Jane Krakowski Movies
A musical theater veteran, Jane Krakowski is best known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of scheming law secretary Elaine on the Fox TV hit Ally McBeal. Raised in Parsippany, NJ, Krakowski began taking dance lessons at age three. After making her movie debut as an orally skilled teenager in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), she garnered two Emmy nominations during her 1984-1986 stint on the serial Search for Tomorrow. Though she acted in several TV productions, including Men and Women II (1991) and Queen (1993), and had small feature film parts in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Stepping Out (1991), Krakowski found more success on Broadway in the first half of the 1990s. After she earned a Tony nomination for her work in the 1990 musical Grand Hotel, the actress was featured in several shows, including the revival of Once Upon a Mattress starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Krakowski became a TV star, however, when she was cast in Ally McBeal in 1997. As ambitious busybody Elaine, Krakowski became a bombshell comic foil to Calista Flockhart's neurotic Ally, asserting her power over the series' law office with her well-honed observational skills. The actress also displayed her versatile talents in the show's whimsical song-and-dance interludes. Bolstered by her TV success, Krakowski played a supporting role in the dance romance Dance With Me (1998), appeared as the seemingly lascivious wife of William Fichtner's bizarre narc in Go (1999), and starred as Betty in the sequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000). After Ally McBeal went off the air in 2002, Krakowski continued to divide her time between TV, features and the stage. Along with voicing one of the female sloths in the hit animated movie Ice Age (2002), Krakowski starred in the made for TV romantic comedy Just a Walk in the Park (2002) and played a supporting role in the Lisa Kudrow comic vehicle Marci X (2003). As in the early 1990s, though, Krakowski wound up attracting more attention on Broadway. Drawing positive notice for her acrobatic entrance via a bed sheet as well as her musical gifts, Krakowski earned another Tony nomination for her sexy supporting performance as Antonio Banderas's mistress in the acclaimed revival of Nine, the musical version of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
In this sequel to the animated adventure Open Season, Elliot (Joel McHale) and Giselle (Jane Krakowski) are about to get married when a group of pampered pets dognap Mr. Weenie (Cody Cameron) and attempt to return him to his human owners. Mr. Weenie is missing, and now it's up to Elliot, Boog (Mike Epps), and McSquizzy (Billy Connolly) to rescue their old friend from toy poodle Fifi (Crispin Glover) and his gang of domesticated thugs. But these creeps aren't about to give up Mr. Weenie without a fight, and in order to rescue their good friend, Elliot and the rest of his woodland pals will have to enter the dreaded world of household pets. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike Epps, Joel McHale, (more)
Based on the popular series of books by Darren Shan, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant tells the story of a small-town teen who inadvertently shatters a 200-year-old truce between warring factions of vampires. Sixteen-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) is your typical adolescent; he spends most of his time with his best friend, Steve (Josh Hutcherson), earns decent grades, and generally manages to stay out of trouble. But trouble finds Darren when he and Steve make the acquaintance of a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) while attending a traveling freak show at a local theater. Transformed into a bloodsucker by Crepsley, Darren joins the Cirque Du Freak and quickly ingratiates himself with the unusual cast of characters who populate it, including Madame Truska the Bearded Lady (Salma Hayek) and the traveling sideshow's towering barker (Ken Watanabe). As Darren works to master his newfound powers as a budding member of the supernatural underworld, he becomes a valued pawn between the vampires and their deadlier rivals, the Vampaneze. With tensions between the two sects intensifying, Darren must figure out a means of keeping the coming war from destroying his last vestige of humanity. Patrick Fugit, Orlando Jones, Willem Dafoe, and Jane Krakowski co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson, (more)
After Season 2 concluded with GE exec Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) accepting a post with the Bush administration, Season 3 kicks off with his return to the company and swift climb back to his old post. At "The Girlie Show," hapless head writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) continues to wrangle her two biggest stars: Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), who makes contract negotiations -- and pretty much everything else -- more difficult for Liz, and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), who has shifted all her focus to preparing for a knockoff Janis Joplin biopic. Jack, meanwhile, is distracted by family issues throughout the season. In a parody of Mamma Mia!, paternity tests lead Jack to his long-lost father-liberal professor Milton Greene (Alan Alda), who just