James Gandolfini Movies
Born and raised in New Jersey, press-shy James Gandolfini forged a film career as a prolific character actor before finally emerging as a bona fide star in the critically-lauded HBO series The Sopranos. After earning his college degree in 1983, Gandolfini headed to New York to study at the Actors Studio. Supporting himself for almost ten years as a bartender and nightclub manager,... (read more) Gandolfini's major break came in 1992 with a role in a Broadway version of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange, and his film debut in Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us. Following small parts in several 1993 films, including the Quentin Tarantino-scripted True Romance, Gandolfini played more substantial roles as one of the heavies in Terminal Velocity (1994), Geena Davis' neighborhood boyfriend in Angie (1994), one of the submarine crew in Crimson Tide (1995), and a stuntman-turned-Mob enforcer in Get Shorty (1995). Equally gifted at playing characters on either side of the law, Gandolfini appeared as the violent neighbor who assaults Robin Wright Penn in She's So Lovely (1997) and a cop in Lumet's legal drama Night Falls on Manhattan (1997).
Gandolfini played supporting roles in several more films, including Fallen (1998) and A Civil Action (1998), before he was cast as the head of a dysfunctional Mafia family in The Sopranos. Anchored by Gandolfini's superbly-nuanced performance as Prozac-popping, mother-bedeviled capo Tony Soprano, The Sopranos was hailed as a TV masterpiece for its alternately funny, surreal and deadly-serious look at New Jersey Mob life. Though he was passed over for the Emmy, Gandolfini won the SAG and Golden Globe Awards for Lead Actor in a TV drama for The Sopranos' 1999 season. During the series break, Gandolfini appeared as a slimy pornographer in 8MM (1999).
Gandolfini finally added the Emmy to his trophies in 2000 for the second season of The Sopranos. Despite the inevitable criticism about the series' sophomore slump, there was no question as to Gandolfini's continuing excellence as the New Jersey Mob paterfamilias. Gandolfini followed his Emmy triumph with a supporting role as a gay hit man in The Mexican (2001), easily stealing the film from co-stars Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. Even as he was earning The Mexican's few good notices in theaters, Gandolfini was garnering still more plaudits for The Sopranos' controversial third season, as Tony's increasingly delinquent son elicited anguished soul-searching from Tony about his legacy. Though his third Emmy nomination spoke to his formidable TV presence as Tony, Gandolfini also further burnished his movie credits with a small part in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's Cannes Film Festival award winner The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and a major starring role as a corrupt Army colonel who goes head-to-head with Robert Redford's incarcerated general in The Last Castle (2001).
Gandolfini continued to impress on The Sopranos for the show's run, which finally ended in 2007. He would also find success on screen, appearing in films like All the King's Men, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Violet & Daisy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
Sexual Healing
2014
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Escape From Planet Earth
PG 2013
Brendan Fraser lends his voice to Scorch Supernova, a beefcake space hero who defends his planet, Beeb, against the nefarious villain Shanker (voiced by James...
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
PG13 2013
Down-on-his-luck Las Vegas magician Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) reunites with his old partner Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) to take on hip illusionist {%Steve...
Hemingway & Gellhorn
2012
A 1936 meeting between novelist Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn sparks a nine-year relationship dominated by a volatile romance that nearly rivaled...
Cinema Verite
2011
A dramatization of the making of the controversial 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, the brainchild of filmmaker Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) that...
Wartorn 1861-2010
2010
Interviews with veterans, active-duty personnel and their families, and letters from soldiers chronicle cases of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder from the U.S. Civil...
Welcome to the Rileys
R 2010
Their relationship steadily deteriorating in the eight years following their daughter's untimely death, a married couple unable to break the cycle of grief gets a second shot at...
Where the Wild Things Are
PG 2009
Visionary director Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to the big screen with the help of hipster icon Dave Eggers, who teamed with Jonze to...
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
R 2009
A New York City subway dispatcher draws on his extensive knowledge of the subway system in order to outsmart a dangerous criminal mastermind who's hijacked a subway train in this...
Where the Wild Things Are
PG 2009
Visionary director Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to the big screen with the help of hipster icon Dave Eggers, who teamed with Jonze to...
Where the Wild Things Are
PG 2009
Visionary director Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to the big screen with the help of hipster icon Dave Eggers, who teamed with Jonze to...
NFL: America's Game - 2007 New York Giants - Super Bowl XLII
2008
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ABCD Camp
2008
Friday Night Lights screenwriter David Aaron Cohen pens this made for cable sports drama exploring the career of sneaker magnate Sonny Vaccaro (played in the film...
In the Loop
NR 2008
The run-up to war makes for curious rivalries and uneasy alliances in this political satire from director and co-screenwriter Armando Iannucci. Simon Foster (Tom...
Sopranos: Season Six - Part 2 [4 Discs]
2007
HBO split the sixth and final season of its serial mafia drama The Sopranos into two halves, spaced 10 months apart: the first half (episodes 1-12) aired from mid-March...
Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq
2007
Sopranos star James Gandolfini pulls double duty as executive producer and host of a documentary concerning wounded U.S. veterans of the Iraq War. Originally aired on...
Lonely Hearts
R 2006
Todd Robinson's Lonely Hearts features John Travolta and James Gandolfini as Elmer C. Robinson and Charles Hildebrandt, a pair of homicide detectives who are on...
The Sopranos: Season 06
2006
HBO split the sixth and final season of its serial mafia drama The Sopranos into two halves, spaced 10 months apart: the first half (episodes 1-12) aired from mid-March...
All the King's Men
PG13 2006
The legacy of a populist Southern politician whose lofty ambitions for the future leave him open to corruption and scandal is detailed as author Robert Penn Warren's thinly...
Romance & Cigarettes
R 2005
Actor and filmmaker John Turturro wrote and directed this emotionally resonant blend of music and drama. Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) is an ironworker who has been...