Rhys Ifans Movies
Welsh actor
Rhys Ifans has not only one of the most distinctive names in the film industry but also one of its most idiosyncratic appearances. Tall, lanky, and snaggletoothed, Ifans can go from raving freak to persuasive romantic interest in less time than it takes to pronounce his name correctly.
Ifans got his start acting in a number of Welsh language dramas and comedies, and he made his feature film debut in
Anthony Hopkins'
August (1996). The following year, he was part of one of the most successful films in Great Britain in 1997 when he starred in
Twin Town. As one half of a set of twins (the other was played by his real-life brother, Llyr Evans), he played what was undoubtedly one of the most riveting and revolting characters to come into contact with film audiences in years. The film's success opened the way for more work, and the following year he did a complete about-face, appearing as the charmingly errant father of
Catherine McCormack's young son in
Dancing at Lughnasa.
The following year, Ifans rejected grooming and general communication skills to play the role that was to give him international recognition, starring as
Hugh Grant's hygienically challenged roommate in the romantic comedy
Notting Hill. Many a critic agreed that Ifans virtually stole the show from his better-known co-stars, and that same year he had a chance to prove himself further in such diverse features as
Heart, a black comedy in which he played a writer; and
Rancid Aluminum, in which he starred as a man forced into business with the Russian mafia after his father's death. Following an unlikely appearance as a football player in The Replacements (2000) and a turn as the son of Old Scratch in Little Nicky (2000), Ifans role as a socially challenged forest dweller turned opera loving socialite in the eccentric Human Nature provided audiences with abundant laughs and a further glimpse into the quirkiness of a truly unique actor.
Of course the ever eccentric Ifans was only warming up, and after supporting roles in such efforts as The 51st State, The Shipping News and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands fans once again took the lead in the 2003 comedy Donnie Deckchair. Cast as a man who'se desperate attempt to escape the monotony of suburban life includes a bundle of large helium balloons and a lightweight deck chair, Ifans charmed Australian audiences in the family friendly effort.
Outside of his film work, Ifans briefly served as lead singer of the band Super Furry Animals before they struck the big time in the late 1990s.
In 2006 he voiced McBunny in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, but had major roles the next year in two very different projects - Hannibal Rising and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He appeared in 2009's Pirate Radio, reteaming with Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis. He had a strong supporting turn in Greenberg in 2010, and was center stage in Roland Emmerich's Shakespearean drama Annonymous in 2011. The next year he was part of the cast of the Spider-Man reboot, and was the romantic rival to Jason Segel in the comedy The Five-Year Engagement. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

- 2000
- PG13
- Add Little Nicky to Queue
Add Little Nicky to top of Queue
The youngest child of the family often has the most problems -- so why should things be different for the Prince of Darkness and his offspring? Satan (Harvey Keitel) is considering retirement, and is pondering which of his sons should take over the family business -- ambitious Adrian (Rhys Ifans), strapping Cassius (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), or Nicky (Adam Sandler), an accident-prone demon who prefers to stay in his room playing his favorite heavy metal tunes. When Satan decides to stay on for another 10,000 years, Adrian is outraged, and leaves Hell to go to New York, where he and Cassius attempt to round up enough souls to vote Satan out of power. Satan, understandably upset, sends Nicky to bring Adrian and Cassius back home, but Nicky finds life on Earth is more complicated than he expected. Things don't get any easier when he develops a crush on Valerie (Patricia Arquette), a good-hearted mortal woman. Little Nicky also features Michael McKean as a city official trying to put Nicky behind bars, Kevin Nealon as Hell's gatekeeper, Rodney Dangerfield as Satan's father, Robert Smigel as the voice of Beefy -- a talking dog who is Nicky's guide on earth, Allen Covert as Todd -- Nicky's new roommate, and Peter Dante and Jonathan Loughran as a pair of metalheads who dig Satan. Jon Lovitz and Reese Witherspoon play cameo roles, and Regis Philbin and Ozzy Osbourne appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Adam Sandler, Patricia Arquette, (more)

