The Hot Button by David Poland

Friday, 23 October 1998

WEEKEND PREVIEW

I had to do a double take when I looked at last weekend's box office numbers. That was only a week ago?!?! Dear God! It seems like weeks ago already. I think I need a vacation, but the box office never sleeps. The fast pulse of fall continues this weekend with three new wide releases. One, Pleasantville, has got all the buzz and is an Oscar-contender. The second, Soldier, is loud and noisy. It is also high in volume. Did I mention that it's loud? (More abuse of this film below). And the third, Apt Pupil, is the dark horse. Stephen King has hit highs at the movies a few times. Can Bryan Singer turn the trick? (Personally, I don't know. I missed the screening a couple of weeks ago. I'll tell you my opinion on Monday.) The L.A. Times asked whether America is really willing to pay to be lectured on the subject of racism. Well, we didn't want to see it last week when Beloved opened soft and both Apt Pupil and Pleasantville have the issue at their cores. We'll see. (By the way, we also have the limited release of Roberto Begnini's Holocaust dramedy Life is Beautiful, which is, again, based around intolerance. And, of course, Orgazmo, which is based around intolerance of any remote sense of intelligence.)
So, let's get down to business. Pleasantville seems poised to take the top spot with about $19 million. It will be very interesting to see how people react next weekend to the not-so-funny third act of the film. This weekend, it's about the ads that we all love. I think Apt Pupil will surprise with about $14 million. And, it's hard to imagine that Soldier will open to less than $9 million for third. Even The Avengers managed $10 million. Practical Magic should retain all but 40 percent of its magic, as its audience base should be seriously eroded by the magic of Pleasantville, taking fourth with $7.9 million. And Antz should beat out the Chuckster for fifth with a 30 percent fall to $7.8 million. (Still no real competition in the under-12 realm.)
If Chuck and wifey can manage almost $12 million last weekend, this film, which should appeal to a wider audience, should be able to turn that corner. So, Bride of Chucky could get lucky, falling only 40 percent, which for a horror film is a good second week -- $7.1 million for sixth. Beloved and Rush Hour should battle yet again for a slot, this week seventh and eighth. Both are 25 percent droppers to around $6.2 million each. What Dreams May Come is an immortal lock at ninth. The drop-off between the Robin Williams weepy and the next film was $2.6 million last weekend. So, even if my guess is off (45 percent fall to $3.5 million), it will be in that ninth slot. And scarily enough, A Night at the Roxbury should continue to hold onto a Top 10 slot for the fourth week, with a 40 percent fall to $2.3 million. Say goodbye to Urban Legend, Ronin (which you should still check out if you like urban actioners) and Holy Man, which will fight with A Vampire in Brooklyn as the career dog of Eddie Murphy's career. (Me, I still vote for that fist fight with Della Reese in Harlem Nights as his career low.)
THE GOOD: John Carpenter's Vampires was a pleasant surprise. It never quite lifts off the ground to the truly thrilling level of the very best action films. I'd even rate it a little behind Blade, which had more attitude. But this film has James Woods, in one of his best performances in a while. It was as though he was completely freed by doing a vampire flick, and he never fell into camp. (He did look awfully skinny though. Someone needs to feed that guy. I'd suggest Daniel Baldwin share some of his chow, but he's clearly not interested on giving up any of his chow.) Carpenter does some of his best and most subtle work in a while (which is odd to say about a film that has vampires exploding left and right, but it's true).
THE BAD: I caught an episode of "Law & Order" that featured Dylan Baker as a man who killed his son. This is the same Dylan Baker who gives a masterful performance in Todd Solondz' Happiness, as a guy whose relationship with his son is sorely skewed by his pedophilial nature. This actor, who is able to get loads of emotion past one of the most stony faces ever put on film, seems to be getting typecast. He even turns up in the next Woody Allen film. I don't think he plays a child abuser of any sort, but he was working for Woody. Does that make him an enabler? (Consumer alert: Dave is using 12-step terms. Dave has lived in L.A. too damned long.)
THE UGLY: Soldier is the final turd in the toilet bowl on the Warner Bros. release schedule for the last 16 months. Fortunately, I believe the company has turned the corner and will be quite hot in the next year, starting with the December 18 release of You've Got Mail. But this film defines the problems that the studio has had. Too much money, not enough story, unhip attempts to be hip. Soldier was a movie that called for genius. Making essentially a silent movie, a classic Clint Eastwood Western, was a really interesting idea, but Russell was wrong for the role, the supporting players were all wasted and none of it jibed with the campy villains and the hyperreal blonde goddess. And why does there always have to be "the kid?" This movie was so The Postman that it was rather shocking.
