[nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
Téa Leoni is awesome. That’s just science. Probably best known these days for her role as Elizabeth McCord on the hit TV series Madam Secretary (above), she has long been working in television and film since the 1990s, establishing herself as a popular and reliable box office draw. While she’s not quite reached the level of superstar, she’s been one of the most consistent and hard working actresses in the business, staring in a number of successful movies while making appearances on the small screen. Typically playing alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest male names, she is a blonde beauty with a dynamic presence and strong personality, making her one of our favorites. Here’s 5 times we fell hard for Téa Leoni and everything she does.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
![]()
BAD BOYS
Bad Boys is a bad movie. Sorry. It is. It recently made our list of such for Will Smith, however, Leoni packs some punch as Julie Mott, a young woman who gets mixed up with some very bad guys when she agrees to be an escort at a party that sees dangerous kingpin show up and start killing guests. She escapes and finds herself under the protection of a pair of Miami detectives (Will Smill and Martin Lawrence) who, due to ‘comedy’, reverse roles, with the playboy bachelor now becoming the family man and vice versa. It’s an action movie from Michael Bay, which should tell you a lot, but Leoni adds a lot to the plot, her fast-talking no-nonsense attitude and terrific charasma giving this predictable, flashy bit of silliness some spark. This was her first lead role and she runs with it strong.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
![]()
FUN WITH DICK AND JANE
Here’s a movie you probably never heard of, an offbeat remake of the 1977 comedy of the same name. She stars opposite Jim Carrey, the two playing a married, middle-class couple who resort to petty robbery when he loses his job after his company is singled out for helping the rich get richer. Co-written by Judd Apatow, the film sort of takes a spin in the second half, trying to make a point about corporate greed and such, but leading up to it are Carrey and Leoni heading off on a humorous crime spree. It can’t be easy to keep up with Carrey, who at the time was still his manic self, yet Leoni pulls it off, not only keeping pace but showing some real comedic timing of her own. As good as Carrey is, she ends up being the best reason to tune in. Smart, beautiful, unafraid to get crazy, and genuinely earning solid laughs, Leoni saves this movie.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
![]()
GHOST TOWN
This underseen black comedy was a vehicle for Ricky Gervais, written and directed by David Koepp, that also went underappreciated. Gervais plays a cynical dentist who has a near death experience while undergoing routine surgery, only alter learning that he is now able to not only see ghosts walking about the city, but also able to communicate with them, all of whom seem to have unfinished business they want him to take care of. One of them is businessman Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), who was in an accident and now wants help so that his widow Gwen (Leoni) won’t end up with the wrong guy. A romantic comedy with some real heart, Leoni is endearing as a woman coping with loss and trying to find her way while dealing with a strange new man in her life. Mixing laughs with honest drama, she is really great, helping to make this clever story click in all the right places. [/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
![]()
DEEP IMPACT
While a giant meteor from space is the real reason theater-goers flocked to this disaster epic, the film featured a large ensemble cast (as most in the genre do). The story is pretty simple with a teenaged amateur astronomer (Elijah Wood) discovering a comet that is heading right for Earth, though circumstances prevent that knowledge from reaching the right people in time. A year later, it looks like lights out for life on our planet when journalist Jenny Lerner (Leoni) undercovers the fact that the government, including the president (Morgan Freeman) already know, but now are forced to tell the world. Can anyone survive? Leoni competes with a few heavy hitters here but manages to be the most memorable, having some of the most impactful (sorry) moments in the film. Spirited and genuinely convincing, Leoni is easiest to identify with, especially in the second half as there seems no hope for life on Earth. Great stuff.[/nextpage][nextpage title=”NEXT” ]
![]()
THE FAMILY MAN
A film about second chances via a sort of Christmas Carol route, this romantic drama stars Nicholas Cage a Jack Campbell, a successful Wall Street type who gets a message from an old flame named Kate (Leoni), but decides to ignore it. After a curious incident at a convenience store where he meets a mysterious man named Cash (Don Cheadle), Jack wakes up the next day in a different life, married to Kate with children and working at a tire store, his path in life far different after making a choice he didn’t make years earlier. Now he has to figure out what happened while dealing with a whole new set of problems. While Cage is surprisingly tame here, Leoni is the whole show, a wife and mother raising kids and trying understand why her husband of many years is suddenly acting so strangely. She’s warm, embracing, affecting, and simply magnetic, making this one of her best roles. If you haven’t seen this wonderful little slice of fantasy, don’t hesitate. [/nextpage]