- 2000
- PG13
- Add The Replacements to Queue
Add The Replacements to top of Queue
The 1987 National Football League players' strike inspired this sports-themed comedy. The Washington Sentinels are one of the strongest teams in pro football -- until contract negotiations break down and the Sentinels go on strike. Determined to play the team's schedule, owner Edward O'Neil (Jack Warden) recruits a ragtag band of scab players, to be headed up and whipped into shape by the retired veteran coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman). At the top of the recruitment list is quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a promising athlete until a catastrophic defeat in the Sugar Bowl dashed his confidence. Joining Falco on the team are Clifford Franklin (Orlando Jones), a receiver who can't catch the ball; Nigel Gruff (Rhys Ifans), a chain-smoking Welsh soccer player; Bateman (Jon Favreau), a former cop with anger management problems; Fumiko (Ace Yonamine), a sumo wrestler new to football; and Wilkinson (Michael Jace), a convict on parole to the Sentinels. Can McGinty mold his new squad of misfits and no-hopers (who truly love the game) into a winning team? Brooke Langton plays Annabelle, head of the Sentinels' cheerleading squad (who has to contend with replacements of her own), and football commentators John Madden and Pat Summerall appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, (more)

- 2000
-
Beavis and Butthead, prepare to meet your English counterparts! Kevin (Harry Enfield) and Perry (Kathy Burke) are two 15-year-old boys whose desperation to lose their virginity is so great that it inspires a sort of awe. In the rare moments when they're not thinking about girls, Kevin dreams of being a singer, and Perry has ambitions toward becoming a dance music DJ. When Kevin and Perry manage to stop a bank robbery (please don't ask how), they're given a sizable cash reward, and they decide to go on a holiday in Ibiza, which is supposedly populated with thousands of beautiful women willing to sleep with anyone. However, after the boys pack plenty of sunscreen and condoms, Kevin's parents (James Fleet and Louisa Rix) announce that they're tagging along. Undeterred, Kevin and Perry make the trip and meet superstar DJ Eyeball Paul (Rhys Ifans), who may or may not listen to their demo tape. The boys also encounter Gemma (Tabitha Wady) and Candice (Laura Fraser), two scruffy teenage girls who are nearly as eager as Kevin and Perry to get horizontal. Kevin & Perry Go Large was based on characters that Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke created on Enfield's comedy series on British television. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Kathy Burke, Rhys Ifans, (more)

- 2000
- R
- Add Love, Honour and Obey to Queue
Add Love, Honour and Obey to top of Queue
Following up on the critical drubbing of the Final Cut, the same cast and crew, TV comedians Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis, along with Britpack hipsters Jonny Lee Miller, Jude Law, Rhys Ifans, and Sadie Frost, come together to make this crime comedy about guns, karaoke, and fart jokes. The film opens with bored postman Jonny (Lee Miller) in clown-face reminiscing about his mate Jude (Law), who introduced him to his crime lord uncle Ray Kreed (Ray Winstone). Though Jonny is hungry for some action, Ray is more interested in karaoke and his impeding nuptials with soap star Sadie (Frost). Bored, Jonny, along with Jude, bungle a credit card scam and then later really screw up by robbing high-grade blow from a South London gang headed by Sean (Sean Pertwee) and his sidekick Matthew (Ifans). Soon a gang war ensues. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Sadie Frost, Ray Winstone, (more)

- 2000
- R
- Add Rancid Aluminum to Queue
Add Rancid Aluminum to top of Queue
Joseph Fiennes and Rhys Ifans star in this wacky British comedy-thriller. Hard luck case Pete (Ifans), who is unable to impregnate his hot-to-trot wife Sarah (Sadie Frost), learns that his father's business, which he recently inherited, is saddled with a huge tax debt. At his wits' end, he consults his coke-snorting buddy Sean (Fiennes), who recommends a monetary infusion from local Russian loan shark Mr. Kant (Steven Berkoff) and his over-sexed daughter Masha (Tara Fitzgerald). When Pete and the mobster meet, Masha starts aggressively seducing him. Meanwhile, Sean double-crosses everyone while Sarah just whines. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, (more)

