Jason Alexander Movies

When her long-lost Uncle Horst appears to take her away to Vienna, orphan Madeline thinks that she's finally found her family. Our heroine Madeline soon discovers that Horst is an impostor and part of a plot to run a factory with orphaned children. See how this ingenious little French girl and her friends foil the dastardly scheme. This full-length animated feature stars the voices of Jason Alexander, Lauren Bacall, Betty Joan Perske, and Christopher Plummer. Recommended for ages three to six. ~ Heather M. Fierst, All Movie Guide

Courtney B. Vance stars in this screwball romantic comedy as Eddie Jones, a devout Catholic who is committed celibacy. He is also a trained killer for the Eliminator Corp; a shadowy government organization dedicated to wasting society's undesirables. He reconciles his beliefs and his career by telling himself that he has been empowered by God to rid the country of sinners and scum. Sensing that her underling could use some fun, Eddie's boss -- known only as the Middleman (Kathleen Turner) -- sets him up on a blind date with the radiate Lois Newtorn (Regina King). The tenacious Lois is struck by the gloomy loner and sets about trying to break Eddie's vow of chastity and his homicidal line of work. In the process, Eddie begins to rethink his life, much to the dismay of his boss. Jason Alexander and Ed Asner also appear in this debut effort by writer-director Dwayne Johnson-Cochran. Love and Action in Chicago was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Sideshow: Alive on the Inside delves into the lives of former "freaks" who populated the sideshows of carnivals for years, until their treatment was deemed inhumane. This production, however, takes a somewhat different perspective. Rather than a scathing exposé, it offers insight into what happened in the performers' lives off-stage rather than on. There's Jeanie Tomaini, who, born with nothing below her waist, was known as the "Half-Woman," and Percilla, or "Monkey Girl," whose entire body is covered in hair. Both of these women married their co-workers -- human giants -- and led relatively normal lives outside of their profession. Also included is a wide variety of archival footage, which features old-time sideshow attractions such as Zip the Pinheaded Man, Siamese twins, the Human Pincushion, bearded ladies, and many more. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Given total control by the network when he returns to serve as guest host, Larry's (Garry Shandling) nemesis Jon Stewart finds his power slipping when the suits inform him that his show won't air due to a controversial Nazi skit. Meanwhile, despite Larry's best efforts to solidify his relationship with his brother Stan (Wayne Federman), he finds himself repeatedly distracted by his obsession with seeing Stewart fail. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Eight friends spend three weekends in the country over the course of a summer as they explore their sometimes conflicting attitudes about love, sex, friendship, life, and death in this screen adaptation of Terrence McNally's award-winning play. Gregory Mitchell (Stephen Bogardus) is a successful choreographer whose skills as a dancer have begun to decay as he slips into middle age. He has a handsome summer home in Upstate New York which he shares with his lover Bobby Brahms (Justin Kirk). Gregory and Bobby often invite several of their friends to join them for holiday weekends: Perry Sellars (Stephen Spinella) and Arthur Rape (John Benjamin Hickey) are a pair of yuppies (complete with a Volvo) who have been a couple for 14 years (as Perry jokes, "We're role models -- it's very stressful"). John Jeckyll (John Glover), a musician and composer with a short temper and a witheringly bitter sense of humor, arrives with his latest boyfriend, Ramon Fornos (Randy Becker), a good-looking dancer who often suffers the wrath of John's foul mood. Buzz Hauser (Jason Alexander) is a witty and flamboyant enthusiast of the Broadway theater who describes his greatest fear as a production of The King and I starring Tommy Tune and Elaine Stritch; he's also HIV-positive, though he stubbornly refuses to discuss his condition with his friends. And John's twin brother James Jeckyll (also played by John Glover) is his brother's polar opposite, a kind and forgiving soul who is now living with AIDS. Love! Valour! Compassion! was directed by Joe Mantello, who also directed the original New York stage production; this film also reunites the show's New York cast, with the exception of Jason Alexander, who stepped into the role created by Nathan Lane. