Denis Leary Movies

The fun continues as Diego, Manny, and Sid all return for another round of prehistoric fun in this installment of the popular computer-animated children's series. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Created by Dave Erickson and co-produced by actor Denis Leary, the weekly, 60-minute legal drama Canterbury's Law starred Juliana Margulies as Elizabeth Canterbury, a tough, ruthless Providence (R.I.) attorney who specialized in defending such "controversial" clients as accused child murderers and pedophiles. Yelling at everyone within earshot and playing fast and loose with ethics, Elizabeth was not by any stretch of the imagination an admirable character, but her abrasive personality was somewhat justified by the fact that she sincerely believed in the innocence of her clients. One of many "flawed" TV heroines of the early 21st century (vide The Closer), Elizabeth battled innumerable personal demons and an alcohol problem which partially stemmed from the loss of her son, who had disappeared without a trace a year or so before the series got under way. Other regulars included Ben Shenkman as Elizabeth's legal partner Russell Krauss, who'd been passed over for a D.A.'s job after clashing with his corrupt boss; Keith Robinson as cocky attorney Chester Grant, a congressman's son who had turned his back on his dad's conformist politicis; Trieste Dunn as fearless attorney Molly McConnell, one of the few people who could stand up to Elizabeth without emerging bloody and bowed; and Aidan Quinn as Elizabeth's college-professor husband Matt Furey, on whom the restless Ms. Canterbury cheated shamelessly. Originally intended as a series about a male attorney, Canterbury's Law switched genders once Juliana Margulies signed onto the project. Though the pilot was filmed in early 2007, the series itself was not added to the Fox network lineup until March 10, 2008, having shed a couple of the original regulars (Jocko Sims as Chester, Linus Roache as Matt) along the way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's another season of challenge and turbulence for Tommy (Denis Leary) and the guys. This season, an arson investigation following the beach house fire targets Tommy; Janet (Andrea Roth) worries that her new baby doesn't like her; Tommy's daughter Colleen (Natalie Distler) runs away from home; and a not-guilty verdict is returned in Uncle Teddy's (Lenny Clarke) manslaughter trial. Also during Season 4 (2007), a beloved character commits suicide, and the crew from 62 Truck is savaged in the press for not being able to save seven children from dying in a tragic fire. Along with the full 13-episode Season 4 run, this set also includes six featurettes, 22 deleted scenes, a gag reel, and more.

Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo), and Diego (Denis Leary) may have made it through the big freeze, but when the ice begins to melt, the heroic trio must warn the other inhabitants of their peaceful valley of the coming flood in directors Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha's sequel to the computer-animated 2002 hit Ice Age. As the ice age winds to an end, the animals of the Earth have taken warmly to the melting paradise that surrounds them. Despite the false comfort of a lush valley teeming with vegetation, however, great danger looms just over the horizon. When Manny, Sid, and Diego realize that the miles of liquefying ice overlooking their valley will soon turn from a gentle trickle to a violent force of nature capable of destroying anything and everything unfortunate enough to be in its path, they quickly set out to spread the word and get their endangered friends out of harm's way. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The documentary When Stand Up Stood Out charts the stand-up comedy boom and then decline that took place in Boston during the late seventies and eighties. Consisting of both vintage footage from the era and interviews with the people who were a part of the scene, the film showcases how this fertile comedic territory produced such famous names as Steven Wright, enis Leary, Bobcat Goldthwait, Colin Quinn, and Paula Pundstone. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In season one of the FX network "dramedy" Rescue Me, it is abundantly clear that the harrowing events of September 11, 2001, are still taking their toll on the firefighters of New York City's Engine 62 company even after three years. Senior firefighter Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) is carrying around so much emotional baggage that he has prompted his wife, Janet (Andrea Roth), to file for divorce. Desperately hoping to remain close to his three children, Tommy moves into the house across the street from his estranged wife, and spends most of the first season trying to drive a wedge between Janet and her current beau, Roger (Jay Potter) -- even though Tommy himself is hardly what one could call celibate. At the same time, our "hero" courts insanity by carrying on spirited conversations with the ghost of his cousin Jimmy (James McCaffrey), a firefighter killed in the line of duty. He goes so far as to promise Jimmy that he'll look after the man's widow; trouble is, he doesn't like what he sees. Elsewhere at Engine 62, Chief Jerry Reilly (Jack McGee) continues to compulsively gamble away not only his life savings but also his future pension; rookie Mike Siletti (Mike Lombardi) is the butt of some truly nasty practical jokes; Franco Rivera's (Daniel Sunjata) serial womanizing catches up with him in appalling fashion; Laura (Diane Farr), the new female member of the previously all-male firefighting team, does her best to bear up against a barrage of cloddish chauvinism; and the ongoing bitter rivalry between the FDNY and the NYPD culminates in a savagely brutal hockey game. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irish comic Denis Leary listens to many of his fellow comic friends insult him on The Roast of Denis Leary. Some of the celebrities who stop in to pay homage are Jim Breuer, Jon Stewart, Colin Quinn, and actresses Gina Gershon and Rene Russo. This program contains language that is unsuitable for children. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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

Screenwriter Randall Wallace, a specialist in sweeping historical epics, steps behind the camera for this fact-based Vietnam War drama that reunites him with his Braveheart (1995) star Mel Gibson. Gibson is Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, the same regiment fatefully led by George Armstrong Custer. As part of the Pleiku Campaign of late 1965, Moore is assigned to an action at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Drang Valley, an area that would come to be known as the "The Valley of Death." Moore soon finds himself and his men contained to an area about the size of a football field, surrounded by more than 2,000 enemy troops and engaged in the first major battle of the war. Heroism becomes the order of the day as men like Moore, chopper pilot Bruce Crandall (Greg Kinnear), and Lt. Henry Herrick (Marc Blucas) refuse to yield, in spite of heavy losses of life. The film co-stars Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, and Sam Elliott. We Were Soldiers is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (retired) and UPI reporter Joe Galloway (played in the film by Barry Pepper). ~ Karl Williams, 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

Denis Leary was both producer and star of the iconoclastic cop comedy The Job. Leary played NYPD detective Mike McNeil, whose fashion-plate sensibilites were compromised by his chronic self-abuse, which included drinking like a fish, downing all manner of barbituates, and shamelessly cheating on his estranged wife, Karen (Wendy Makkena). Nor was McNeil a pillar of virtue on the job, ruthlessly strongarming and even blackmailing perps into confessing their crimes and habitually undercutting his colleagues. Although McNeil knew that he had to stop carrying on and change his ways before it was too late for redemption, that didn't prevent him from falling back on his old bag of dirty tricks in every half-hour episode. Others in the cast included Bill Nunn as McNeil's chunky, henpecked partner, Terrence "Pip" Phillips; Karyn Parsons as our "hero"'s mistress, Toni; Keith David as McNeil's easily outraged superior, Lt. Williams; and Lenny Clarke, Diane Farr, Adam Ferrara, John Ortiz, and Julian Acosta as, respectively, Detectives Harrigan, Fendrich, Manetti, Sommariba, and Rodriguez. More fondly regarded by critics than by the public, The Job made the ABC network rounds from March 14, 2001, to April 24, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide