Friday, 2 February 2001

WEEKEND PREVIEW

Big Momma is coming.

The question is, how hard will she be charging?

After Shanghai Noon opened to "just" $19.6 million last weekend, one has to wonder. Martin Lawrence's last movie, Blue Streak, which in my opinion had a less solid hook for fans of Lawrence and non-fans alike, opened to $19.2 million. One would expect that Big Momma could smash that with one cheek tied behind her back. (You pick the type of cheek.)

As for the entirety of the movie, it seems to works. Our own J. Rentilly didn't seem to think so, but I thought he kind of missed the joke. It wasn't supposed to be smart or thoughtful or a film whose hero evolved via the journey. This movie is about Martin Lawrence shaking his giant butt and mincing around as a big, fat, elderly, black woman. Simple as that. Is Martin Lawrence funny doing it? Yes. Do you laugh despite your occasional wishes that you weren't laughing? Yes. Is Nia Long a hottie worth looking at when you aren't laughing? Yes.

Now, is Nia Long objectified in the movie? Yes. Could the "flashlight" scene, shown in ads and the trailer, have been a bit more provocative? Yes. Are some of the scenes so over the top stupid that you turn your head to the side like the RCA dog trying to figure out why the people involved didn't notice? Absolutely. (Just a hint: watch the ENTIRE duct tape scene. Where does the tape go?)

And this is my personal pet peeve, which I have been spouting off about for more than a year. Raja Gosnell is a terrible movie director. He might be an okay TV director. But Drew Barrymore has made life easy for two men whose talents have not been as big as their hit films. One is Andy Tennant, a wonderful guy who fooled the studio by getting Ever After in on time despite serious family problems, and had a hit, thanks to the power of Drew. The other is Mr. Gosnell, whose Never Been Kissed should have done at least $80 million, but slipped because of his limited directing skills. My suggestion to Ms. Barrymore back then was to work with a great director or two. She chose McG and Charlie's Angels. (Cameron Diaz knows enough to hook up with Scorsese for a follow-up, so no matter how big the Angels explosion, her back is covered by genius.) And Fox gave Gosnell another top flight, rising movie star to direct. And Martin Lawrence will make this movie a small hit. And a Jonathan Lynn level comedy director would have made a movie that would have done at least $20 million more at the box office, in my mind's eye. Besides the atrocious lighting, it is abundantly clear that all you get in Big Momma's House is what the actors can bring. The director never helps them. Especially in the complicated "confusion" scenes. I'm sure Gosnell is a great guy. But he's not a good director and I wish Fox would get off of his bandwagon. But alas, when this film does $60 million, they'll give him someone else to play with.

Ugh.

Box Office Extra arrives at noon e.s.t.

THE GOOD: Wednesday night, Sony arranged a meet-and-geek for Paul Verhoeven and The Hollow Man. Basically, it was an hour with Verhoeven around a conference table and then about 15 minutes in the cutting room with Mark Goldblatt (one of the top commercial cutters working today) to see some scenes from the film.

The thing looks great.

Of course, we only saw a few scenes. But it has that great Verhoeven/Jost Vacano sheen, and pretty breathtaking effects. And from the conversation with Verhoeven, it is clear that this is going to be a dark, dark ride. The first half may be a CG update of the Universal horror flicks from the old days, but the second half will apparently be more Basic Instinct than any other horror film you've seen. Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Caine descends into the black areas of the human soul. Not exactly Chevy Chase land.

Verhoeven himself is about as pleasant a guy to talk to as any you'll ever meet in this business. He was completely open about problems he's had in the past. We talked about Starship Troopers, and he said, "That movie would never have gotten made if it wasn't for this crazy studio. People changing every six months. They didn't even have time to pay attention to what I was doing." Verhoeven also said that he had no interest in being invisible himself. He'd find it boring. And he explained his relationship with the Disney movie Dinosaur about as simply as one could. What would be the difference between his version of Dinosaur and the one that they ended up making? "The meteor. At the beginning of the movie now. It would have been at the end and it would have killed all the dinosaurs. Now, it just makes a mess, no? My idea was about evolution and survival. And they wouldn't have been talking or singing."

There will be a little singing in The Hollow Man. But this film about evolution and survival will definitely have people talking. I only wish they had trusted us all to see the entire film. According to Goldblatt, there are between 500 and 600 effects shots and all but 150 or so are now complete.

THE BAD: The SAG commercial strike continues, and even 500 people marching on Westwood hasn't left a very large footprint. There hasn't been a negotiating meeting between sides in more than two weeks and, apparently, actors are beginning to break ranks. (See ROTD.) Even a scheduled meeting on June 13 is being called "not a negotiation" by the union. That's one thing about Hollywood's unions. They rarely seem to win a strike. And that's a shame, because working actors, whatever you think of star salaries, are underpaid in this business.

An Ugly Ugly, A Lot of Filler & The Union Side"