happens to be in need of a kidney transplant. And Jack's controlling mother, Colleen (Elaine Stritch), becomes even more of a burden after he "accidentally" backs over her with his car. The incident results in Jack's latest romance, as he falls for his mother's live-in nurse, the passionate Elisa (Salma Hayek), whose deep Catholic faith and devotion to her large Puerto Rican family frequently prove trying. Unlucky-in-love Liz thinks she's finally found the perfect man in handsome pediatrician Drew Baird (Jon Hamm). But she soon discovers Drew has been "living in the bubble," thinking the world revolves around him because he can always get by on his looks. Season 3 features the series' usual parade of guest stars, including Steve Martin as an eccentric businessman who woos Liz; Jennifer Aniston as Liz's college roommate, who develops a romantic obsession with Jack; and Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Charlie Robinson, playing themselves in a Night Court reunion organized by Tracy to cheer up NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer). ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, (more)
- 2008
- G
- Add Kit Kittredge: An American Girl to QueueAdd Kit Kittredge: An American Girl to top of Queue
Producer Julia Roberts brings the American Girl brand to the big screen for the very first time with this inspirational tale concerning a nine-year-old girl named Kit Kittredge (Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin) growing up during the Great Depression. Though the American Girls have previously appeared on the small screen in Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, and Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front, Kit's adventure marks the very first major theatrical endeavor for the characters created by author Valerie Tripp. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, (more)
Relive the second season of the Primetime Emmy Award-winning comedy 30 Rock, the show that the guy who writes stuff on DVD boxes calls "my current assignment" and that Gillian Flynn of Entertainment Weekly has named "simply the best TV." Created by Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Tina Fey, 30 Rock features Fey (as TV writer Liz Lemon), Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Alec Baldwin (as corporate executive Jack Donaghy), Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski (as Lemon's unpredictable stars, Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney) and Jack McBrayer (as the naive NBC page Kenneth Parcell). Co-workers and friends, they are all trying to balance work and life, with the inevitable result of failed relationships, disastrous parties, at-work drunkenness, hard-core coffee addiction, world-class sandwich eating and occasional attempts to chop down Christmas trees. Join in the behind-the-scenes fun with lots of exclusive content and all fifteen episodes of the acclaimed second season of 30 Rock from executive producer Lorne Michaels.
- Starring:
- Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, (more)
The lauded laugher's inaugural season introduces the offbeat staffers at "The Girlie Show," a TV variety program produced at venerable Rockefeller Center in New York City. Presiding over the show is TV scribe Liz Lemon (series creator and writer Tina Fey). But trouble looms upon the arrival of brash new honcho Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming. Jack incessantly meddles with the series, hiring edgy but wildly erratic star Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and changing the show's name to the desperately hip "TGS With Tracy Jordan." All this exasperates Lemon and pushes the show's horrified starlet, Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), to the sidelines. Not only does Jack creep into the writers' room and even appear as a sketch performer (only to plug products), but he referees Lemon's sour romantic life. He sets her up on a blind date (with a woman); interferes with her bumpy reunion with her boorish ex-boyfriend Dennis (Dean Winters); and intervenes as her love blooms for affable paramour Floyd (Jason Sudeikis). Love is on the horizon for Jack, too. He dates a Bush administration official; tangles with his ex-wife (Isabella Rossellini); and woos an auctioneer (Emily Mortimer). But Jack still has time for territorial warfare against his gravelly voiced archnemesis Devin Banks (Will Arnett), a Left Coast network exec who callously eyes Jack's job. Always an omnipresent figure is naive man-child Kenneth the Page (Jack McBrayer), whose misadventures include switching roles with bigwig Jack, scoring a prime spot in Tracy's posse and trying to help the pampered Tracy reach spiritual self-actualization. Alas, Kenneth's bright-eyed idealism prevails even while working for this cast of ego-fueled eccentrics. ~ Dean Maurer, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, (more)