- 1999
- PG13
- Add Notting Hill to Queue
Add Notting Hill to top of Queue
Can a beautiful and internationally famous American actress find happiness with a frumpy British bookstore clerk? She can -- at least for a while, it seems -- in Notting Hill. William Thacker (played by Hugh Grant) is a bookseller at a shop in the Notting Hill district in West London, who shares a house with an eccentric Welsh friend, Spike (Rhys Ifans). One day, William is minding the store when in strolls Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), a lovely and well-known actress from the United States who is in London working on a film. She buys a book from William, and she is polite and charming in the way a famous actress would be with a star-struck sales clerk. Their relationship would logically end there, if William didn't run out a few minutes later to buy some juice. While dashing back to the shop, he bumps into Anna on the street, spilling juice all over her blouse. Since he lives nearby, William politely offers to let her stop by his house to clean up; since William seems harmless enough, Anna agrees. When Anna has to stop back to pick up a bag she left at William's house, they kiss -- just in time for Spike to show up. A romance slowly blooms as his friends and family (not to mention the world at large) wonder out loud what he's doing dating a movie star. Notting Hill reunites Hugh Grant with producer Duncan Kenworthy and screenwriter Richard Curtis, who previously worked together on the international hit Four Weddings And A Funeral. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, (more)

- 1999
- R
A mother's love turns deadly in the wake of an organ transplant in the thriller Heart. Gary Ellis (Christopher Eccleston) is a businessman, while his wife Tess (Kate Hardie) works in television. Gary and Tess don't get along very well, largely because he's convinced she's having an affair. One day, Gary has a major heart attack, and is soon confined to a wheelchair while doctors wait for a suitable donor for a heart transplant. Tess takes this opportunity to finally start having that affair Gary's been talking about, with a writer named Alex (Rhys Ifans). One day, Gary is rushed to the hospital after Sean (Matthew Rhys), a teenage aspiring boxer, is brought to the emergency room near death. Sean dies, and his heart is transplanted to Gary. After recovery, Gary is a new man, and Tess is so delighted she gives Alex his walking papers. But then Sean's mother Maria (Saskia Reeves) enters the picture; while at first Gary wanted to know what sort of person's heart was beating in his chest, now Maria is trying to work her way into the Ellis's lives, certain her son's hopes and dreams now live on in Gary's chest. Shot in 1997, Heart didn't receive a release in Europe until 1999, though it did play several film festivals the previous year. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Christopher Eccleston, Saskia Reeves, (more)

- 1999
-
Already a holiday favorite in Britain, Robbie the Reindeer: Hooves of Fire features the voice of comedian Ardal O'Hanlon as a plucky reindeer eager to become one of Santa's chosen sleigh-pullers. To achieve his goals, however, he has to overcome the slings and arrows of Blitzen, who feels threatened by Robbie's fancy hoofwork. In the spirit of animator Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit series, Robbie the Reindeer was designed by the BBC's Bristol Animation Unit and also features the all-star voices of Jane Horrocks, Rhys Ifans, and pop star Robbie Williams, the latter crooning an updated version of "Come Fly with Me." ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Robbie Williams, James Woods, (more)

- 1999
-
Strongly recalling the film noir feel and labyrinthine plot twists of The Usual Suspects (1995), this German production featuring an all-English cast is a madcap caper flick about a quartet of dull-witted would-be bank robbers. The film opens with the police surveying the bloody aftermath of a botched robbery. The sole survivor, Jo Simpson (Claire Skinner), is carted off not by the cops -- to the surprise of Inspector Badger (John Benfield) -- but by the ultra-secret Cyclops Institute, where she is interrogated. Piece by piece, the investigators learn about her three accomplices, Eddie (Rhys Ifans) and Ian (David Schneider), two young losers who were obsessed with becoming famous, and the older, more experienced con man Michael (John Hurt). The investigators also learn about the mysterious way in which the criminals get caught up in schemes not of their own making, by way of an anonymous package containing a videotape and blueprints of the bank. It is eventually revealed that Simpson's memory is not as reliable as it might appear. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, (more)

