The Hot Button by David Poland

Friday, 30 April 1999

WEEKEND PREVIEW

It seems that the most significant question about this weekend is, how much will The Mummy beat The Matrix by next weekend. I haven't seen Entrapment due to "My Trip To Urbana" (Writers Guild Registration Number 666), but the film smells of failure. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery are both high on my "must see" lists, but even the addition of Ving Rhames to the ad campaign isn't enough to get me feeling really good about this one. I will surely see it over the weekend (along with The Dreamlife of Angels), but perhaps you'll give me your opinions as well. To get my weekend estimate, click here for Box Office Extra after noon EST.

The other major newcomer is Idle Hands, a film that may mark the nadir of the current run of teen films. This is despite nice performances by Seth Green, Elden Ratliff and Jessica Alba. And only a month ago, I was touting the possibilities of the idea for the film. However, the execution made me wish for my execution. It's just hideous. The script manages to extinguish every spark of a good idea. You like an idea you saw in the trailer? You've seen it's entire comedic run. I don't want to indulge in spoilers just because the movie is terrible. Suffice it to say, you've gotten the best of the "kinky," all the "hand occupying" that makes any sense and Seth Green's biggest laugh of the film. Idle Hands has even built in a metaphor for it's own failure to deliver with the appearance in the film of white hot band The Offspring, whose Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) is featured in the TV ads and the trailer. They never play the song in the movie. Maybe someone who loves the band knows the song they do play, but I couldn't identify it. Director Rodman Flender apparently fell off the movie track after his first three films, The Unborn, Heat of Passion and Leprechaun 2. (Two of which featured Lisa Kudrow, so he has an eye for talent.) A directing gig on Dawson's Creek was probably his ticket to Sony High (my pet name for the most teen-driven of the studios), which not coincidentally produces Dawson's Creek. Back to the Creek, Rodman. I love dark comedy, but it has to be funny more than once every 15 minutes.

In the art houses, look for the Sundance award-winning Three Seasons (THB 1/30), Sundance non-winner Get Real (which I haven't seen) and the David Mamet drama, The Winslow Boy, which is getting reviews from "best ever" to "worst ever." Me, I'll be running to the Mamet. He's one of my favorites. His book, On Directing Film, is an excellent guide, I think, even more for actors and writers, than for directors. He's really clear about keeping an eye on the big picture. Reading the book ruined The Spanish Prisoner for me because I knew how his mind worked as a director too well. I could read every "tell" he laid out in the twisted tale of deceit.

Various milestones will be hit this weekend, but more on that in Box Office Extra. But during the week, there were two milestones of note. Saving Private Ryan hit $215 million on Tuesday. And The Matrix his $120 million on Wednesday. Also, Goodbye Lover hit the $1.8 million mark late Thursday night after 14 days in release. Now, if only Warner Bros. can keep the film in theaters for another 23 weeks, it can gross $20 million domestic. And still lose money.

THE GOOD: Slamdance will raise it's truly independent flag on the sands of Cannes, taking seven of it's 1999 features to the give them their European debuts. The festival, which Sundance has tried to drive out of Park City during each year of it's existence, has come to symbolize the spirit of what festivals are supposed to be. And while I'm writing about Park City festivals in France, the folks who did Lapdance at Park City this year will also be in Cannes, with the Cannes You Dig It festival.

THE BAD: Universal chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr. has rid himself of the title, King of The Hollywood Suckers. How'd he do it? He made a sucker of a guy who has long been thought of as more of a blood sucker than a rube. Metro Goldwyn Mayer wanted to hire Universal Pictures president Chris McGurk to run operations at MGM. Nothing good has happened under McGurk's three-year-long watch at Universal, but that isn't what makes MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian a sucker. What earns him the championship title is the price that he's paying for McGurk. Universal gets music publishing rights to MGM's film library for five years, starting in 2001. Universal gets a partner to the tune of $100 million for future features. Plus, Universal will be given the opportunity to exploit the MGM library in its theme parks, though apparently not the James Bond franchise, whose rights are controlled by Barbara Broccoli. While the trades positioned the hire as an urge to get an exec with a strong track record, McGurk doesn't have that record when it comes to movie making decisions. The strength of his resume is in business dealings and negotiating corporate unions. And that is probably the MGM future. So the fit is good, but the price was way, way, way too high.

