Elizabeth Hurley Movies
Considered to be one of the world's most famous arm ornaments, model, and sometimes-actress, Elizabeth Hurley first became the topic of gossip sheets when she appeared on the arm of boyfriend Hugh Grant at the premiere for his Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. Scantily clad in a Versace gown held up by safety pins, audacity, and little else, Hurley was soon attracting as much press coverage as Grant, and a career as one of the most photographed women of the 1990s was born.Hurley, who was born in Basingstoke, England, on June 10, 1965, originally wanted to be a dancer. Her interest in dancing soon gave way to acting pursuits, and following studies in dance and theater at the London Studio Centre, she began going on casting calls. The aspiring actress found work in a number of forgettable films and TV miniseries, and it was while working on a film set that she met fellow actor Hugh Grant. Although she first became recognizable due to activities associated with Grant's onscreen work, it was her boyfriend's dubious offscreen exploits that really put Hurley in the spotlight. Thanks to Grant's notorious dalliance with a prostitute by the name of Divine Brown, Hurley was thrust into the public eye with little room to hide. Further complicating the situation was her work as the spokesmodel for Estee Lauder at the time, a position that both heightened her fame and compounded the problems associated with Grant's infamous behavior.
After the ruckus surrounding the Brown scandal died down, Hurley began earning more recognition for her work in Hollywood, both as a producer (she and Grant founded the production company Simian Films in 1994) and an actress. Perhaps her most famous role to date has been as Vanessa Kensington, sidekick and eventual paramour of Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997). She reprised the role for the film's 1999 sequel, although her character was killed off only minutes into the movie. Hurley has also appeared in such films as Permanent Midnight (1998), in which she played the wife of a heroin addict; and EdTV (1999), which featured her as a model who provides heady temptation for the film's titular protagonist (Matthew McConaughey). Hurley would play a temptress of a different sort -- a busty, female version of Satan -- in 2000's Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser. In 2001, Hurley took part in the four part documentary The Human Face, which was narrated by fellow Briton John Cleese, and later starred as a beautiful doctor in Double Whammy with Steve Buscemi and Dennis Leary. Hurley met up with Leary once again for Dawg, the follow-up to Double Whammy (2002). Unfortunately for Hurley, most of the notoriety the young actress gained during 2002 was, once again, of the tabloid variety -- a heated paternity battle with former boyfriend Steve Bing made more headlines than Dawg or Serving Sara. In 2004, Hurley will star alongside Jermey Sisto in Duncan Roy's 2000 thriller Method. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Doug "Dawg" Munford (Denis Leary) has had his way with the ladies since he was a boy. He's seduced and abandoned them. After losing his job due to one of his indiscreet assignations, Dawg has to attend his grandmother's funeral. He shows up late, and immediately begins hitting on a young woman whom he does not realize is his cousin. Soon thereafter, Anna (Elizabeth Hurley), a lawyer, approaches him with astounding news. His grandmother was a lot wealthier than he thought, and Dawg stands to inherit one million dollars. There's just one stipulation. He has to go find a dozen of the women he's slept with, chosen at random, and get them to say the words, "I forgive you," and Anna's going to tag along to make sure they say those words. Dawg uses whatever trickery he can to get each woman to say she forgives him. But along the way, there are some painful surprises, and he begins to realize the negative impact he's had on a few of the women's lives. Anna is disgusted by Dawg at first, but as she notices his attitude changing, her feelings toward him soften. Dawg was directed by Victoria Hochberg. The script for the film, written by Ken Hastings, won Final Draft's First Annual Big Break! International Screenwriting Contest in 2001. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
- 2001
The human face is what attracts and repels humans meeting other humans. This attraction is mysterious. This four-volume program from The Learning Channel investigates many aspects of the human face, from beauty to facial expression. John Cleese acts as narrator and host to a number of guests who discuss the power of the face. Skits and personal interviews highlight the points made in the production. The four episodes include Secrets of the Face, The Endlessly Fascinating Face, Does Beauty Matter?, and Famous Faces. This episode examines the importance of a smile. In addition to changing one's disposition for the better, a smiling face often alters how other people view and evaluate the owner of the face that wears a smile. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
