The Hot Button by David Poland

Friday, 9 October 1998

WEEKEND PREVIEW

It's Eddie vs. the Antz this weekend. Reporters everywhere are crowing about DreamWorks' victory over Disney with last weekend's $17.2 million opening. This weekend, Disney gets its chance at revenge. Holy Man stars Eddie Murphy in an "Eddie Murphy" role, which bodes well. Dr. Dolittle opened with $29 million this summer. On the flip side, Eddie out of summer has truly been a fish out of water with Metro opening in January 1997 to $11 million, but ending up with just $32 million total domestic and October 1995's A Vampire in Brooklyn totaling out at $20 million. I think Holy Man will break the off-season curse, at least for one weekend, grossing $24 million to take first place. (I would have seen the film by now, but this is the price of being on vacation.)
Antz should stay within 35 percent of its opening total, taking second with $12 million. What Dreams May Come is a hard one to figure in week two. The film has been in the top spot during the week, but not with a big number (just over $1 million) while Antz is a weekend/family film. So, I'll bet 40 percent off for third place, $9.5 million. Rush Hour should have no problem taking fourth, falling another 35 percent to $9.4 million, closing in on $100 million in fourth place. A Night at the Roxbury should manage to stay in the top five, even if it takes a steep fall. Fifty percent off would still mean $4.8 million, enough to stay ahead of Ronin and Urban Legend, but there are definitely people who like this film. I'll estimate a 40 percent fall to $5.8 million and fifth.
The aforementioned Ronin and Urban Legend should tie for sixth with respective 45 percent and 40 percent falls, taking each to just about $4 million. There's Something About Mary, in week 13, should be good for another $2.6 million with 25 percent drop, finally passing $160 million. The ninth place finisher should be One True Thing as the drama limps toward the $20 million mark, adding $1.6 million with an all too familiar 40 percent fall. And in what will likely be the last weekend for the boys in the Top Ten, Saving Private Ryan will pass the $185 million mark with a 35 percent fall to $1.1 million. The Mighty is only in New York and L.A. this weekend, so don't expect it to show up on the charts, and One Good Cop is being released by one small releasing company (Stratosphere) and it has one unlikely box office draw (Stephen Baldwin), so it, too, should be a blip on the radar. And say goodbye to Simon Birch. I laughed, I cried, I didn't get it. You were a miracle, Simon. A miracle.
THE GOOD: Much as he went from the big screen Apollo 13 to HBO's From Earth to the Moon, Tom Hanks (and some guy named Spielberg) is putting together a World War II mini-series as a follow-up to Saving Private Ryan. The duo has optioned Stephen E. Ambrose's A Band of Brothers, which has enough strong tales to make as many as a dozen episodes of a mini. Ambrose's work, as you may recall, was central to Spielberg's vision for Saving Private Ryan, even before he was hired as a consultant shortly before the film's release.
Meanwhile, SPR landed in Germany to a somewhat stunned preview audience, who gave the film mostly powerfully positive reviews. But one 62-year-old viewer complained, "The Germans are portrayed as such fools that it makes you wonder why it took the Allies six years to win the war. These caricatures of idiotic Germans might work for audiences in Kansas City. But the war just wasn't that simple." Kansas City? What did Kansas City ever do to him? Idiotic German!
THE BAD: The MPAA refused to change their rating on Orgazmo, the porn business comedy from Trey Parker (Matt Stone appears in a very small role), from a NC-17 to a R. Do I think this is bad because I worry about censorship? A little, since Orgazmo is so sexually inexplicit that NC-17 seems grossly excessive. But I am more upset that the rating may make the film seem edgier and more interesting than it is. "South Park" is 1,000 percent more sophisticated. And funnier. And when Chef sings, far sexier.
THE UGLY: Fox parent News Corp is offering Monica Lewinsky $3 million for a tell-all book and TV interview. How far can they be from kicking in another $1 million for feature rights for Fox. Perhaps as a There's Something About Mary sequel, with Julia Roberts as Monica, Richard Gere as the retired Bill Clinton (still aching to "order some pizza") and John Goodman as Ken Starr. I can't wait for the scene where Starr finds the "male essence" hanging from the President's ear and then convinces him that it's hair gel as Ken Starr goes Ed Grimley. Or the scene where Clinton tries to convince everyone that it isn't sex if you get your scrotum caught in the zipper afterwards. Or the scene with the gerbil. Not that scene. The one where he has to bring him back to life. Oh. Maybe that is the scene you were thinking of.
THE EXPLOTATIVE: If you love Blaxploitation and you live in NY or L.A., check out Detroit 9000 this weekend. It's not a sci-fi flick, but rather a drama about a white cop in a black city. And if you find the "N" word shocking to your ears, try hearing an earful of "spades" and "coons" come at you. The film's release coincides with the release of the great book, What It Is... What It Was, which is all about the Blaxploitation films and is chock full of the poster images that defined the era. Great fun to read this one.
JUST WONDERING: Can I come back to L.A. now? PLEASE!
HAPPY TRAILERS TO YOU: Saw the trailer to You've Got Mail this week. Tom Hanks is so Tom Hanks. Meg Ryan is so Meg Ryan. And, another movie about two people finding each other while not finding each other is so... so... well, it's gonna be such a hit. Sometimes manufacturing a movie works. This looks like one of those times. (And how much is AOL paying for the world's greatest promo? Nothing, I bet.)
BAD AD WATCH: You know, you really appreciate living in the big city when you end up in Boca Raton and they don't have a single display ad for a film during the week, much less a bad ad. I'll cough up two on Monday (there are always plenty to choose from in L.A.)
READER OF THE DAY: RobBo wrote-o: "I'd have to say that my favorite off beat filmmaker is David Cronenberg. Any filmmaker who follows the commercial success of The Fly and Dead Ringers with Naked Lunch and Crash has to be off beat. I first discovered Cronenberg with The Brood (the birth sequence is one of the most disgusting scenes ever filmed), which was a great allegory of child abuse. Scanners followed, which I think was his first mainstream film. (This movie contained one exploding head scene and was rated R while Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, released the next year, also contained one exploding head scene plus two melting face scenes and was rated PG.) Videodrome was far ahead of its time, but They Came from Within (aka Shivers) foreshadowed the AIDS epidemic in 1975. I think Cronenberg makes some of the most interesting films."

E ME: I think that Crash was a complex, sick, flawed piece of true art, so I'd have to agree with you, Rob. Anyway, does anybody else have a favorite off beat director? How do you feel about Orgazmo? Let your fingers get typing.