Friday, 14 May 1999

WEEKEND PREVIEW

There are three new releases of particular note this weekend, but it doesn't seem that any of them have even a remote chance of challenging for the number one or number two spot. Those will belong to The Mummy, for which Hollywood is anxiously awaiting the answer to the "can it hold up for a second weekend" question and Entrapment, which is falling as quickly as Sean Connery's hairpiece off a tall building. As usual, you can get my specific estimates of their weekend chances, along with screen counts for a bunch of films, in Box Office Extra (check this link after noon), after noon E.S.T. today. In third place, newcomer A Midsummer Night's Dream should manage to pass up weekend six of The Matrix, which will likely fall to fourth place.

The Hong Kong-made Jet Li film Black Mask may be fighting Election for the fifth spot. That depends as much on Black Mask's ability to draw as it does on Election's ability to hold the ground it gained last week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Everyone who I talk to about the film loves it. But the film may end up being the king of the coasts before having a powerful afterlife on video, DVD and cable. Following these two should be the long lasting trio of Never Been Kissed, Analyze This and 10 Things I Hate About You. The other attention-grabbing newcomer, which I don't think will be on enough screens to make a Top Ten impact (check Box Office Extra to be sure), is Tea With Mussolini. I haven't seen the film, but people I know who have are still with us thanks to the quick attention of paramedics to their attempted suicides.

There are some cool titles at the specialty houses. Please, if you know of a theater in your community that programs really great and unusual stuff, please let the theater know to contact me. I would like to have as many of these unique movie experiences mentioned in this column each week as possible. After Life from Hirokazu Kore-eda is opening on one New York screen. It is an incredibly cool movie. Think a Japanese Defending Your Life, except you get to choose the moment of your life that you want to recreate and make into a film of your very own. Meanwhile, older Japanese cinema continues to infect the American Cinematheque with the ongoing Japanese Outlaw Masters series. This weekend, there's 1965's Hoodlum Soldier, 1964's Fight, Zatoichi, Fight! and also from 1964, Zato Ichi And The Chest Of Gold. Check out their website for the details. And please, please, please send stuff in from your local theaters.

THE GOOD: Yes, the Cannes Film Festival opened this week. But so did the 25th Annual Seattle Film Festival. And clearly, never the twain shall meet. Seattle thinks it makes better coffee and the French know that they don't. The festival started yesterday with a film from the remarkably commercial and often remade in English director Francis Veber's French, The Dinner Game. The festival closes June 6 with the first public screening (in this country at least - the film is going to be shown in Cannes, in no connection to the festival except commercial) of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. In between, more than 300 films from 45 countries. I'm sorry that I can't be there, but I'm on festival shut-down until September.

THE BAD: Well, after not being able to get Roger Ebert & Co. a 70mm print of Tron for The Overlooked Film Festival, Disney finally made one to be shown at Los Angeles' El Capitan theater, which is running Disney films this month and next until Tarzan swings into town. Tonight at 8:15, Bruce Boxleitner will be part of a Tron panel. (He's taking some time off from giving tours of the stars' homes.) And next week, on Wednesday and Thursday, Tron will go head-to-head with Star Wars, which is playing at The Chinese, almost directly across the street. So, in one day, you can watch the first real computer movie and the most advanced CG movie ever made without even moving your car. I just wish we had a 70mm print to see back in Urbana.

THE UGLY: Do you know how expensive carpet is these days? I mean, even cheap, crappy carpet? I know. It has nothing to do with the movies. But the ugliest thing out there is still The Media vs. Star Wars and I'm sure we are all sick of the discussion. But make no mistake, especially those of you in the media who are reading this, you are participating in a public roasting as a source of self-indulgence. Supporting this movie is not a story. Everyone assumes it's going to succeed financially. Tearing it down is the only story here. And that's not a good reason to tear it down. I'm so tired of hearing about how the box office doesn't matter because the audiences have been duped and then how I should be against the film because the "majority," currently consisting of about 20 voices, agrees that the film is not as good as it should be. Either majority rules or it doesn't. For me, it doesn't. I have my opinions and if the majority (real people, not silly, vain filmland folks) disagree, I don't change my opinion of the film, but I do explore why people were touched when I wasn't. I don't assume that they are living in a delusional cloud created by a guy in Marin County. Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, media folks. It's just George Lucas. He may have everything you ever dreamt of having, but he is still insecure, still trying to make art in his image and still just human. That doesn't mean that I am a Jar-Jar fan now. But all The Wizard really did was to push people's button and all the witch wanted was her sister's shoes back. Dorothy, on the other hand, killed someone she never met and killed another person by accident, all while never leaving the comfort of her bed back in Kansas. Who's the bad guy? It's all in your perspective. (Damn! I went off on this subject again! I can't seem to stop myself!)




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