Tuesday, 4 January 2000

WEEKEND REVIEW

You know, writing this column is a lot more intimidating when you haven't done it on a regular schedule for a couple of weeks. There was a glorious feeling in my heart when someone asked late last week about how a movie was doing at the box office and I didn't know. One thing I know... I have less than two weeks before my regular schedule becomes unmitigated insanity. I'll be taking you to Hawaii to hang out with Leo DiCaprio, to Chicago to hang with Roger Ebert and then to Sundance for our second annual 10 Days At Sundance. So, hang on, it's going to be a bumpy month.

As for the weekend box office, the story that is really most interesting is the ongoing success of Stuart Little. Word of mouse has apparently been good enough to keep families coming back to the film. And speaking of those families, it seems that Stuart Little and the slow-aging Toy Story 2 are the only two real family films in the market. My guess is that kids over 10 would get Galaxy Quest and that mom and dad would be a lot happier there, but DreamWorks hasn't marketed the film to kids. And frankly, they haven't done the best job marketing it to adults either. Way too many people who are seeing it are walking out surprised. With The Talented Mr. Ripley, Any Given Sunday, The Green Mile and Man on the Moon all really meant for adults and The Hurricane stuck unfairly with an "R," Galaxy Quest should be cleaning up as the best non-animated family film in the market.

And in a reversal of disinformation, Warner Bros., which was the most honest of the majors in their Top Ten estimates last weekend, got nailed this weekend for overestimating both The Green Mile and Any Given Sunday when the others, probably embarrassed by last weekend's fiasco, played it closed to the vest. As a result, the studio went from having the number two and three films to having numbers four and five, leapfrogged in the final numbers by The Talented Mr. Ripley and Toy Story 2, which was the big overestimator last weekend, overshooting by $2.1 million, based on final reported numbers.

THE GOOD: It's too early in the millennium for me to be seen being positive about anything.

THE BAD: Universal Pictures tried to pull off a number of fast ones with Man on the Moon. When posters with stylized photos of Andy Kaufman and alter-ego Tony Clifton started showing up on the streets with an "Andylives.org" tag on them, suspicion started. This column disclosed that the Website was registered to a non-existent person with false information. Jeff Wells was then tipped off to the company in the Midwest that produced the posters and checked that out, realizing that perhaps Universal didn't want credit because the postings were legally considered illegal defacement of public property and could land the company with a fine. When the lame Tony Clifton stunt took place at the film's junket, this column was clear as day...it was a fake...no question. So, what media outlet finally got Universal to admit everything? The Washington Post. Sharon Waxman wrote a very good story last week and there were quotes aplenty from Universal and movie execs coming clean at last. Now, perhaps I should simply congratulate Sharon Waxman for being a dogged journalist. But I feel a little screwed. After months of writing about this, they gave her the story in toto. Now, I am told by a non-Universal source that the studio resisted Waxman at first. But if you read it, it is clear that there were a lot of people given a green light to talk openly for the first time. Was it the power of The Washington Post or a decision that some more publicity could be garnered by "going honest?" I don't know. But this reminds me a lot of the studio protesting that Harry Knowles' trip to the How The Grinch Stole Christmas set wasn't vetted by the studio while the unit publicist was busy meeting Harry at the door. How stupid do I look/read? (I don't think THAT stupid!)

THE UGLY: In the great tradition of negative reporting always growing in stature over time, The New York Post reported that the trailer for The Beach was booed at the premiere of The Phantom Menace at the Mann's Chinese in Hollywood and that Leo suffered hearing someone shout "Leo sucks." First, it was not a premiere. It was on the first 24 hours of the film's run. And the story that Leo was there has never been confirmed. And while the trailer was booed and hooted at, the apocryphal "Leo sucks!" chant was added to the story after Leo was added.

ALSO UGLY: A Kevin Costner fan who first wrote me to ask about the falsely planted story about Kevin Costner showing his penis in For Love of the Game and having it laughed at, wrote TNT over the holidays to suggest that I was unworthy of TNT column space because I have since dared to suggest that Costner is the problem child that everyone in town, especially those who have worked with him, seem to feel he is. But in the name of fairness, I did mention the story of the effort by this woman (who didn't bother to include any specific journalistic lapses in her letter) and I was told a story about what a great guy Costner was when it came to a golf course that he was building. So, maybe it is just directors, editors and studio execs who feel the guy has smacked them around to excess. And by the way, I'm not going anywhere.

PAGE TWO: "Awards, The Radio Show & ROTDs"