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After the critical and commercial success of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the Walt Disney Pictures animation studio embarked on their most serious and ambitious animated feature to date with this adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel Notre Dame de Paris. Quasimodo (voice of Tom Hulce) is a grotesquely deformed but kind-hearted young man who was abandoned by his parents as an infant and thrown down a well; he was rescued by the priests of Notre Dame, the massive cathedral in the heart of Paris, and he lives there, earning his keep as a bell ringer. Quasimodo has become the ward of Judge Frollo (voice of Tony Jay), an outwardly pious but deeply hateful man who treats Quasimodio with indifference and violently loathes the Gypsies who spend their days in the cathedral's courtyard. Frollo hopes to clear the Gypsies out of Paris with the help of Phoebus (voice of Kevin Kline), leader of the troops under Frollo's command. However, Phoebus does not share Frollo's racist views and harbors no ill will against the Gypsies. When Quasimodo is crowned King of the Fools after leaving Notre Dame during the annual festival of Topsy Turvy Day, the hunchback is ordered beaten by the guards as punishment, but Esmerelda (voice of Demi Moore), a hot-blooded but compassionate gypsy beauty, shows pity on him and helps free him from his chains. The lovely Esmerelda is the first woman to show kindness to the unfortunate Quasimodo, and the hunchback soon falls in love with her. However, the dashing Phoebus is also infatuated with her, and Esmerelda is attracted to Phoebus as well, though she feels a motherly affection for the hunchback. Judge Frollo finds that he also desires Esmerelda, which only inflames his hatred for the Gypsies when she refuses his proposals. Darker and less outwardly comic than most of Disney's features, The Hunchback of Notre Dame does feature comic relief in the form of Victor (voice of Charles Kimbrough) and Hugo (voice of Jason Alexander), a pair of gargoyles who befriend Quasimodo, as well as several songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable comedy centers on the romantic travails of Michael Makeshift (Jason Alexander), a schnook who just can't get over the fact that his girlfriend dumped him. To make matters worse, his gross and sloppy landlord is bugging him for long-overdue rent. Things for Michael's brother Reggie (James Woods) are much better. He is planning to rob the credit union where his own mother (Beau Arthur) works. His new wife Valerie (Lolita Davidovitch) has no idea what Reggie is planning and so is puzzled when Michael comes to stay with her. She also does not know that Reggie has paid Michael for the favor. Despite his well-laid plans, things go badly for Reggie when his henchmen mutiny and force him to reveal that the clueless Valerie carries the security codes they need to pull off the job in her suitcase. Thus begins a merry chase. While Michael helps Valerie escape, he reveals the truth about Reggie. At the same time, she become increasingly attracted to her new protector. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A few sensitive viewers bailed out on Seinfeld at the end of season seven, in response to George's (Jason Alexander) apathetic reaction to the "death by envelope" of his fiancée, Susan. Others realized that a "show about nothing" can do just about anything, and thus stuck with Seinfeld as it entered its eighth season. As a reward for their loyalty, those viewers were treated to such first-rate episodes as the season opener, "The Foundation," in which Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) crosses paths with the girl whose name "rhymes with a female body part," Kramer (Michael Richards) takes up karate, and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) "becomes" her boss, J. Peterman (John O'Hurley). A few weeks later, Seinfeld's lifelong obsession with Superman manifests itself in "The Bizarro Jerry," in which we meet a group of people who are the exact opposites of the Seinfeld gang. Other highlights: a visit to a woman's prison yields strange results in "The Little Jerry"; Kramer begins to wonder what life would be like in a coma in "The Comeback"; a toothbrush in the toilet is the catalyst for disaster in "The Pothole"; Lloyd Bridges guest stars as 80-year-old physical fitness freak Izzy Mandelbaum in "The English Patient," which is also the episode in which Kramer gets involved with smuggling Cubans (cigars, that is); and in the season finale, "The Summer of George," things come full circle from the season opener, with another character "clinging to life" (sort of) in a hospital bed. ~ All Movie Guide

If you met Adolph Hitler when he was just a struggling cartoonist, wouldn't you have done the world a big favor by murdering him? That philosophical question provides the linchpin of this black comedy. Jude (Cameron Diaz), Pete (Ron Eldard), Paulie (Annabeth Gish), Marc (Jonathan Penner), and Luke (Courtney B. Vance) are five graduate students who are confirmed members of the political left, participate in small-scale activism, and share a house together. One night, Pete is stuck in the middle of nowhere, and Zack (Bill Paxton), a truck driver, gives him a lift home. The housemates are just about to sit down to dinner, so to show his gratitude, Pete asks Zack to join them. However, it soon becomes obvious that Zack doesn't share the group's political views, and when he states that he thinks Hitler had the right idea, the argument turns into a fight, with Zack