Jessica Biel Movies
Jessica Biel rose to fame as the wholesome preacher's daughter on the WB television show 7th Heaven, then gained greater notoriety for trying to get herself kicked off the show via a risqué photo spread in the men's magazine Gear. Making such statements as, "Mary Camden is dead," the 17-year-old Biel indeed got out of her contract to pursue a movie career; when that floundered, she - amusingly - found herself reconsidering her haste and returned for guest spots on the program.Biel was born on March 3, 1982, in Ely, MN, then raised in Boulder, CO. She was first discovered at the 1994 IMTA Los Angeles Convention, which earned her a scholarship to Diane Hardin's Young Actors Space in Los Angeles. Teen print modeling followed, and in 1996, Biel began her run as Mary Camden on the Aaron Spelling-produced 7th Heaven. Shortly thereafter, she was cast as Peter Fonda's granddaughter in Victor Nunez's rich character study, Ulee's Gold (1997), and as Jonathan Taylor Thomas' love interest in I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998).
But Biel grew tired of playing a good girl on television and tried to force the producers to fire her from 7th Heaven, claiming her pristine image was a factor that kept her from landing the role that went to Thora Birch in American Beauty (1999). When the producers would not release her from her contract, she posed on the cover of the March 2000 Gear under the headline "Fallen Angel." The images inside featured her sprawled topless on a bed and against a bathroom mirror, her hands providing insufficient cover in a manner that pushed even Gear's lax standards for showing skin. The issue become one of Gear's most popular ever, with terrific resale value on Ebay, and got Biel canned from the show.
However, the controversy and exposure did not immediately improve her film career. Biel's first post-Gear role was as a bikini-wearing babe in the Freddie Prinze Jr. baseball movie Summer Catch (2001), but the film barely made a flicker at the box office after being bumped from its initial release date. Biel has since been making guest appearances in her initial Mary Camden role and has been cast in director Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction (2002). An ill-advised shortcut down the backroads of Texas found Biel and friends pursued by one of the silver screen's most notorious maniacs in the 2003 remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with supporting roles in David R. Ellis's intense pot-boiler Cellular and the vampire-slaying Wesley Snipes action fantasy Blade: Trinity serving well to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. While a blast into the clouds with Stealth provided innoffensive thrills for more forgiving movie-goers, few would stand up to defend Almost Famous director Cameron Crowe's saccharine Elizabethtown as even throwaway fun. In 2006, Biel traveled back in time to become the source of a decidedly supernatural mystery as the ill-fated love of a turn-of-the-centry Vienna magician portrayed by Edward Norton in director Neil Burger's The Illusionist.
Biel began 2007 at a low ebb, as the romantic lead in the apocalyptic sci-fi thriller NEXT. As directed by journeyman Hollywood action stalwart Lee Tamahori (XXX: State of the Union), and adapted (loosely) from the Philip K. Dick story "The Golden Man," the picture stars Nicolas Cage as Cris, an issue-ridden psychic who foresees the nuclear destruction of Los Angeles. Biel plays the seer's tender-hearted lover, who spends her free time every week at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, teaching the children of the Havasupai Indian reservation. The film bombed unequivocally at the box office, reeling in only around $14 million worldwide in its first week.
The actress next switched genres, unveiling her comic flair to audiences in the hotly-anticipated buddy comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007). The Universal farce (released in the States in July 2007) stars Adam Sandler and Hitch's Kevin James as, respectively, Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine, the bachelors of the title - two straight macho firefighters who pose as gay marrieds to qualify for domestic partner benefits. No points for guessing that Biel plays the film's romantic lead; she's the attorney who represents the two men against the insurance company, with whom Sandler falls in love.
