Jake Thomas Movies
Though his earliest roles ranged from that of a young Hugh Hefner (Hefner: Unauthorized [1999]) to a pre-psychotic serial killer (he was Vincent D'Onifrio's sympathetic younger counterpart in The Cell [2000]), Jake Thomas faced his biggest challenge to date in the role of a sickly son who was temporarily replaced by an android longing to learn and love in director Steven Spielberg's A.I. (2001).Born in Knoxville, TN, in January 1990, to a radio personality father and a television reporter mother, Thomas got an unexpected break in show business after his parents relocated to Los Angeles to seek new career paths. Wandering off to the youth-division area as his mother dropped off her headshots for her agent, Thomas attracted the attention of another agent who promptly signed him, soon landing the youngster in his first national commercial. After guest shots on such popular television shows as Touched By an Angel and 3rd Rock From the Sun, as well as his appearance in Hefner: Unauthorized, Thomas made his feature debut in The Cell before landing a role on the imaginative television series Lizzie McGuire. Remaining optimistic and well grounded regarding his big-screen turn, Thomas said that though he hopes to carry a film like A.I. co-star Haley Joel Osment some day, he plans on working up to that goal slowly. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The main character in Taylor Dooley's family friendly Monster Night is a teenager whose parents have demanded he babysit his siblings on Halloween. The youngsters discover that not only is their house haunted, but they uncover a portal that leads the way to a series of exciting adventures. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jake Thomas, Taylor Dooley, (more)
"It feeds on fear!" read the advertising tagline for this Roger Corman-produced shocker. What could be scarier than a rogue crocodile, except maybe a rogue dinosaur? How about a combination thereof -- a DinoCroc? Hoping to create a cheap alternative to expensive prescription medicines, the greedy Gereco Corporation genetically manipulates a small supply of DNA from a prehistoric creature called the Sarcosuchus. Suddenly revived and very hungry, this ancient "DinoCroc" kills indiscriminately (in some very gory scenes that border on the grotesquely hilarious), but has a special fondness for human flesh. Professional herpetologist and crocodile hunter Dick Sydney (Costas Mandylor) is brought in from Australia to stop the rampaging beast, with the grudging assistance of female scientist Paula Kennedy (Joanna Pacula) and the more willing cooperation of Sheriff Harper (Charles Napier) and his ever-imperiled daughter, Diane (Jane Longnecker). Along the way, the viewer is treated to gratuitous dollops of sex and bad language, which along with the excessive violence earned the film an R rating in its original form. The climax is right out of the movie Them, with a bit of urban legend-spinning thrown in. Filmed under the title PrimeEvil, DinoCroc was given a very, very limited theatrical release before it aired over the Sci-Fi Channel on April 24, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Costas Mandylor, Charles Napier, (more)
The Soccer Dog series of family-oriented, animal-starring sports pictures continues with this installment, which features a distinctly cross-Atlantic setting. Soccer Dog: European Cup opens with the titular hero, Kimble, escaping the clutches of an evil scientist, bent on performing animal experiments. Our plucky canine hero then falls into the hands of Zack (Jake Thomas), an American boy who's been brought to Scotland after the death of his mother to be reunited with the father he never knew, Brian (Nick Moran). After a bumpy introduction, father and son eventually connect by playing soccer together, and when the unusually nimble Kimble storms onto the field one day, their lives change forever. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Moran, Jake Thomas, (more)
- 2003
- Add National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure to QueueAdd National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure to top of Queue
After four proper Vacation films, the people at National Lampoon churned out the first spin-off of the series. The direct-to-video National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure stars Randy Quaid as the lovable doofus made popular in the first and third entries in the series. Eddie and his clan are awarded a tropical vacation for the holidays, but their trip doesn't go quite as planned. With the whole family stranded on an island in the South Pacific, they're in for a Christmas like none before. Fred Willard and Ed Asner also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, (more)
Teen queen Lizzie McGuire grows up a bit and hits the big screen in this comedy drama, based on the popular Disney Network series. Lizzie McGuire (Hilary Duff) and her best friends Kate (Ashlie Brillault), Gordo (Adam Lamberg), and Ethan (Clayton Snyder) have just graduated from middle school, and to celebrate, they're taking part in a class trip to Rome, Italy. Eager to celebrate their new maturity as high school students, Lizzie and her pals hope to live it up in one of Europe's most fabled cities, but fate has something more spectacular in store for Lizzie. Lizzie discovers that she bears a striking resemblance to Isabella, an Italian teen-pop idol famous for her duets with heart-throb Paolo (Yani Gellman) -- so much so that when Paolo and Isabella have a falling out, he asks Lizzie to take Isabella's place for an upcoming concert. Lizzie, however, isn't sure she feels comfortable stepping into the spotlight, and is even less sure about the way she feels about Paolo, who makes no secret of his infatuation with her. Things don't get any simpler for Lizzie when her family gets wind of her newfound fame, and catch the next flight to Italy. The Lizzie McGuire Movie also features Robert Carradine and Hallie Todd as Lizzie's parents, and Jake Thomas as her younger brother Matt, all of whom reprise their roles from the television series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilary Duff, Yani Gellman, (more)
