Friday,18 June 1999

WEEKEND PREVIEW

Welcome to the first really interesting box office weekend of the summer. As is the custom, I will hold off on most of the b.o. analysis until I write the Box Office Extra, which will be here at noon, e.s.t., but there is actually some competition. That also means that there is some variety, especially for those of you who don't go to the movies every weekend. But even for you every-weekend attendees, you have a terrific kid's movie (Tarzan), a worthwhile adult thriller (The General's Daughter), two big holdovers (Austin Power: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace) and in the big cities, two high profile indies (An Ideal Husband and Run Lola Run.

Also lingering and worth the trip are Universal's Notting Hill & The Mummy (they must be taking afternoon tea every day over there). The Matrix is still on a few big screens for Warner Bros. and Sony is about to segue from the teen-oriented Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed to the teen-oriented Adam Sandler with Big Daddy (my review of that one is coming on Monday.) At the art houses, Buena Vista Social Club, the stunningly powerful and apolitical documentary Return With Honor and Limbo are all very much worth your time and money. (I haven't seen The Winslow Boy, Twice Upon A Yesterday, The Red Violin or The King of Masks, so despite generally good notices, you're on your own there.) And a special note again about getting out to see Election. Don't miss it.

Once July 4 comes and goes, I promise, you will not have enough time to see all the movies that will be screaming for your attentions. Go to the movies now, while it's still relatively quiet. Or you'll miss all this stuff.

THE GOOD: Tarzan is simply terrific. I love that Harry Knowles and AICN are ecstatic about The Iron Giant, but the quality of that movie is no reflection on Tarzan. Apples and oranges. The jungle beat of Phil Collins' drums in a movie where characters have their feelings represented by songs rather than breaking out in song (with one exception) are powerful. Rosie O'Donnell is not an irritating distraction, unless you go in hoping that she will be. Her best-friend character, like Eddie Murphy's dragon in Mulan, is very well measured and doesn't overwhelm the central story. Minnie Driver makes a very interesting Jane, a little sillier than we are used to seeing (or hearing) her and leaving me to think that she might be well served to try uncorseted comedy again. (She was terrific in Grosse Point Blank.) The villain is one of the few in recent Disney history who really needs killing. (I forget who turned that phrase in a movie. E-ME if you remember.) And the animation is, indeed, magnificent. The Lion King was a great movie that worked on pretty much every level. No one, not even Disney, may ever get to that level of iconography and raw power again. But Tarzan is the next best of this generation of Disney animation. And with Toy Story 2 and Fantasia 2000 on the way, Disney may finally have an animated year that matches the magic of our memories.

THE BAD ASS: I just pulled up my comments on Run Lola Run from Sundance. Seems that I was on the run that day, too. Take a read: "After that, I grabbed a way-too-quick dinner (pizza...God, what a bad day for eating well.) and grabbed a bus back to my home hotel for an 11 p.m. screening of Run Lola Run, the high-buzz German flick that did big numbers at home and was the subject of a bidding war that Miramax actually lost. (Pissed Harvey Weinstein off so much that he paid through the nose for future films by the producers in advance.) Terrific movie. Kind of a gimmick film, but really well done. I can imagine this one doing Midnight movie business for a long time. No way will it do more than $15 or $20 million domestic, but the video will be strong despite the language difference. It's not really a movie about the words. And watch for Tom Tykwer to be the next hot director of non-American descent. He made Sliding Doors without the romance, but with unusual visual brilliance and an ability to get to the damned point."

THE UGLY, BUT INTERESTING: The General's Daughter is a dark, dark movie. If you are squeamish about issues of sexual power games, don't go to the theater. You will be uncomfortable. If you are, like Rod Lurie, sensitive to issues about the representation of the military at the movies, you will probably leave the theater unhappy. If you are weighing John Travolta in your mind each time he hits the screen, you will not find Skinny John here. But if you would like to see a well-crafted, complex, difficult mystery about people who spend their lives trying to serve two masters at all times, you will probably like this movie a lot. This movie is likely to be written off as a Hollywood popcorn movie, but it isn't afraid to push some buttons that are not standard Hollywood fare. The demons that drive us all are on display in the actions of all the leads, except for Travolta and Stowe, who have their own personal histories to distract them. I'm a little worried that with these comments, I may now be overpraising the film. It's not as good, for instance, as Presumed Innocent. But it isn't coy. Travolta is playing a classically Travolta character with some wickedly clever dialogue from William Goldman. And there are some stand-outs.

On the lightest note, Madeleine Stowe's pants are magical. Just watching her walk is a delight. But more seriously, Leslie Stefanson's first real featured role is reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve. The camera loves, loves, loves this woman. And she is charming. She may be too beautiful to ever really be taken seriously by Hollywood, but let's all hope that this debut is no illusion. Next up for her is, New Line's Lost Souls. And Simon West really makes his mark as a feature director this time out. He has all the style that he displayed with Con Air, but none of the easy gimmicks. The question with most commercial/video directors who move up to features is whether they will be in the Tony Scott or the Ridley Scott camp. That is to say, will they take the screenplay or the smoke more seriously? (To be fair to Tony Scott, he has directed some higher quality scripts lately, though he gets busted back to Private for The Fan.) West, who I chatted with on Wednesday, seems to be aiming for Ridley. And he may be the calmest, coolest young big-time director I've ever talked to. He seems to be a really good guy. It gives one hope.

"The Powers Of Austin, Tarzan Quotes And A Bit More Bucksbaum"