- 2001
The human face is what attracts and repels humans meeting other humans. This process is mysterious. This four-volume program from The Learning Channel investigates many aspects of the human face, from beauty to facial expression. John Cleese acts as narrator and host to a number of guests who discuss the power of the face. Skits and personal interviews highlight the points made in the production. The four episodes include Secrets of the Face, The Endlessly Fascinating Face, Does Beauty Matter?, and Famous Faces. In this episode, people with faces considered beautiful or ugly talk about the effect their faces have had on their lives and their interactions with other people. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
- 2001
The human face is what attracts and repels humans meeting other humans. This process is mysterious. This four-volume program from The Learning Channel investigates many aspects of the human face, from beauty to facial expression. John Cleese acts as narrator and host to a number of guests who discuss the power of the face. Skits and personal interviews highlight the points made in the production. The four episodes include Secrets of the Face, The Endlessly Fascinating Face, Does Beauty Matter?, and Famous Faces. In this episode, the subject is the impact of a famous face, both on others and the face's owner. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
A cop tries to sort out his personal life while a wave of odd behavior sweeps through his apartment building in this quirky comedy. Ray Pluto (Dennis Leary) is a New York City police detective who has been in an emotional slump since his wife and daughter died in an accident several years earlier. Ray's mood isn't lightened at all when he and his partner Jerry Cubbins (Steve Buscemi) stop into a fast food restaurant just as an armed robbery is taking place. Ray throws out his back while reaching for his gun and drops the weapon; a child who picks up the gun and kills the intruders is declared a hero in the press, while Ray is dubbed "the loser cop." Put on medical leave, Ray sinks deeper into a funk until he starts seeing a chiropractor for his bad back; the beautiful Dr. Ann Beamer (Elizabeth Hurley) begins kneading the kinks out of Ray's spine and starts him thinking about a new romance. Meanwhile, Juan Benitez (Luis Guzman) is the superintendent of Ray's apartment building, and he's not been getting along well with his teenage daughter Maribel (Melonie Diaz), who has a wild streak and refuses to obey her father's strict rules. Maribel is no happier with her father, and decides to do something about their relationship -- she hires two men to assassinate her dad. And elsewhere in the same building, a pair of would-be screenwriters (Donald Faison and Keith Knobbs) wants to ensure the realism of their cops-and-robbers story by going on a little crime spree of their own. Double Whammy had its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
- 2001
The human face is what attracts and repels humans meeting other humans. This process is mysterious. This four-volume program from The Learning Channel investigates many aspects of the human face, from beauty to facial expression. John Cleese acts as narrator and host to a number of guests who discuss the power of the face. Skits and personal interviews highlight the points made in the production. The four episodes include Secrets of the Face, The Endlessly Fascinating Face, Does Beauty Matter?, and Famous Faces. This episode examines reading a face and its expressions and what one can learn about its owner. Case studies in stereotyping, victimization, and fame illustrate the importance of the face on the daily lives of humans. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