Hilary Duff became an overnight star and teen idol in one fell swoop when the freewheeling sitcom Lizzie McGuire made its Disney Channel debut in January of 2001. Not dissimilar to the old Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All, Lizzie McGuire dealt in a slyly satirical (and slightly surrealistic) fashion with the trials and tribulations of 13- and 14-year-old junior-high kids. Lizzie attended Hillridge Middle School with her best friends, the sardonic Miranda Sanchez (Lalaine) and the doggedly nonconformist David "Gordo" Gordon (Adam Lamberg). At home, Lizzie had a fairly good relationship with her loving and tolerant parents, Sam and Jo (Robert Carradine, Hallie Todd), even though they persisted in regarding her as their little "sweet potato" instead of a girl on the verge of womanhood. Less copacetic was the relationship between Lizzie and her bratty kid brother, Matt (Jake Thomas), who never tired of hatching schemes to annoy his sister, confound his parents, fatten his allowance, or increase his creature comforts. Other regular and semi-regular characters included Lizzie's snooty classroom rival, Kate Sanders (Ashlie Brillault), who had once been our heroine's closest pal until such matters as boyfriends, peer pressure, and the school cheerleading squad separated them; Lizzie's heartthrob Ethan Craft (Clayton Snyder), whose dazzling handsomeness was offset by his less-than-dazzling intellect; requisite school nerd Larry Tudgeman (Kyle J. Downes), who for a variety of reasons (mostly academic) drove Gordo crazy; and Matt's buddy and partner-in-crime, Lanny (Christian Copelin). Among the most memorable aspects of Lizzie McGuire were the series' fleeting but hilarious pop-cultural references (usually appearing in Lizzie's vivid imagination), its adroit usage of contemporary music to complement the action or mood of the moment, and especially the cartoon sequences, wherein Lizzie would confide in or solicit advice from her animated alter ego, "Toon Lizzie" (this was, after all, a Disney production). Clearly anticipating a major hit, Disney Channel commissioned 31 episodes for Lizzie McGuire's first season instead of the usual 22 or 24. This surplus of material came in handy when Disney's sister over-the-air network ABC began rerunning Lizzie McGuire as part of its Saturday-morning lineup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilary Duff, Hallie Todd, (more)
- 2001
- PG13
- Add A.I.: Artificial Intelligence to QueueAdd A.I.: Artificial Intelligence to top of Queue
Based on the 1969 short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, by Brian Aldiss, this science fiction fantasy bears similarities to Pinocchio (1940) and originated as a long-gestating project of director Stanley Kubrick that passed to his friend Steven Spielberg after Kubrick's death. Haley Joel Osment stars as David, a "mecha" or robot of the future, when the polar ice caps have melted and submerged many coastal cities, causing worldwide starvation and human dependence upon robotic assistance. The first mecha designed to experience love, David is the "son" of Henry (Sam Robards), an employee of the company that built the boy, and the grief-stricken Monica (Frances O'Connor). David is meant to replace the couple's hopelessly comatose son, but when their natural child recovers, David is abandoned and sets out to become "a real boy" worthy of his mother's affection. Along the way, David is mentored by a pleasure-providing mecha named Gigolo Joe (Jude Law) and a talking "super toy" bear named Teddy. His adventures take him to the Roman Circus-style "Flesh Fair," where mechas are destroyed for the amusement of humans; Rouge City, where Gigolo Joe narrowly avoids capture by police; and finally a submerged New York City, where David's creator, Professor Hobby (William Hurt) reveals the secrets of the boy's creation. Brendan Gleeson and narrator Ben Kingsley co-star in A.I., which was adapted from Kubrick's treatment by Spielberg, in his first crack at screenwriting since Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, (more)
- 2001
Hilary Duff, former leading lady of the direct-to-video fantasy feature Casper Meets Wendy, starred in this weekly cable-TV sitcom as 13-year-old Lizzie McGuire. Most of the stories concerned Lizzie's efforts to fit in with the other kids in her middle school without coming off like a "total dweeb." Her innermost thoughts were conveyed by her animated alter ego, who in Strange Interlude fashion let the viewers know what was really going on in Lizzie's mind as she struggled to cope with the perils of adolescence. Robert Carradine and Hallie Todd co-starred as Lizzie's parents, while Jake Thomas played her younger brother Matt. Created by Terry Minsky, Lizzie McGuire (originally titled What's Lizzy Thinking?) debuted January 19, 2001, on the Disney Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilary Duff, Hallie Todd, (more)
In this science fiction thriller, child psychiatrist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) has developed a technique that allows her to travel through the minds of her patients. When Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio), a multiple murderer who methodically drowns his victims and performs bizarre rituals with their bodies, falls into a coma, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) asks Deane to enter the killer's psyche, in the hope of finding a missing girl whom Stargher has kidnapped; if she's not soon found, in all likelihood she'll die in his torture cell. However, once Deane enters the bizarre world of Stargher's mind, she finds getting out to be a very difficult matter. The Cell was the first feature from director Tarsem, who previously made award-winning commercials and music videos, including the video for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." The supporting cast includes Catherine Sutherland, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Dylan Baker, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, (more)
- 1999
In the opening episode of Touched by an Angel's sixth season, Heavenly caseworker Monica (Roma Downey) hopes to awaken the conscience of Senator Kate Cooper (Lindsay Crouse), and persuade the woman to make public the horrible plight of women and children in war-torn Sudan. Unfortunately, Kate stands to lose a major endorsement from a candy company which is exploiting Sudan's slave-labor pool, so she remains silent. The issue is ultimately forced when, with the gentle encouragement of Monica and fellow angel Andrew (John Dye), Kate's own son Thomas (Jake Thomas) mounts a well-publicized fundraiser for the victims of the Sudan crisis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