~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
Having reached the crucial age of 21, Matt Camden (Barry Watson) has decided to become a gynecologist, as 7th Heaven enters its sixth season on the WB. Still trying to overcome her multitude of personal problems, Matt's sister Mary (Jessica Biel) has moved to Buffalo, where she hopes to wed her erstwhile boyfriend Wilson West (Andrew Keegan); she also intends to become a professional firefighter. Ultimately, however, the still-unmarried Mary returns to Glen Oak, there to attend college with younger sister Lucy (Beverley Mitchell) -- only to rush off to Buffalo again, this time to pursue a career as a flight attendant...not to mention a romance with firefighter trainee Ben Kenkirk (Geoff Stults). In typical 7th Heaven "connect the dots" fashion, Ben happens to be the brother of policeman Kevin Kenkirk (George Stults), who is presently dating Lucy! And back at home with the Camden kids' parents, Eric (Stephen Collins) and Annie (Catherine Hicks), Mary's mercurial former beau Robbie (Adam LaVorgna) has moved into an apartment over the family's garage. Season six comes to an eventful finale as Matt, newly accepted by Columbia University Medical School, prepares to wed his classmate Sarah Glass (Sarah Danielle Madison), a Jewish girl -- a relationship that Matt's minister father, Eric, and Sarah's rabbi father, Richard (Richard Lewis), are compelled to come to terms with after an initial period of discomfort and resistance. ~ Rovi
Although 20-year-old Matt Camden (Barry Watson) had seemed to be on the verge of marriage to his deaf girlfriend, Heather (Andrea Ferrell), at the end of 7th Heaven's fourth season, season five finds the couple calling it quits. Compounding this setback, Matt is forced to move back with his parents (Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks) when his roomie, John Hamilton (Chaz Lamar Shepherd), takes up housekeeping with his sweetheart (and later wife) Priscilla Carter (Andrea Pearson). Matt's sister Mary (Jessica Biel) continues having trouble adjusting to the pressures of impending adulthood: in short order, Mary drops out of school, quits her job, runs out of money and develops such nasty habits as drinking and petty theft. Like Matt, Mary eventually returns to her parent's home, but the reunion is an uncomfortable one thanks to the omnipresence of her ex-boyfriend Robbie (Adam LaVorgna) -- not to mention her erstwhile beau Wilson (Andrew Keegan). Meanwhile, Matt and Mary's sister, Lucy (Beverley Mitchell), now 16, has become so serious about one of her boyfriends that she ends up proposing to him! Season five ends with a serious rift between Mary and Lucy over the affections of the younger girl's fiancé, Jeremy (David Lago). ~ Rovi
Season four of 7th Heaven finds 19-year-old Matt (Barry Watson) moving out of the Camden home and into an apartment shared with another minister's son: John Hamilton (Chaz Lamar Shepherd), Matt's lifelong friend, and presently his co-worker at a local hospital. As for Matt's girlfriend, Shauna (Maureen O'Sullivan), she has moved to New York City in the wake of Matt's "infidelity" with Heather (Andrea Ferrell). Meanwhile, Matt's basketball-happy sister, Mary (Jessica Biel), gets into big-time trouble, culminating with the loss of her athletic scholarship and court-ordered counseling; she also enters into a star-crossed romance with another troubled teen named Robbie Palmer (Adam LaVorgna). All the while, younger brother Simon (David Gallagher) has been embroiled in a romance with Deena Stewart (Nicole Cherie Saletta), who has some unpleasant news for the boy by the end of the season. And no, the scriptwriters have not forgotten the older members of the Camden family during the series' fourth season. Father Eric (Stephen Collins) suffers a mild heart attack; mother Annie becomes a political activist, taking up the cause of the mistreated women of Afghanistan (we are, of course, still three years away from the toppling of the Taliban); Eric, Annie, and the congregation of Glen Oaks Community Church receive a disturbing reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust; and Annie's father, Charles (Graham Jarvis), begins exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's disease. ~ Rovi