A domesticated grizzly bear finds that there's more to life than being the star attraction of a mountain town nature show when a fast-talking mule deer offers him a crash course in woodland living in Sony Pictures Animation's first full-length animated feature. Raised by kindly park ranger Beth (Debra Messing) since he was a just a cub, 900-pound grizzly Boog (Martin Lawrence) is content to spend his days entertaining Timberline tourists and his nights nestled safely in Beth's luxurious garage. Boog's life is about to get much more complicated, however, when paranoid hunter Shaw (Gary Sinese) returns from a recent foray in the woods with a frightened, one-horn mule deer named Elliot strapped trophy-like to the hood of his truck. Though at first reluctant to answer Elliot's desperate cries for help, gentle giant Boog eventually frees the thankful creature, who in turn decides to teach his hulking friend what it truly means to be free. Subsequently tranquilized and relocated into the wilderness after momentarily reverting to his true animalistic nature, Boog is forced to team with seasoned forest-dweller Elliot in order to find their way out of the woods before hunting season starts and Shaw comes gunning for all creatures great and small. Things are different in the woods than they were back in the safe confines of park ranger Beth's garage, though, and in order to find their way back to Timberline, Boog and Elliot are going to have to rely on the kindness of their fellow creatures, a rowdy and unruly bunch that includes an army of Scottish squirrels led by rogue critter McSquizzy (Billy Connolly), and a productive beaver construction team whose foreman, Reilly (Jon Faverau), is more than willing to lend a helping tail. With hunting season now upon them and time running out as the hunters close in, the unlikely duo of bear and mule deer put their new life lessons to good use by turning the tables on the gun-toting gamesmen, and once again making the woods safe for the furry critters who call the forest home. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, (more)
One of the "popular girls" decides to put her mean streak to work in this black comedy. Kimberly Joyce (Evan Rachel Wood) is an outwardly friendly but inwardly cold and manipulative teenager who attends an exclusive private school in Beverly Hills when she's not making fun of her twentysomething stepmother (Jaime King) or listening to her business mogul father (James Woods) rant about the many people he hates. Kimberly's best friend is Brittany (Elisabeth Harnois), who doesn't seem to notice that Kimberly holds a bit of a grudge over the fact Brittany is now dating Troy (Stark Sands), Kimberly's former boyfriend. When Randa (Adi Schnall), an exchange student from the Middle East, arrives at school, Kimberly is asked to show her around, and soon she's giving her the inside scoop on the school's social hierarchy. Kimberly, Brittany, and Randa, like most of the girls at school, don't much care for Mr. Anderson (Ron Livingston), a teacher who doesn't make much of a secret of his lust for the female student body, though he doesn't do much besides look. Kimberly decides to do something about Mr. Anderson by fabricating a story that he has had inappropriate contact with her, Brittany, and Randa, and it doesn't take long for the matter to become a local scandal, though it does end up backfiring on Kimberly in time. Pretty Persuasion also features supporting performances from Selma Blair, Jane Krakowski, and Michael Hitchcock. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, (more)
- 2005
The new girl in town is 16-year-old Jacey Jeffries (Danielle Panabaker), who lives with her divorced mother, Terry (Mercedes Ruehl), and her two siblings. A popular and highly intelligent student, not to mention a talented athlete, Jacey nonetheless seems to be harboring a private, profound sadness -- or at least that's the perception of her high-school guidance counselor, Donna Cooper (Jane Krakowski). Ultimately Donna figures out the truth behind Jacey's melancholia: her baby "brother" Charlie is actually her own son, born out of wedlock and raised by Jacey's overbearing mother in a misguided effort to shield her daughter from disgrace. Upon discovering Jacey's secret, Donna takes a special interest in the girl's welfare -- an interest undoubtedly fueled by the fact that Donna herself is unable to have children. The scenes taking place in the sex-education class have an air of reality often lacking in made-for-TV films, due to the fact that the young actors playing the students were encouraged to improvise their dialogue. Produced for the Lifetime cable network, Mom at Sixteen first aired on March 21, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mercedes Ruehl, Jane Krakowski, (more)
Differentiating this TV-movie version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol from the hundreds of other adaptations of the same Yuletide classic is its tongue-in-cheek ambience and a bundle of memorable tunes by perennial Disney composer Alan Menken and former Schoolhouse Rock lyricist Lynn Ahrens. Inspired by a stage musical which used to be presented annually at New York's Madison Square Garden, this Christmas Carol stars Kelsey Grammer as tight-fisted Ebenezer Scrooge, who sees the errors of his ways just in time to oversee the "best Christmas ever" for his long-suffering clerk Bob Cratchit (Edward Gower) and "God Bless Us Everyone" Tiny Tim (Jacob Moriarty). On this occasion, the spirits materializing for Scrooge's benefit include Jason Alexander as a neurotic Jacob Marley, Jesse L. Martin as a laid-back Ghost of Christmas Present, Jane Krakowski as a sexy Ghost of Christmas Past, and Geraldine Chaplin as a spooky Ghost of Christmas Future (in Wizard of Oz tradition, three of these four actors also appear as "real" people in Scrooge's everyday life). Highlights include the song "Link by Link," wherein the ghostly Marley and a chorus of wraiths perform a lively ball-and-chain dance number, and the outsized Christmas celebration in the home of Scrooge's first boss, Mr. Fezziwig (Brian Bedford), which features among other things a "pole dance" by the Ghost of Christmas Past! Filmed on-location in Budapest (which sort of looks like Dickensian London if you squint real hard), A Christmas Carol: The Musical won an Emmy award for musical director Michael Kosarin -- and, alas, tanked in the ratings when first telecast by NBC on November 28, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelsey Grammer, Jesse L. Martin, (more)