British director Nicolas Roeg, best known for his films Walkabout and The Man Who Fell To Earth, helmed this made-for-cable adaptation of the epic tale from The Old Testament's Book of Judges. Starring Eric Thal as the legendary strongman Samson, Samson and Delilah also stars Elizabeth Hurley as the temptress Delilah, who ultimately seduces Samson and cuts his hair, robbing him of his strength. Originally airing on the TNT cable network, the film also features Dennis Hopper and Sir Michael Gambon. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Edward Woodward of The Equalizer fame stars in this TV movie as Edward "Teddy" Harrison, a retired Scotland Yard detective currently visiting his daughter Cecilia (Elizabeth Hurley) in New York City. At the request of a prominent lawyer, Harrison takes on the challenge of proving that an ex-convict-- and known drug dealer--did not murder a much-beloved NYPD narcotics officer. As he delves deeper into the case, Harrison is struck by the curious fact that the Police Department itself is only half-heartedly pursuing the investigation of the killing. As for Cecilia, she would just soon her dad drop the whole matter--at least before her marriage to a city cop! Chock full of unanticipated twists and turns, Harrison: Cry of the City made its first appearance over the UPN network on February 27, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Beyond Bedlam is an ambitious British horror shocker, incorporating elements familiar from Nightmare On Elm Street and the work of such authors as Thomas Harris and Clive Barker. Terry Hamilton (Craig Fairbrass) is a detective haunted by the maniac he captured seven years ago, known as the Bone Man (Keith Allen). The Bone Man, whose real name is Gilmour, is the top patient of a scientist (Elizabeth Hurley), who has been using Gilmour in experiments to test a new mind-calming drug called BFND. But the drug also enables Gilmour to bring his hallucinations to life, and his monstrous creations menace Hamilton and the doctor during the film's second half as they attempt to put Gilmour down for good. Shot mostly in an abandoned sanitarium, the film puts its eerie location to good effect and has a lot of visual style, but the initially promising premise breaks down as the long final pursuit kicks in. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Fairbrass, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
In this war adventure a brave British GI saves the beautiful wife of a colonel from a group of AWOL soldiers. The plot is based on a Bernard Cornwell novel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Bean, Assumpta Serna, (more)
- 1992
In 1939, Ramon (Jacques Penot) was a young man, caught up in his Barcelona family's involvement on the Republic side in the brutal Spanish Civil War. He and his family fled into exile ahead of Franco's troops. Now it is many years later, and he has come back to see how his old homestead fared in the intervening years. The only person he can find who is able to remember those years clearly is his family's old butler Claudio (Vittorio Gassman). This film is a sequel to the 1975 film by director Jaime Camino, Largas Vacaciones del 36. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Jacques Penot, (more)
- 1991
Set in England and Europe, Death Has a Bad Reputation stars Alan Howard as a crack British espionage agent. Howard breaks and twists the rules to bring terrorist Tony Lo Bianco to justice. The quest is as much personal as professional: Howard's son has just been seriously injured in a terrorist attack. Pamela Villoresi and Elizabeth Hurley costar in this fast-moving, thriftily produced thriller. One of the first of many TV movies made to order for the USA Cable Network, Death Has a Bad Reputation debuted on March 14, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Howard, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
- 1989
A BBC production, Christabel was one of several British TV iniseries seen during the 1988-89 season of the PBS anthology series Masterpiece Theatre. Dennis Potter adapted the teleplay from Christabel Bielenberg's autobiography The Past is Myself. Elizabeth Hurley plays Christabel, a British woman married to a German lawyer. Part One of this four-part drama begins with the wedding in 1934; the couple settles in Berlin and raises a family. Four years later, the husband (Stephen Dillon), concerned over the day-to-day outrages committed by the Nazis, plans to move out of Germany, while Christabel, utterly disinterested in politics, wavers in her commitment to her husband's plans. In part two, Christabel, living in Europe at the outbreak of the war, worries about her parents in England, while her husband joins a pro-British organization and is eventually arrested for treason. Christabel was adapted for television by Dennis Potter, better known for his surrealistic British TV serials Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Hurley, Stephen Dillone, (more)
Made for British television, Act of Will focuses on three generations of women in a proud, indomitable family. Australian-born director Don Sharp brings to his soap-opera material the same energy and vitality that he'd previously lavished on such theatrical features as Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and Hennessy (1985). Since a portion of the production money was ponied up by Hollywood, American actor Peter Coyote is given a crucial role in the World War II sequences. Among the distaff cast members are the always welcome Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs), Victoria Tennant (the former Mrs. Steve Martin) and Elizabeth Hurley (who, as of this writing at least, is the girlfriend of Hugh Grant). Act of Will received its widest American exposure on public and cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
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Part of the long-running British mystery series based on the stories by Colin Dexter, Inspector Morse: Last Seen Wearing was first aired in the U.K. in 1988. Inspector Morse (John Thaw) and Sergeant Lewis (Kevin Whately) investigate the disappearance of missing teenager Valerie Craven (Melissa Simmonds). After visiting her acquaintances at the Homewood School for Girls, Morse believes she was murdered. Before they can solve the case, headmaster Cheryl Baines (Suzanne Bertish) turns up dead. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
An international collection of well-known directors contributed to this compilation film, each fashioning a short film inspired by an aria from a famous opera. The approaches vary broadly, from the playful abstraction of Jean-Luc Godard's segment, which illustrates Armide with exercising body-builders, to the more literal approach of Franc Roddam, who transports Tristan und Isolde's story to modern-day Las Vegas. A particular stand-out is Julian Temple's take on Rigoletto, which recasts Verdi as the accompaniment to a contemporary Southern California sex farce. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Theresa Russell, Nicola Swain, (more)
Has a star's desire to fully embrace a sinister role led her into madness? Rebecca Fairbanks (Elizabeth Hurley) is a well-known actress trying to get her career back on track after taking several years off. Fairbanks is returning to the screen in a role she's long wished to play -- Belle Gunness, a notorious real-life mass murderer who went on a well-documented killing spree in the 19th century. As the film's shooting schedule wears on, Fairbanks becomes romantically involved with her leading man, Jake Fields (Jeremy Sisto), but Fields and his friends on the production staff begin to question her stability when she starts wearing her costumes at all times, living on the sets, and tries to live as the character of Guinness. Fairbanks' behavior becomes all the more disturbing when members of the crew start falling victim to a murderer. Coincidentally, The Method (also known simply as Method) was Elizabeth Hurley's first film project after taking a two-year break from her acting career following the birth of her son in the spring of 2002. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Hurley, Jeremy Sisto, (more)
A woman studying a crime of the past finds her own life becoming a morass of suspicion and deceit in this drama based on the novel by Anita Shreve. Jean Janes (Catherine McCormack) is a photographer working on a project that would document surviving evidence of a multiple murder that occurred a hundred years ago -- when a man named Louis Wagner (Ciaran Hinds) brutally killed two immigrant women from Norway with an axe, only to discover a third, Maren Hontvedt (Sarah Polley), witnessed the mayhem and survived to identify him in court. Jean travels to the small New Hampshire coastal town where the killings occurred with her husband Thomas (Sean Penn), an award-winning poet; his brother Rich (Josh Lucas); and Rich's girlfriend Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley). As Jean digs deeper into the troubling facts of the long-ago murder, as well as the tangential details of Maren Honvedt's unhappy marriage to John Hontvedt (Ulrich Thomsen) and her incestuous affair with her brother Evan (Anders W. Berthelsen), Jean begins to believe that she has a crisis of her own to contend with: she is convinced Thomas is having an affair with Adaline. The Weight of Water also features Katrin Cartlidge as Maren's sister Karen and Vinessa Shaw as her sister-in-law Anethe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine McCormack, Sarah Polley, (more)
David Veloz made his directorial debut with this drama adapted from the autobiography of comedy writer Jerry Stahl (Ben Stiller), whose $6000-a-week heroin habit had him taking his infant daughter along on his drug runs and doing smack during TV script conferences. Departing detox, Stahl explores memories with survivor Kitty (Maria Bello), who listens patiently to Stahl's flashback. Other women in Stahl's life are his British wife Sandra (Elizabeth Hurley) and his agent Vola (Lourdes Benedicto). For the TV series "Mr. Chompers" (inspired by ALF), Stahl meets with sitcom exec Craig Ziffer (Fred Willard) and puppeteer Allen (Charles Fleischer). For freaky freebasing, Stahl hangs with mumbler Nicky (Owen Wilson) and druggie Gus (Peter Greene). Stahl himself can be seen in a cameo as the methadone clinic doctor. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