brandishing a knife. The trucker is accidentally killed in the scuffle, and rather than report the death to the police, his body is buried in the backyard vegetable garden. However, the event prompts much discussion among the housemates -- if Zack was a hateful bigot, isn't the world better off without him? And wouldn't killing other ignorant hatemongers improve society all the more? Before long, the group is having a weekly dinner party in which they invite a special guest -- including an anti-environmental activist (Jason Alexander), a right-wing religious leader (Charles Durning), a sexist who doesn't believe there's such a thing as rape (Mark Harmon), and a teenager campaigning against sex education in schools (Erin Bryn) -- and serve them some wine, which happens to be laced with arsenic. While the group's attempt at community improvement does wonders for their tomato plants, the recent disappearances eventually attract the attention of the local sheriff (Nora Dunn). The Last Supper was the first feature for director Stacy Title, who won an Academy Award for her short subject Down on the Waterfront; screenwriter Dan Rosen appears in a supporting role as a police deputy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Seinfeld's Jason Alexander stars in this made-for-television remake of the 1963 classic musical. Alexander stars as Albert J. Peterson, a man hoping to make his fortune and get the girl by promoting the big send-off for a newly drafted pop star named Conrad Birdie (Marc Kudish). A song-and-dance movie, actress-dancer Ann Reinking served as choreographer of this film. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Director Ron Howard's drama follows a beleaguered reporter during a hectic 24 hours at a New York City tabloid. Michael Keaton stars as Henry Hackett, a metro editor for the struggling New York Sun. Hackett is being wooed by the Sentinel, a more upscale paper, but he's addicted to the adrenaline-stimulating, breakneck pace of the Sun's newsroom, much to the consternation of his pregnant wife Martha (Marisa Tomei. Hackett is currently pursuing a story of two minority youths who have been arrested for the murders of two men. He learns that the police think that the killings may be a mob hit. In the court of public opinion, however, the innocent suspects are being judged as guilty, and the police may bow to the pressure. As Hackett and his staff desperately work all the story's angles to find the truth, several other dramas unfold. Top editor Bernie (Robert Duvall) learns that he has prostate cancer, and tough publisher Alicia (Glenn Close) wonders if her lack of popularity is due to her cost-cutting, her personality, or the fact that she's a woman. In their only collaboration, screenwriter David Koepp co-wrote the script with his brother Stephen Koepp, a senior editor at Time magazine. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Though it may have seemed impossible for Seinfeld to top the brilliance of its fourth season ("They're real -- and they're spectacular"; "Not that there's anything wrong with that"; "Her name rhymes with a female body part"; and the immortal "Are you master of your own domain?"), season five of the "show about nothing" has more than its share of golden moments. In fact, the season is barely two episodes old before Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is climbing into that famous "puffy shirt" for his appearance on The Today Show. A few weeks later, Jerry is suspecting his "sniffing accountant" of drug use, while Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is saddled with a boyfriend who is enamored of the exclamation point. And how about the one where Jerry has to handle his godson's circumcision? Or in another episode, where Elaine's next boyfriend has the same name as a notorious serial killer? And we can't forget the episode in which George (Jason Alexander) tries to score points with a girl by converting to Latvian Orthodox. Nor the introduction of Micky Woodburn (Danny Woodburn), the "little person" friend of good old Kramer (Michael Richards). And we can't let pass an acknowledgement of the deathless one-hour extravaganza "The Raincoats." There's no doubt about it, season five of Seinfeld is every bit as terrific as season four -- right up to the final episode, in which George vows to do everything the opposite of his normal instincts, while Elaine brings down a publishing empire by eating Jujyfruits. ~ All Movie Guide

The feeling of ingratitude abounds as Larry's (Garry Shandling) father comes to town for a visit and Beverly (Penny Johnson) expresses frustration over the fact that Larry doesn't appreciate anything she does for him. Larry feels likewise about his father, and his frustration is compounded when he discovers that someone is stealing from his ATM account. As Larry begins to realize how his father's presence affects him, and in turn, how it affects Beverly, the cause behind his depleting funds becomes increasingly clear. Guest stars include French Stewart, Warren Frost, and Jason Alexander. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide