lost with CGI effects thrown in, the quasi-fantasy action series Drive centered around a strange, exclusive, strictly secret and highly illegal cross-country race, wherein the contestants were all but shanghaied into participating for a winning purse of $32,000,000--assuming they lived that long. The first contestant was Alex (Nathan Fillion), who was desperately searching for his missing wife. A mystical race promoter named Mr. Bright (Charles Martin Smith) lured Alex to Florida by implying that he'd never see his wife again unless he agreed to become a driver. Alex was then teamed with wild blonde Kristin (Corinna Wiles), who acted as if she knew what it was all about. In truth, NO one knew what it was all about--not the woman just released from a hospital, nor the two siblings who were driving a "cursed" Cadillac, nor the paroled criminal, nor the Iraq veteran and his girlfriend, nor the scientist and his teenaged daughter. Though everyone knew that the race began in Florida, none of the racers had the slightest idea where it was headed, nor the remotest clue as to the location of the finish line. And how about the fact that none of the vehicles were actually sports cars? Only one thing was certain: Those who lost the race faced the direst of consequences. As was often the cast in enigmatic exercises of this nature, the course of the race and the backstories of the contestants were revealed bit by bit, episode by episode, on a need-to-know basis. Drive first parked itself on the Fox network on April 15, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathan Fillion, Kristin Lehman, (more)
Andy Tennant directed this Cinderella variant. The Brothers Grimm arrive at the home of a wealthy Grande Dame (Jeanne Moreau) who speaks of the many legends surrounding the fable of the cinder girl before telling the "true" story of her ancestor. In flashback, the story then focuses on eight-year-old Danielle, daughter of a wealthy widower, a 16th-century landowner. After returning to France with his new wife Rodmilla (Anjelica Huston) and her two daughters, he dies of a heart attack. Ten years later, Danielle (Drew Barrymore) is now treated as a servant by the trio. Fortunately, she has an encounter with Prince Henry (Dougray Scott), who is fleeing an arranged marriage. Later, when Danielle poses as a Lady, the Prince takes an interest in her. Inventor-artist Leonardo da Vinci (Patrick Godfrey), accepting the French court's patronage, offers advice to Prince Henry on matters of the heart. George Fenton's music adds an accompaniment to the lush look of this period romance. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, (more)
Clint Eastwood's adaptation of the non-fiction book Flags of Our Fathers concerns the lives of the men in the famous picture of soldiers raising the American flag over Iwo Jima during that historic WWII battle. Battle scenes are intercut with footage of three of the soldiers - played by Ryan Phillipe, Jesse Bradford, and Adam Beach -- who survived the battle going on a goodwill tour of the United States in order to sell war bonds. Many evening they are forced to reenact their famous pose, something each of them finds more and more difficult to do as they suffer from survivor's guilt. Eastwood frames the story by having one of the men's grown son (Tom McCarthy) interview his father's old comrades in order to find out more about what happened to his father. Eastwood followed this film with Letters from Iwo Jima, a second film about the battle of Iwo Jima, but told from the Japanese perspective. Flags of Our Fathers was produced by Eastwood and Steven Spielberg. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, (more)
After winning a cult following for several offbeat and darkly witty gore films, New Zealand director Peter Jackson abruptly shifted gears with this stylish, compelling, and ultimately disturbing tale of two teenage girls whose friendship begins to fuel an ultimately fatal obsession. Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) is a student in New Zealand who doesn't much care for her family or her classmates; she's a bit overweight and not especially gracious, but she quickly makes friends with Juliet (Kate Winslet), a pretty girl whose wealthy parents have relocated from England. Pauline and Juliet find they share the same tastes in art, literature, and music (especially the vocal stylings of Mario Lanza), and together they begin to construct an elaborate fantasy world named Borovnia, which exists first in stories and then in models made of clay. The more Pauline and Juliet dream of Borovnia, the more the two find themselves retreating into this fantastical world of art, adventure, and Gothic romance as they slowly drift away from reality. The girls' parents decide that perhaps they're spending too much time together, and try to bring them back into the real world, but this only feeds their continued obsession with Borovnia (and each other) and leads to a desperate and violent bid for freedom. Featuring excellent performances (especially by Kate Winslet) and imaginative production design and special effects, Heavenly Creatures skillfully allows the audience to see Pauline and Juliet both from their own fantastic perspective and how they seem to the rest of the world. Remarkably enough, Heavenly Creatures is based on a true story; in real life, Juliet grew up to become mystery novelist Anne Perry. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, (more)