Batman & Robin, The Avengers, Steel, Sphere and U.S. Marshals. All suffering, all the time. But coming up, it's Oliver Stone, Frank Darabont, Renny Harlin, Barry Sonnenfeld, the Wachowski brothers and Stanley Kubrick to the rescue. Star Wars will likely make Fox the top money maker next year, but Warner Bros. is making a strong move back toward the top. So let's honor Soldier as the end of a horrible run.
JUST WONDERING: Anyone else run into this very insightful comment by critic John Anderson in Monday's L.A. Times regarding Bride of Chucky? "Jersey, as usual, is treated as a joke and it's interesting that while Todd Solondz has incurred the wrath of the Garden State for setting Happiness there, no one's said a word about Chucky. Which says something."
HAPPY TRAILERS TO YOU: One of the problems of seeing so many studio screenings is that you occasionally lose track of the trailers. I will go get my share this weekend, but in the meantime, Swinging Sammy F. sent me this note: "The other day I saw the trailer for A Bug's Life. I know you think it will do well. If I compare it to the trailers that I saw for Antz, I'm skeptical. As a Disney shareholder this pains me to no end!!!"
BAD AD WATCH: It's a tie between Soldier's TV spots, which use hack reviewers who don't even really praise the film, as in "Kurt Russell is a tough soldier." Uh-huh. Really? But Apt Pupil, which I've heard lots of good things about from people who may be quoted next week, does sneak Newsweek magazine into the mix. But the rest of the mix is Genre's John Polly (whose mail I got from Sony for a while), Paul Mr. Wunder-ful and the truly rare double dip of Cinefantastique and Detour. Yes, they actually used two sources to build one quote. "Hitchcockian..." "With a climax that will haunt you for days." I imagine the fat man refrence was Cinfantastiques's, but are we sure that the other half comes from a Detour story on this movie, as opposed to one of their all too overt sex columns?
CORRECTION OF THE DAY: Nothing I like better than being factually wrong. (Argh!) I've been discussing the End of Days director situation with people for weeks. No one bothered to correct me and tell me that the film is being distributed by Universal. That is, until Joe wrote me a note. (Thanks, Joe.) What I said is mostly true of Universal, which has also been in the dumps. (Bride of Chucky director Ronnie Yu has been telling journalists in the Far East that Casey Silver called him on Monday, thanking him for what will be the first moneymaker for the studio in 1998.) Universal just hasn't been as specific about their rule changes. Universal's revival starts with the very expensive Meet Joe Black, the less expensive Robin Williams' comedy Patch Adams and a pig out of his poke called Babe: Pig in The City. My apologies for the fact-blurring.
READER OF THE DAY: Jeff 57 Varieties wrote this to Ken of Hen (who was a ROTD in THB 10/21): "Why not get started on Saving Private Ryan? You tell me where Spielberg would have put a black character in that film. You tell me how he would have integrated that squad when everyone knows that the U.S. Armed Forces were not integrated until the late '40s, and what elements of the service that did have blacks or Asians were segregated themselves. If he would have had one black character with that group on the mission, you would have seen a real division within that group, because the prejudice toward blacks at that time, even from Northerners, was even more vitriolic than it is now, and (with the possible exception of Hanks' character) those guys probably would have heaped incredible amounts of mental and physical abuse on him, because at that time it was acceptable -- unfortunately.
"And to give credit to Spike Lee for things getting better for blacks in films, I think you have to go back a bit further to actor-directors like Sidney Poitier and Melvin Van Peebles and actors like Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis and Paul Robeson, and you will find positive strides for minorities in films. Spike Lee has the potential for being a great filmmaker (once he learns how to dispense with all the pretentious camerawork that gets in the way of his stories) but even he can stereotype with the best of them. Remember Malcolm X? The big guest stars in that film were white, and everyone of them portrayed a villain of some kind, with not one positive portrayal from any of them. Things will not change for the better until all races can be both heroes and villains without all of us looking for underlying meanings for these choices. Couldn't a person be a hero or bad guy just because they are a good actor or actress, or does everything get seen in black vs. white now?"

E ME: This conversation goes on because it is so passionate and interesting. Ready to add your two cents? If not, how about some insight on the new films this weekend? Or a good bad ad? Or just a note to say, "Hi, you opinionated Poland you!"