Teen heartthrob and Home Improvement star Jonathon Taylor-Thomas stars in this Disney Christmas film that is a teenaged variation on the Planes Trains and Automobiles theme. Jake has missed Christmas in New York with his family these past few years, so as an incentive, his father promises him a 1957 red Porsche if he makes it home by Christmas Eve. No sweat, until an unexpected twist blows up in poor Jake's face. It seems that the "cheat sheet" he supplied the college football team was incorrect, and the whole team is out to get him. For revenge, they leave him in the middle of the California desert in a Santa Claus suit (his hat and white beard are glued to his face) with no wallet, no cash, and no identification. To make matters worse, Eddie, one of the football players and Jake's arch-nemesis, is now hitting on Jake's girlfriend Allie. What's poor old Jake to do? Well, if you guessed hitchhike, freeload, con, fly, crawl, race and bully an array of colorful characters, you guessed correctly. ~ Chris Gore, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jessica Biel, (more)
Season two of 7th Heaven ended with Annie Camden (Catherine Hicks) informing one and all that she was pregnant. Season three begins as Annie learns she is to give birth to twins -- who in typical TV-series fashion ultimately arrive amidst much chaos and confusion, just in time for Valentine's Day. (At first, twins Sam and David Camden were played by real-life quadruplets Nikolas, Lorenzo, Zachary, and Myrinda Brino; after two seasons, only Nikolas and Lorenzo would continue on with the roles.) In other developments, Annie's widowed father, Charles Jackson (Graham Jarvis), weds his longtime girlfriend, Ginger (Beverly Garland); 18-year-old Matt Camden (Barry Watson) is kept busy with Shauna (Maureen O'Sullivan), an old flame who has come back into his life; and 14-year-old Lucy Camden (Beverley Mitchell) has accumulated two new beaux, Rod (Toran Caudell) and Jordan (Wade Carpenter). The season's two-part finale finds Matt getting depressed over the wedding of his onetime sweetheart Heather (Andrea Ferrell); younger Camden son Simon (David Gallagher) undergoing his first love pangs, with Deena Stewart (Nicole Cherie Saletta) as the object of his very ardent affections; and there is news of yet another pregnancy in the family. ~ Rovi
Peter Fonda received a richly deserved Oscar nomination for his superb performance as Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson, a Florida beekeeper forced to put his splintered family back together. Ulee is a Vietnam veteran whose wife died several years ago, a blow he's still learning to live with. His son Jimmy (Tom Wood) is in prison, and his daughter-in-law Helen (Christine Dunford) ran away, leaving Ulee to raise their two daughters by himself. Ulee is a quiet man who has a hard time displaying warmth and does not always deal well with the rebellious children put in his care. But he possesses an intense inner strength and a firm sense of loyalty and responsibility. One day Ulee gets a call from Jimmy; he's received word that Helen has fallen in with a pair of drug dealers and is in sad shape. While he doesn't much care for the idea, Ulee heads out to rescue her, only to discover the men who have her were Jimmy's partners in the robbery that put him behind bars; they threaten Ulee by saying if they're not given the $100,000 Jimmy has stashed away, they'll come after his daughters. Meanwhile, Ulee is forced to deal with Helen's painful withdrawal from drugs; he gets some help from Connie (Patricia Richardson), a divorced nurse who has recently moved into the neighborhood and seems to understand Ulee's lonely stoicism. Written and directed with subtle intelligence by Victor Nuñez, Ulee's Gold is a moving story about the trials and responsibilities of family ties, with Peter Fonda leading a fine cast that delivers uniformly impressive work. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, (more)
With most of the problems that faced them in season one behind them, the Camden family welcomes season two of 7th Heaven with a joyous occasion, as Rev. Eric Camden (Stephen Collins) and his wife, Annie (Catherine Hicks), renew their marital vows on their 19th anniversary. Elsewhere, oldest son Matt (Barry Watson) opts to attend nearby Crawford University rather than the more prestigious University of Tennessee; Mary (Jessica Biel) slowly recovers from her accident and draws closer to her platonic boyfriend, Wilson West (Andrew Keegan); Lucy (Beverley Mitchell) has reached the age where she actually can choose amongst her beaux; the Camdens briefly take in a French exchange student (Steven Roy) as a boarder, only to regret it when the visitor introduces the kids to the "pleasures" of smoking; and the original owners of the Camdens' dog, Happy, demand that their pet be returned immediately. Season two ends with the remarkable revelation that the number of children in the Camden household will soon be increased by six...or maybe more. ~ Rovi