Set during one afternoon at a Los Angeles, this edgy ensemble sex comedy was the feature debut of director Kurt Voelker. Starring William Baldwin, Ricki Lake, and Cheri Oteri, Park intertwines the lives of several unsuspecting people, including a suicidal woman, a philandering lawyer, his snooping wife, a pair of dog groomers, and a van of aspiring nudists. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Baldwin, Anne Dudek, (more)
Horror specialist Stephen King claimed that his TV miniseries Rose Red was inspired by a number of sources, ranging from Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (twice filmed as The Haunting) to Ripley's Believe It or Not to Moby Dick. Residents of San Jose, CA, however, quickly realized that King's story owed a great deal to their own city's legendary "haunted" mansion, Winchester House. Rose Red was set in motion when psych professor Joyce Reardon (Nancy Travis), defying her tongue-clucking boss Professor Miller (David Dukes, who died during production), set about to investigate reports of paranormal phenomena in Rose Red, a crumbling and foreboding Seattle mansion. According to legend -- and a great deal of physical evidence -- Rose Red was a "living" entity in its own right, adding extras wings to its structure and rearranging its furniture whenever it felt like it. There has also been a number of mysterious deaths at the mansion, which Joyce believed were the handiwork of a ghost: Ellen Rimbauer, the insane wife of Rose Red's architect. Inviting a quintet of psychics (social misfits all, of course) to spend a weekend at the mansion, Joyce was determined to solve the mystery of Rose Red -- and, she hoped, to conjure up Ellen's hostile spirit. Thereafter, the miniseries adhered to the proven formula, with characters foolishly wandering off alone to meet their individual demises, and with such time-tested lines as "Superstitious nonsense!," "Honey -- are you in there?" and "Oh, no! AIYEEEE!" wafting through the mansion's drafty corridor. The outcome of the story -- and the fate of the survivors -- seemed to rest in the hands of Annie Wheaton (Kimberly J. Brown), an autistic teenager with astonishing telepathic skills. Premiering January 27, 2002, the three-part Rose Red posted ABC's best ratings in months, despite an almost universal drubbing by the critics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Travis, Matt Keeslar, (more)
A gay artist and telemarketer with a special knack for getting along well with children discovers just how closed-minded the suburbs can be when he attempts to find happiness after losing his godson in writer/director Peter Paige's affectionate, not-so-black comedy. Paul Johnson (Paige) is a Portland-based artist and telemarketer who loves nothing more in life than the time spent with his two-year-old godson, Morgan. Upon learning that his best friends the Fabers are moving to Japan and taking their son Morgan with them, Paul wallows in a state of deep denial that ultimately results in him missing the Fabers' departing flight. Encouraged by his good friend Russell (Anthony Clark) to get out of his house and spend more time with others, Paul soon ventures out to a local playground, where he finds comfort and joy in the youthful exuberance that surrounds him. When it comes to the concept of a grown homosexual spending time with young children, not everyone in the suburbs can be so accepting, though, and as Paul attempts to find ways of keeping himself surrounded by his pint-sized pals, nosy neighbor and disapproving mother Maggie Butler (Kathy Najimy) rallies a ready army of angry soccer moms to take action and keep Paul away from the local children. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Paige, Kathy Najimy, (more)
Lock your doors, draw the curtains, and avoid the windows for this terrifying tale of a madman who stalks his prey from the rooftops of their comfortable suburban homesteads. If you thought murder was relegated to the inner-city, you'll be holding your breath and listening for footsteps on the rooftop as three women become trapped in an inescapable nightmare from which they may never awaken. Armed with a crossbow and a taste for blood, this maniac is like no other that has come before, and if there is any hope of making it out alive, the girls must turn the tables on the killer and prepare for the fight of their lives. Starring Melanie Lynskey, Sheeri Rappaport, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Before Jayson Blair made headlines for his plagiarized New York Times reporting, Stephen Glass defamed the weekly current events magazine The New Republic with a series of eye-catching, entertaining, and completely fabricated stories. Now Glass' trail of lies gets the big-screen treatment in writer/director Billy Ray's Shattered Glass, featuring Hayden Christensen in the title role. The film chronicles Glass' time at the magazine in the late '90s, when his colorful coverage of a hedonistic Young Republican convention, superstar web hackers, and the circus surrounding the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal made him the toast of the publishing world, garnering attention from such national publications as George and Rolling Stone. Barely out of college, the eager Glass ingratiates himself with the office staff, including his mentor, managing editor Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria). But when Kelly is unceremoniously fired and replaced with editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), Glass' pieces come under a greater degree of scrutiny, until one in particular threatens to expose his tall tales to the rest of the world. Based in part on a Vanity Fair article by journalist Buzz Bissinger, Shattered Glass premiered at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals before its limited fall theatrical release. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, (more)
- 2008
A handful of strangers turn into rivals when they line up for an unusual competition in this comedy-drama from Australia. An auto dealership eager to drum up some publicity stages a contest in which some lucky person will drive away with a brand new SUV. All you have to do to win is be the person who keeps their hand on the car the longest, which turns out to be a greater endurance test than most folks expect -- in one such contest, the winner had to stand with their hand on the vehicle for a bit more than five days. One of the people who lines up for the contest is Tom (Craig Hall), a charming but arrogant salesman who is hooked on contests and will do almost anything to win. One of the other competitors is Jess (Melanie Linskey), a single mother and meter maid who wants a new car for her handicapped son. Tom pegs Jess as a lightweight who doesn't stand a chance against him, but it's the chance to prove him wrong (and the fact she needs the SUV a lot more than Tom) that keeps her in the contest far longer than anyone expects. Writer and director Anthony McCarten adapted Show Of Hands from his own novel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melanie Lynskey, Craig Hall, (more)
A pair of sheltered Christchurch suburbanites longing for adventure get more than they bargained for after picking up an American hitchhiker in this New Zealand thriller starring Heavenly Creatures' Melanie Lynskey. Alice and her best friend, Craig, live for carefree days spent roaming the rural roads and picking up hitchhikers, but when they pick up Texan wanderer Seth, it doesn't take the pair long to realize that adventure has finally come knocking. With a gang of skinheads, a truck full of hippies, and an angry Maori on a motorcycle in hot pursuit, this is one road trip that Alice and Craig may never return from. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boyd Kestner, Dean O'Gorman, (more)
After establishing herself as a bankable star with the fish out of water comedy Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon returns in what could be described as a "fish back in water" comedy. Melanie Carmichael (Witherspoon) is a successful New York fashion designer who is dating Andrew Hennings (Patrick Dempsey), a wealthy socialite whose mother, Katherine Hennings (Candice Bergen), is the Big Apple's mayor. One day, Andrew pops the big question and asks Melanie to marry him; Melanie is overjoyed, but unknown to Andrew, Melanie has some unfinished business to take care of first. Despite her polished uptown image, Melanie grew up poor in the deep South, and as a teenager she married her high school sweetheart Jake Perry (Josh Lucas). Things went sour and Melanie moved East, reinventing herself along the way, but Jake never bothered to legally end their marriage. Now Melanie has to return to her hometown of Pigeon Creek, AL, to tell her parents (Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place) the news and convince Jake to grant her a divorce; however, the more time she spends with her old flame, the more she feels sparks flying between them again, while she also learns her Eastern affectations don't fly with everyone back home. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, (more)
Renowned Greek filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis wrote and directed this adaptation of the classic final drama by playwright Anton Chekhov, set in 1900. Lyubov Ranevskaya (Charlotte Rampling) left Russia to escape troubling memories of the death of her son. Now her family is riddled with debt and Lyubov and her teenaged daughter Anya (Tushka Bergen) have come home to the family estate, looking for a way to pay their bills. Much to their dismay, the Ranevskayas are forced to sell their land to Lopakhin (Owen Teale), a crude businessman who intends to build a housing development in what was once the family's cherry orchard. The international cast also includes Alan Bates as Lyubov's brother Gaev, Katrin Cartlidge as Lyubov's ward Varya, and Michael Gough and Frances de la Tour as the family's servants. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, (more)
Charlatan Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts (including a dearly departed Wild West outlaw and an undead judge played by John Astin) into staging hauntings and poltergeists in the homes of likely marks. Bannister's world turns on its head when he starts noticing real hauntings around town -- ghostly assassinations that seem to be tied to the execution 20 years earlier of a brutal serial killer. Lucy Lunskey (Trini Alvarado), the wife of one unlucky victim, teams up with Bannister to get to the bottom of the killings and find out what shut-in Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace Stone) and her witchy mother (Julia McCarthy) have to do with the sinister spree. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, (more)