- 1998
- NR
- Add Janice Beard 45 W.P.M. to Queue
Add Janice Beard 45 W.P.M. to top of Queue
In Janice Beard 45 WPM, an eccentric Scottish woman dives headfirst into London's work force, which may or may not be ready for her. Janice (Eileen Walsh) began dealing with an unusual home life from birth; her dad died of a heart attack as she was being born, sending her mother into a funk from which she's never quite recovered. At 23, Janice decides she needs to get a job to help pay for her mother's medical bills, so she puts together a resume and starts looking for work -- never mind that her c.v. is, for the most part, a pack of lies. Janice manages to flub her way into the typing pool of an auto company, where she unexpectedly becomes part of the office intrigues of Sean (Rhys Ifans), an ambitious office assistant. Patsy Kensit appears in a supporting role as Julia, a secretarial supervisor; Rhys Ifans would later appear in the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant vehicle Notting Hill. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Eileen Walsh, Rhys Ifans, (more)

- 1998
- PG
- Add Dancing At Lughnasa to Queue
Add Dancing At Lughnasa to top of Queue
Irish director Pat O'Connor helmed this adaptation of Brian Friel's 1990 play which won three Tony awards in addition to UK Olivier and Evening Standard awards. Friel's portrait of five Irish sisters takes place in 1936 on a Donegal farm. The unmarried Mundy sisters are barely surviving. Middle-aged schoolteacher Kate (Meryl Streep) is the eldest, overseeing pretty Christina (Catherine McCormack), lively Maggie (Kathy Burke, re-creating her Tony award-winning role), reliable Agnes (Brid Brennan), and Rose (Sophie Thompson), who has a secret affair with a married man. Christina is the mother of eight-year-old Michael (Darrell Johnston), beneficiary of much attention from his four aunts. The story of a turning-point summer is told in retrospect by the adult Michael and begins when the sisters welcome their older brother Jack (Michael Gambon) as he returns home from missionary work in Africa. Michael's father Gerry Evans (Rhys Ifans) makes an unexpected arrival, winning back both Michael and mom before joining the International Brigade to fight Franco in Spain. Kate loses her teaching position, and the sister's income from their handwoven clothing is threatened by the announced opening of a woolens factory. Shown at 1998 fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, (more)

- 1997
- NR
In British television writer-director Kevin Allen's feature film debut, the industrial town of Swansea, Wales, is viewed through the post-punk lens of disaffected youth. Lower-class, crude, drug-addled brothers Julian and Jeremy (played by real-life brothers Llyr Evans and Rhys Ifans), steal cars, smoke dope, and terrorize the town on their joy rides. They are thought to be twins but really aren't. Their father Fatty (Hugh Ceredig) is injured while working for corrupt contractor Bryn Cartwright (William Thomas). Jeremy and Julian want to be compensated with money for their dad's injuries, but Cartwright refuses. Posing as a respectable businessman, he is actually a drug trafficker in cahoots with two corrupt policemen, Greyo (Dorien Thomas) and Terry (Dougray Scott). Greyo is smitten with the brothers' sister, who is a prostitute. The "twins" go after Cartwright and his associates with a vengeance, inflicting sick brutalities on their pets and their families. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Llyr Evans, Rhys Ifans, (more)

- 1996
- PG
Anthony Hopkins made his directorial debut with this adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, recasting the action in Hopkins' homeland of Wales. Ieuan Davies (Anthony Hopkins) has devoted most of his life to managing the estate of Professor Blathwaite (Leslie Phillips); while he's generally been content with his lot in life, lately Ieuan feels he's thrown away his existence and wishes he'd done something with himself. The Professor spends only the summer at his estate, and brings along his second wife, Helen (Kate Burton), whom Ieuan has long loved from afar; his frustrated love for her leads him to drink heavily and contemplate murder and suicide. Family friend Dr. Lloyd (Gawn Grainger) is also attracted to Helen, much to the dismay of Ieuan's niece, a plain woman in love with the good Doctor. In addition to directing and starring in August, Hopkins also composed the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Read More
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Kate Burton, (more)