The foundation upon which the WB's 7th Heaven is built consists of Eric Camden (Stephen Collins), pastor of Glen Oak Community Church, and Eric's loving and supportive wife, Annie (Catherine Hicks). That said, an entertainingly inordinate amount of time is spent on the Camdens' five children (ranging in age from 5 to 16) during the series' first season. Oldest son Matt (Barry Watson) has, like most of his fellow high schoolers, developed a healthy interest in girls and a mile-wide streak of independence; oldest daughter Mary (Jessica Biel) is a loose-limbed "jock"; second daughter Lucy (Beverley Mitchell) is the inquisitive intellectual of the bunch; second son Simon (David Gallagher) has the happy, carefree spirit common to most ten-year-olds; and youngest girl, Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman), is sweet but precocious. Over the course of season one's 22 episodes, Matt develops a relationship with a deaf girl named Heather (Andrea Ferrell); Mary cultivates a friendship with Wilson West (Andrew Keegan), a nerdy teen who has had the misfortune of fathering a children out of wedlock; and Lucy suffers the first pangs of puppy love as she moons over classmate Jimmy Moon (Matthew Linville). Among the more serious and consequential complications facing the Camden brood are the impending death of Annie's mother, Eric's counseling of a youthful drug addict, a hidden drinking problem in the family, the decision by Eric's elderly parents to adopt a ten-year-old boy, and, at the tail end of season one, a traffic accident that endangers the life of Mary Camden. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks, (more)
- 1996
One of the most atypical weekly series to emerge from the Aaron Spelling TV factory, 7th Heaven, created by Spelling and Brenda Hampton, has eschewed the sex-and-sin shenanigans of such series as Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place in favor of honest, three-dimensional family values, with generous doses of warmth, heart, humor, and pathos. There can be no doubt that this fundamentally wholesome program has struck a universal chord. The series has not only been lavishly praised by critics, honored by such organizations as the Parents Television Council, the Academy of Religious Broadcasting, and the Anti-Defamation League, and given innumerable industry awards, but it is also one of the most successful offerings of the WB network; indeed, it was the first WB series to run more than seven seasons, and during four of those seasons, it was the network's highest-rated show. Set in the suburban L.A. community of Glen Oak, the series revolves around the Camden family, headed by Eric Camden (Stephen Collins), pastor of the town's Community Church, and Eric's homemaker wife, Annie (Catherine Hicks). In the tradition of The Waltons, loyal 7th Heaven viewers have enjoyed the rare privilege of watching the Camden children grow up before their very eyes. When the series debuted on August 26, 1996, handsome and personable Matt Camden (Barry Watson) was 17 years old; basketball-playing Mary Camden (Jessica Biel) was 13 going on 14; intellectual, inquisitive Lucy Camden (Beverley Mitchell) was 12; happy-go-lucky Simon Camden (David Gallagher) was ten; and precocious Ruthie Camden (Mackenzie Rosman) was five. By the time the series entered its eighth season, the three oldest Camden kids were married and pursuing careers, while the two youngest were seasoned veterans of the school dating scene. (Two more Camden youngsters, twin boys Sam and David, were born halfway through the 1998-1999 season). All of the Camdens, parents included, have had more than their share of setbacks and tragedies (some of them absolutely devastating) as the series has rolled forward, but somehow all of the members of the clan, from patriarch Eric on down, have been able to recover, rally, and persevere with the help and support of their family and friends -- not to mention their inner faith. And unlike so many other TV series which traffic in personal interrelationships, the characters in 7th Heaven are very much a part of the "real" world. During its lengthy WB run, the series has exposed its principals to a wide variety of contemporary issues: teen suicide, racial prejudice, substance abuse, drunken driving, homelessness, negative peer pressure, teen pregnancy, Alzheimer's disease, the Holocaust, the war in Iraq, and the crisis in the Sudan. Eminently suitable for viewers of all ages, but never a mere sop to the "kiddie" trade nor a placebo for the clean-up-TV brigades, 7th Heaven has been and will likely always remain the jewel in the WB crown. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks, (more)
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