- 2009
- R
- Add The Informant! to Queue
A rising star in the agricultural industry suddenly turns whistleblower in hopes of gaining a lucrative promotion and becoming a hero of the common people, inadvertently revealing his penchant for helping himself to the corporate coffers and ultimately threatening to derail the very investigation he helped to launch in this offbeat comedy from Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) was fast rising through the ranks at agri-industry powerhouse Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) when he became savvy to the company's multinational price-fixing conspiracy, and decided to turn evidence for the FBI. Convinced that he'll be hailed as a hero of the people for his efforts, Whitacre agrees to wear a wire in order to gather the evidence needed to convict the greedy money-grabbers at ADM. Unfortunately, both the case -- and Whitacre's integrity -- are compromised when FBI agents become frustrated by their informant's ever-shifting account, and discover that he isn't exactly the saintly figure he made himself out to be. Unable to discern reality from Whitacre's fantasy as they struggle to build their case against ADM, the FBI watches in horror as the highest-ranking corporate bust in U.S. history threatens to implode before their very eyes. Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, and Melanie Lynskey co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, (more)
Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones essayed the title roles in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. The swinging-bachelor lifestyle of commercial-jingle composer -- and chronic gambler -- Charlie Harper (Sheen) was sorely disrupted when his Malibu beach house was invaded by his uptight brother, Alan (Cryer), and Alan's ten-year-old son, Jake (Jones). Given the childish hedonism of Charlie and the domestic immaturity of the soon-to-be-divorced Alan, young Jake turned out to be the true "grown-up" in the Harper household. Also seen from time to time were Marin Hinkle as Alan's ex-wife Judith (who may or may not have been gay); Melanie Lynskey as Charlie's erstwhile lover and next-door neighbor Rose; and Holland Taylor (replacing the pilot episode's Blythe Danner) as Charlie and Alan's control-freak mother, Evelyn. Created by Lee Aronsohn and Chuck Lorre, Two and a Half Men opened to excellent ratings on September 22, 2003. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, (more)
Long time bachelor Charlie (Charlie Sheen) and his divorced, uptight brother Alan (Jon Cryer) give a whole new meaning to the word dysfunctional as they attempt to meet women, deal with freak accidents, and share parenting responsibilities for Alan's pre-pubescent indolent son Jake (Angus T. Jones.) Boys will be boys as Alan struggles to guide Jake through life with valuable lessons of morality. Meanwhile, Alan's ex-wife Judith (Marin Hinkle) takes advantage of every opportunity to destroy any self-respect that Alan may have left, and Charlie is forced to deal with the come-ons from his crazy neighbor Rose (Melanie Lynskey). After a year of living together, the guys have figured out how Two and a Half Men equal one family. Sort of. But there are plenty of hilariously rough spots along the way, and you'll share them all in this four-disc collection that includes all 24 episodes of the second season, which aired from 2004-05 on CBS.
- Starring:
- Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, (more)
The boys (two-and-a-half-men's worth) are back for a snappy, smart, third season of this CBS comedy hit. The warm heart of the series remains the makeshift family that calls the Malibu beach house home -- carefree bachelor Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen), his fussy chiropractor brother Alan (Jon Cryer), and Alan's precocious young son Jake (Angus T. Jones). In the 24 episodes of Season 3 (that aired from 2005-06), Charlie romances a beautiful ballet dancer, Alan dates a 22-year-old cutie and his domineering ex-wife...and finally, wedding bells ring, but who's the happy couple?
- Starring:
- Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, (more)
The fourth, Emmy-winning season of the CBS hit Two and Half Men starts with a shock -- Alan Harper (Jon Cryer) is getting divorced, again -- and ends with a rock: That is, the diamond Evelyn Harper's new boyfriend wants to put on her finger, ensuring mixed emotions for Alan and his brother, Charlie (Charlie Sheen). In between, Charlie's hip Malibu beach pad is the place for laughs, gorgeous girls, single parenthood, celebrity neighbors, family, and more laughs. Charlie has a close encounter with his long-deceased dad. Alan, after a few resume embellishments, tries online dating. Jake (Angus T. Jones) swaps his Harry Potter posters for the joys of hottie wall art. Join the fun. Share the good life with everyone's favorite manly men. All 24 episodes of Season 4 (2006-7) are included here, along with commentaries, a featurette, and a gag reel.
- Starring:
- Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, (more)
