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Synopsis
Caviezel Country
It has come to my attention that I don't have a synopsis for these movies listed anywhere on my site. WHOOPS! What an error! I will attempt to remedy that situation by adding a synopsis for each film/tv show that Jim has been in.
NOTE:
If you want to know what character Jim plays, or how often you will see him in the film, please click here.
NOTE:
If you would like to see interviews, clips, or red carpet premieres, click here.
Here they are, in no particular order...
(SPOILER ALERT!!)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Writing Credits William Shakespeare (play) / Gus Van Sant
Genre Drama
Tagline - Wherever, whatever, have a nice day.
Summary: Amazon.com
Gus Van Sant's often-beautiful 1991 film stars River Phoenix as a narcoleptic, Seattle male prostitute and Keanu Reeves as the rich friend who agrees to help him find his mother. After a solid hour or so of the two traveling on this quest through Idaho and Italy, Van Sant throws a wrench into the works by conjuring a gay version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I, with Reeves's character as Prince Hal and filmmaker William Richert (who directed Phoenix in the 1988 Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon) as a variation on Falstaff. The experiment is interesting to watch, but you can't help wondering what on earth happened to the movie. Still, the film has a cult status one can't argue with, and Phoenix gives a tragic performance that stays in the memory. --Tom Keogh
Diggstown (1992)
Directed by Michael Ritchie
Writing credits (WGA) Leonard Wise (novel) / Steven McKay (I) (screenplay)
Genre: Drama
Tagline: Where the pros meet the cons.
Summary: Gabriel Cane has just been released from prison when he sets up a bet with a business man. The business man owns most of a boxing mad town called Diggstown. The bet is that Gabe can find a boxer that will knock out 10 Diggstown men, in a boxing ring, within 24 hours. Honey Roy Palmer is that man - although at 46, many say he is too old. A sub plot is thrown in about Charles Makem Diggs - the heavyweight champion that gave the town its name - and who is now confined to a wheel-chair.
Wyatt Earp (1994)
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
Writing credits (WGA) Dan Gordon (III) (written by) and Lawrence Kasdan (written by)
Genre: Western
Tagline: The epic story of love and adventure in a lawless land.
Summary: Amazon.com
This massive, in-depth study of the dark Western icon comes off with mixed results. Trying to capture the whole life, (warts and all) of the lawman-criminal-brother-fortune hunter, director Lawrence Kasdan gains points for sheer scale, giving us a rich epic painted in dark colors with gritty settings. But the visual poetry and extensive foreshadowing ruin the dramatic drive. Some scenes have as much impact as stalker movies; you're just waiting for someone to get knocked off. As Earp, Kevin Costner is not afraid to look rumpled and play colorlessly (as in The Bodyguard), but it saps the energy of this 3-hour-plus film. The only relief is Dennis Quaid as a droll Doc Holiday, a much more engaging character. New faces Linden Ashby and Joanna Going (as an Earp brother and a lover, respectively) are solid finds, though the remainder of the female cast is barely given anything to do. Best is the first half, with Costner, as hip as he was in his Silverado days, going through a series of ups and downs until he accidentally finds his profession. Great set design (Ida Random) utilizes dozens of similar settings that always look distinctive. Recommended to fans of the star and the genre, but the story never justifies its length. --Doug Thomas
The Rock (1996)
Directed by Michael Bay
Writing credits (WGA) David Weisberg (I) (story) / Douglas Cook (I) (story)
Genre: Action / Thriller
Tagline: Alcatraz. Only one man has ever broken out. Now five million lives depend on two men breaking in.
Summary: A group of renegade marine commandos seizes a stockpile of chemical weapons and takes over Alcatraz, with 81 tourists as hostages. Their leader, a former highly-decorated U. S. general, demands $100 million to be paid in ransom, as restitution to families of soldiers who died in covert operations and were thereby denied compensation. Otherwise, he is threatening to launch 15 rockets carrying deadly VX nerve gas into the San Francisco Bay area. An elite SEAL team, with support from an FBI chemical warfare expert (Stanley Goodspeed) and a former Alcatraz escapee (John Mason), is assembled to penetrate the terrorists' defenses on Alcatraz and neutralize the rocket threat before time runs out.
Ed (1996)
Directed by Bill Couturié
Writing credits (WGA) Ken Richards (story) / Janus Cercone (story)
Summary: A bad movie about the hard times of an up and coming ball player (Matt LeBlanc). Jim is hardly featured in this movie and it's really not worth seeing!
GI Jane (1997)
Directed by Ridley Scott
Writing credits (WGA) Danielle Alexandra (story) / David N. Twohy (screenplay)
Genre: Action / Drama
Tagline: Failure is not an option.
Summary: When a crusading chairperson of the military budget committee pressures the would be Navy secretary to begin full gender integration of the service, he offers the chance for a test case for a female trainee in the elite Navy SEALS commando force. Lt. Jordan O'Niel is given the assignment, but no one expects her to succeed in an inhumanly punishing regime that has a standard 60% dropout rate for men. However, O'Niel is determined to prove everyone wrong.
Thin Red Line (1998)
Directed by Terrence Malick
Writing credits (WGA) James Jones (I) (novel) / Terrence Malick (screenplay)
Genre: Action / Drama / War
Tagline: Every man fights his own war.
Summary: In World War II, the outcome of the battle of Guadalcanal will strongly influence the Japanese's advance into the pacific. A group of young soldiers is brought in as a relief for the battle-weary Marine units. The exhausting fight for a key-positioned airfield that allows control over a 1000-mile radius puts the men of the Army Rifle company C-for-Charlie through hell. The horrors of war forms the soldiers into a tight-knit group, their emotions develop into bonds of love and even family. The reasons for this war get further away as the world for the men gets smaller and smaller until their fighting is for mere survival and the life of the other men with them.
Ride w/the Devil (1999)
Directed by Ang Lee
Writing credits (WGA) Daniel Woodrell (novel) / James Schamus (screenplay)
Genre: Drama / Romance
Summary: Jake Roedel and Jack Bull Chiles are friends in Missouri when the Civil War starts. Women and Blacks know their place. Jack Bull's dad is killed by Union soldiers, so the young men join the Bushwhackers, irregulars loyal to the South. One is a Black man, Daniel Holt, beholden to the man who bought his freedom. They skirmish then spend long hours hiding. Sue Lee, a young widow, brings them food. She and Jack Bull become lovers, and when he's grievously wounded, Jake escorts her south to a safe farm. The Bushwhackers, led by men set on revenge, make a raid into Kansas. At 19, Jake is ill at ease with war. As his friends die one after another, he must decide where honor lies.
Any Given Sunday (1999)
Directed by Oliver Stone
Writing credits (WGA) Daniel Pyne (screen story) and John Logan (I) (screen story)
Genre: Drama
Tagline: Life is a contact sport.
Summary: When a devastating hit knocks a professional football legend and quarterback Cap Rooney (Denis Quaid) out of the game, a young, unknown third-stringer is called in to replace him. Having ridden the bench for years because of a string of bad luck stories and perhaps insufficient character, Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx) seizes what may be his last chance, and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess. His stunning performance over several games is so outstanding and fresh it seems to augur a new era in the history of this Miami franchise, and forces aging coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) to reevaluate his time-tested values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as well as post-modern life may be passing him by. Adding to the pressure on D'Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), now coming into her own after her father's death. Christina's driving desire to prove herself in a male dominated world is intensified by her focus on the marketing and business of football, in which all coaches and players are merely properties.
**NOTE Jim's role was cut from the final copy of this film. See the links page for his scene.**
Frequency (2000)
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
Writing credits (WGA) Toby Emmerich (written by)
Genre: Drama / Thriller / Sci-Fi
Tagline: What If?
Summary: A rare atmospheric phenomenon allows a New York City firefighter to communicate with his son 30 years in the future via short-wave radio. The son uses this opportunity to warn the father of his impending death in a warehouse fire, and manages to save his life. However, what he does not realize is that changing history has triggered a new set of tragic events, including the murder of his mother. The two men must now work together, 30 years apart, to find the murderer before he strikes so that they can change history--again.
Resurrection
In a storefront church on a Jersey City, N.J., street, a man speaks in front of a camera, telling of a discovery 2,000 years ago. He speaks of a woman, standing outside a tomb, crying. The woman sees two angels, who ask her why she cries. “They have taken away my Lord’s body! I don’t know where they have put him.” There is a tremor in the man’s voice as he speaks the woman’s words. A dim light flickers on the walls. He describes how the woman turns, and sees a man, and asks him if he took her Lord’s body. Then Jesus says to her, “Mary!” And the woman recognizes him. This is a new ABS translation in the making, a rendering of the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John into visual form, to be released in video format.
Pay it Forward (2000)
Directed by Mimi Leder
Writing credits (WGA) Catherine Ryan Hyde (book) / Leslie Dixon (screenplay)
Genre: Drama
Tagline: Sometimes The Simplest Idea Can Make The Biggest Difference.
Summary: Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward--repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.
Angel Eyes (2001)
Directed by Luis Mandoki
Writing credits (WGA) Gerald Di Pego (written by)
Genre: Drama / Romance / Mystery
Tagline: The Deeper You Look. The More You Will Find.
Summary: While pursuing a suspect one night, Chicago Police officer Sharon Pogue (Jennifer Lopez) nearly becomes the victim of a fatal ambush until a mysterious stranger, Catch (Jim Caviezel) intervenes, disarms the assassin and saves Sharon's life. Is it a stroke of luck? A twist of fate? Or just a concerned citizen who happened to pass by at the right time and wasn't afraid to get involved? Maybe, But Sharon and Catch have met once before. As the two fall in love, they discover the truth about each other and are forced to deal with the secrets from their past.
Madison (2003)
Directed by William Bindley
Writing credits Scott Bindley / William Bindley
Genre: Drama
Summary: A story about a man's personal struggle to victory in the 1971 Madison, Indiana hydro-plane regatta.
Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Directed by Kevin Reynolds (I)
Writing credits (WGA) Alexandre Dumas père (novel) / Jay Wolpert (screenplay)
Genre: Action / Drama / Adventure / Thriller
Tagline: Prepare for adventure. Count on revenge.
Summary: 'The Count of Monte Cristo' is a remake of the Alexander Dumas tale by the same name. The film stars Jim Caviezel as Dantes, a sailor who is falsely accused of treason by his best friend Fernand (Guy Pearce), who wants Dantes' girlfriend Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk) for himself. Dantes is imprisoned on the island prison of Chateau D'lf for 13 years, where he plots revenge against those who betrayed him. With the help of another innocent prisoner (Richard Harris), he escapes the island and proceeds to transform himself into the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo as part of his plan to exact revenge.
High Crimes (2002)
Directed by Carl Franklin
Writing credits (WGA) Joseph Finder (novel) / Yuri Zeltser (screenplay)
Genre: Crime / Thriller
Tagline: Everything you trust. Everything you know. May be a lie...
Summary: High powered lawyer Claire Kubik finds her world turned upside down when her husband, who she thought was Tom Kubik, is arrested and is revealed to be Ron Chapman. Chapman is on trial for a murder of Latin American villagers while he was in the Marines. Claire soon learns that to navigate the military justice system, she'll need help from the somewhat unconventional Charlie Grimes; meanwhile, Claire's sister, Jackie, is falling in love with wet-behind-the-ears Lieutenant Embry assigned as the official defense lawyer. And most of the eyewitnesses have rather too conveniently died.
Paradise Park (2002)
Directed by Michael Seitzman
Writing credits Michael Seitzman
Genre: Drama
Summary: Two brothers inherit an old, broken down carousel on an abandoned boardwalk in New Jersey. They think that if they rebuild it to work like it did in their youth, they might be able to communicate with their sister who died mysteriously on that beach 20 years ago.
Rebels (2003)
Directed by: David L. Cunningham
Writing credits: John Fusco(screenplay)
Genre: Documentary / Drama / War
The true story of Revolutionary War leader Ethan Allen (1738-1789) and his group of fighters, the Green Mountain Boys, who fought for the freedom of Vermont before the War officially started. The conflict arose because selling rights to the land that is now Vermont was given to both New Hampshire and New York. When a ruling invalidated all sales done with New Hampshire, New York tried to roust the over 100 New Hampshire-sold townships, inspiring the Vermont settlers to take up arms. The name refers to the Green Mountains they felt they were being pushed into (out of their new homes). The Republic of Vermont lasted from 1777-1791 when it became the 14th state.
The Highwayman (2003)
A vengeful widower who hits the road in a souped-up "muscle car" and goes in search of his wife's killer.
Brother Bill
Read more about the story of Brother Bill here.
I Am David
Bulgaria 1952. 12 year-old David (Ben Tibber) escapes from the labour camp where he has lived most of his life. He races for freedom and stows away on a cargo ship bound for Italy.
Forced to deal with strangers for the first time in his life, David finds solace in the memory of his friend and mentor in the camp, Johannes (Jim Caviezel). He is given money for helping out some tourists and is able to buy food.
David comes across some children playing around an old shed. The shed catches fire with a little girl trapped inside and David rescues her with seconds to spare. Her grateful parents take David in but, unable to trust them, David runs away.
At the Swiss border, David meets an artist named Sophie (Joan Plowright). Sophie takes David to a bookshop where he sees a book that was written by a woman who lost her husband and son at the end of the war. He recognises the photo on the dust-jacket as his mother.
Urgent arrangements are made for David to fly to Denmark where, on the airport runway in Copenhagen he has an emotional reunion with his mother.
Passion
The latter part of the life of Jesus.
Final Cut
Robin Williams will star in Lions Gate's SF movie Final Cut from first-time writer-director Omar Naim, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is scheduled to go into production in June.
Cut is set in a world where people are implanted with a chip that records their lives. Williams will play a Cutter, an individual who has final cut on the recorded history of his clients. In his latest assignment, he has discovered a window into his own dark history and has set off a chain reaction that has put his life in danger, the trade paper reported. Nick Wechsler is producing, with Naim's manager Guymon Casady at Management 360 executive producing. Lions Gate's Marc Butan is overseeing the project. Tak Fujimoto (The Sixth Sense) is in negotiations to come aboard as director of photography, the trade paper reported.
Television:
The Wonder Years (3/11/1992)
Episode Title: Hero
Murder, She Wrote (2/19/1995)
Episode Title: Film Flam
Children of the Dust (a.k.a. A Good Day to Die) (1995)
Directed by David Greene (I)
Writing credits (WGA) Clancy Carlile (novel) / Joyce Eliason (teleplay)
Genre: Western
Summary: Gypsy Smith, is a gunfighter and a bounty hunter. When he leads the US army into a Cheyenne camp to capture a suspected Indian renegade, a long train of events begins that finally lead to that 'good day to die'. White Wolf, only a child, is one of the few survivors of the massacre of his tribe that day, and Gypsy brings him to live with the Maxwell family, where he grows up not fully Indian and not really white but a bit too close to Rachel, the Maxwell daughter. And Gypsy now reappears, leading a group of Black settlers from the post-Civil War South to start a new life in a town of their own - Freedom in the Oklahoma Territory, its first black settlement. White Wolf (or Corby as a 'white' name') is now with his people, but all of these parts come back together in conflict, violence, loss, and Pyrric triumph.
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