This remake of Lewis Gilbert's 1966 film of the same name features Jude Law filling the shoes Michael Caine once wore in the title role of Alfie. As with the original, Law occasionally speaks directly to the camera while his character talks of the opposite sex. Under the direction of Charles Shyer, Alfie follows a charming, if morally lacking, womanizer from one bed to the next. While his actions arise more from nonchalance than malice, Alfie nonetheless faces a moral dilemma when considering that he's impregnated one of his latest girlfriends. Alfie also includes performances from Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, and Nia Long. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, (more)
- 2003
- PG
- Add When Zachary Beaver Came to Town to QueueAdd When Zachary Beaver Came to Town to top of Queue
When a one man sideshow rolls into Granger, TX claiming to showcase "the fattest boy in the world," the lives of two small-town teens are changed forever in this touching coming-of-age tale based on the National Book Award-winning novel by Kimberly Willis Holt. Zachary Beaver (Sasha Joseph Neulinger) is a morbidly obese teen who travels from town to town with his best friend and business partner Paulie Rankin, earning money off of his unusual appearance. When curiosity gets the best of Granger kids Toby (Jonathan Lipnicki) and Cal (Cody Linley) and they decide to check out the show, the unlikely bond that forms between Zachary, Toby, and Cal marks the beginning of an unforgettable summer of fun, growth, and friendship. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Lipnicki, Cody Linley, (more)
Paul Rudnick provides the script for the Scott Rudin-produced comedy Marci X, directed by Richard Benjamin. The new song "Shoot Ya' Teacha" by controversial hardcore rapper Dr. S. (short for Dr. Snatchcatcher, played by Damon Wayans) causes a public outcry. The stress causes a heart attack for the owner of the hardcore rap record label Felony Assault (played by director Benjamin). It's up to his stylishly sunny daughter Marci (Lisa Kudrow) to take over his business. She tries to rescue the record label by changing the negative image of Dr. S. in order to appeal to a youth-oriented crowd, which leads the pair into an unlikely romance. Actress Christine Baranski appears as a conservative senator who threatens to ban the rapper. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Kudrow, Damon Wayans, (more)
A team of "sub-zero heroes" band together to save a human infant in this digitally animated feature from Oscar-winning director Chris Wedge, whose unique lighting software (called "Ray Tracing") sets his visual style apart from earlier CGI efforts. Twenty thousand years ago, the Earth is overrun by freezing temperatures in an Ice Age that is sending all manner of critters scattering in the path of encroaching glaciers. When a lost human infant is discovered, an unlikely quartet of misfits forms to return it to its mother: Manny, a depressed woolly mammoth (Ray Romano); Sid, a fast-talking sloth (John Leguizamo); an acorn-crazed squirrel named Scrat (Wedge); and the devilish saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary). Before they can complete their mission, the reluctant compatriots will brave pits of boiling lava, dangerous caverns of ice, and even a traitorous plot within their midst. Ice Age (2002) also features the voices of Jack Black, Jane Krakowski, and Goran Visnjic. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, (more)
- 2002
Adam (George Eads) makes his living as a dog walker for the wealthy New Yorkers who live near the Central Park district. So dedicated is Adam to his work that his family and friends are worried that he will never emerge from his professional shell and find a suitable wife. At present, Adam is apartment-sitting for one of his best customers, millionaire executive A.J. Preston. While thus employed, the hero "meets cute" with fellow dog fancier Rachel (Jane Krakowski), who jumps to the obvious conclusion and assumes that Adam and A.J. Preston are one and the same. Smitten by Rachel, Adam wonders if he should tell her the truth and risk losing her affections. By the time the plot is resolved thanks to the intervention of Adam's agoraphobic neighbor Selma (Brenda Vaccaro), the plot has taken many an unexpected twist and turn, including an episode involving a mysterious Chilean businessman and a strange package. Filmed in Montréal under the title The Dog Walker, the made-for-cable Just a Walk in the Park premiered over the ABC Family Channel on August 18, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Eads, Jane Krakowski, (more)