In this drama, a South African exile returns to his homeland to find that justice hasn't brought peace. Vusi Madlazi (Ice Cube) is a student and political activist living in San Francisco; he was born in South Africa, but his connection to anti-apartheid rebels made his family fear for his life, so he was sent to the United States, where he's been ever since. When he attends his father's funeral, Vusi visits South Africa for the first time since the fall of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's rise to power. However, he discovers that not all the changes in his country have been for the better; drugs and gang violence have begun to overtake Soweto, and his older brother, once a dedicated anti-apartheid activist, isn't sure what to do with his life now that the changes he fought for have come. Vusi's mother asks a favor before he returns to America; his younger brother Steven (Eric Miyeni) has run away, and she wants Vusi to look for him. While searching for Steven, Vusi meets his brother's girlfriend Karin (Elizabeth Hurley), who works as an exotic dancer. It turns out that both Karin and Steven have become addicted to crack, and Steven's disappearance is probably linked to a $15,000 debt he owes to crime kingpin Muki (Ving Rhames). Director Darrell J. Roodt's previous film was Cry the Beloved Country (1995), the first major film produced in South Africa after the collapse of apartheid. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ice Cube, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
Comic leading man Hugh Grant gets serious in this drama about a physician who uncovers a truly disturbing secret. Guy Luthan (Hugh Grant), a British doctor serving a residence in a hospital in New York City, is very puzzled by a patient brought to the emergency room one night. Naked, disoriented, and bearing a hospital bracelet and a fresh surgical scar, the mystery man is suffering from a baffling variety of symptoms, and though he dies not long after he's admitted, Luthan can't get the patient out of his mind. When he asks to see the records on the patient a few days later, he's told they no longer exist, and the more he digs, the more he's convinced that someone knows something they're not telling. Against the advice of his friend Jodie Trammel (Sarah Jessica Parker), a nurse and colleague, and the instructions of his superiors, Luthan keeps digging into this and other strange cases that have come through the hospital lately. Luthan's sleuthing eventually brings him to the door of Dr. Lawrence Myrick (Gene Hackman), a well-known surgeon who is doing research in experimental surgery that could allow patients with severe spinal injuries to walk again. While Myrick's work is done with the most noble of intentions, there turns out to be a sinister undercurrent to his research techniques. Actress Elizabeth Hurley, Grant's offscreen significant other, was co-producer for this picture, the first from their joint production company. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, (more)
In this British thriller, an aristocratic, wealthy and snobbish Englishwoman who is addicted to heroin falls for an American student who tries to help her kick her deadly habit. Meanwhile, narcotics-officer Stringer is determined to find the pusher, who has been sexually involved with her daughter, Sandy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This fast-paced action picture plays like Die Hard (1988) on an airplane. Grieving over the death of his wife at the hands of an armed robber and blaming himself for her death, anti-terrorism expert John Cutter (Wesley Snipes) is retiring from his dangerous job. The flight he's on is occupied by a coterie of FBI agents escorting the lethal terrorist Charles Rane (Bruce Payne), but as the aircraft is taking off, Rane's associates, who have also boarded the plane, take the vehicle by force and free their leader. With the aid of a sheriff on the ground, a pair of stewardesses (Alex Datcher and Elizlabeth Hurley) and his old friend, airport manager Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore), Cutter puts his special training and martial arts skills to good use combating the kidnappers. The clever, dapper Rane has several surprises in store for his nemesis, however, including killing a hostage and an ally who's only pretending to be on Cutter's side. His options becoming increasingly limited, Cutter devises a dangerous plan that involves dumping the airplane's precious fuel reserves. Director Kevin Hooks cast his father, actor Robert Hooks in the role of federal agent Dwight Henderson. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne, (more)