THE UGLY: Pamela Anderson has managed to extend every stereotype about the "dumb blonde" to it's maximum weight this month. The publicity frenzy over her implants was stupid enough. (And if you ask me, she removed her huge breast implants only to put in smaller ones, based on her appearances that I've caught on TV since then.) But her choice to return to Tommy Lee, best known for his bouts with heroin, wife-beating and penile boat steering, makes me sick to my stomach. And as innocuous as her dirty comic book image has become, I wouldn't want my niece (or nephew, for that matter) being influenced by a woman who, under no duress, returns to her abusive relationship. Listening to her rationalize about it being, "them against the world" in their new rekindled love is about as textbook as you get when it comes to women who choose their abuse. Teaching kids that self-objectification is okay is one thing, but this is far more dangerous. And I don't expect to hear much from the feminists, because someone may ask them why they're worried about consensual abuse when they let Juanita Broderick fall off the radar screen so easily. The Clintonization of America continues.

THE CHAT: Next Wednesday, there will be a brand new Movie Chat. But will we have a special guest director for you? Looks like it. I'm waiting on a confirmation, but all I can tell you now is, see Election. Besides getting you ready for a potential chat, it happens to be a terrific movie.

JUST WONDERING: It must be fun to get so much media attention, but can you imagine what it must be like on a rainy Tuesday, Day 37, at 4 a.m. lying in a tent on Hollywood Boulevard, hookers and drunks slinking by, all the while knowing that you have to wait another three weeks for Star Wars to open? Yick.

HAPPY TRAILERS TO YOU: The trailer for The Wild Wild West is still the second most talked about trailer of the year, right behind Phantom Menace. One has everyone excited and ready to wait on long lines to shell out money and the other has people talking about studio brass being fired. Combine a bad trailer with re-shoots and the sharks come swimming. Ironic, with Warner Bros. releasing Deep Blue Sea in July. If Wild Wild West really does have a serious problem, the shark analogies will be we everywhere. So here's where you get to do some work. Besides these two trailers, which summer promo do you think is the best and which do you think is the worst? And which one haven't you seen yet that you just can't wait to catch, if any?

BAD AD WATCH: Actually, today I want to remark on the billboard campaign for The General's Daughter. Paramount chose a fascinating blend of the Nazi propaganda look and pure American military imagery. The film is still one of the cyphers of the summer. A John Travolta movie that almost no one has heard anything about yet. Perhaps Paramount is figuring it can play it like Face/Off, which also had a low profile until nearly the last minute. But in that case, they had Nic Cage, John Woo and a killer trailer. I don't know whether it will work this time, but the billboard imagery really stands out from the crowd.

READER OF THE DAY: Jillana: " David, David, David, I was just beginning to love your column because you seemed to love movies as much as I do and, like me, you seemed to gobble up entertainment "buzz" and news like the high-fat, empty-calorie, Hostess Cupcake-type stuff it is. You knew what to take seriously (good movies) and what to laugh at (writers who pontificate about movies for which they haven't even seen the trailer). Who, as my best friend would say, "pissed in your Wheaties" this morning? (DAVID NOTE: I believe she is referring to THB 04/28). We all know that what you said is going to happen to "The Phantom Menace" is going to happen. Why are you letting it anger you? Are you feeling guilty for simply being an e-journalist?? Don't. You write with intelligence and pith. Get your bearings and perspective back. And glad you had a great time at Overlooked!

E ME: You know, people write me all the time to tell me that they already have it figured out. Then they write me spouting off nonsense they read somewhere as though it were fact. I'm not accusing you, Jillana, but waves of hype have a stronger undertow than I think you give them credit (or discredit) for. What do the rest of you think? And have I gotten too serious again with Pam Anderson? Who's going to stick up for Idle Hands?