December 13, 2002

t was the best of times… it was the worst of times…

Well, neither is probably true.  But this weekend is The Tale Of Four Genres. 

You have your sci-fi franchise in Star Trek: Nemesis.  You have your Cinderella romantic comedy in Maid In Manhattan.  You have your over-the-top teen comedy in The Hot Chick.  And you have your Urban flick in Drumline.  Four films enter… one film leaves.

Again, too draconian.  My bet is that all four of these films will do well for their studios.  None of these films can be expected to get across-the-board critical praise.  But all four are essentially critic-proof to the core. 

New exclusive and limited releases include About Schmidt, Evelyn, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Russian Ark, The Guys and Intacto. 

WEEKEND GUESSTIMATES

Star Trek: Nemesis - 2711 venues – new - $33.3 million
The Hot Chick - 2217 venues – new - $24.7 million
Maid in Manhattan - 2838 venues – new - $19.2 million
Drumline -1836 venues – new - $8.1 million
Die Another Day – 3377 venues – off 38 percent - $7.9 million
Analyze That - 2635 venues – off 43 percent - $6.3 million
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 3025 venues – off 48 percent - $5.7 million
Treasure Planet - 2192 venues – off 36 percent - $3.6 million
Empire 869 venues - off 53 percent - $3 million
The Santa Clause 2 - 2207 venues – off 46 percent - $2.9 million
Eight Crazy Nights - 2177 venues – off 58 percent - $2.2 million

JUDGMENT WEEKEND:  Tomorrow, the L.A. Film Critics will decide which film to reward.  Rumor has it that rumors are not to be trusted.    On Monday, The New York Film Critics Circle will decide on their award.  And BFCA follows that and the Golden Globes after that.  And then, quiet…

Miramax held a dinner for Gangs of New York and one HFPA member got loaded and lost her mind.  And if you mention it to any studio publicist in Los Angeles, they will be able to tell you who the woman is before they even hear the story. 

ADAPTATION ANALYSIS:  For anyone looking for it, my Act II & III analysis of Adaptation will turn up next week.  Now I have a copy of the script to go with the screener, making it all the easier.  And for all you Adaptation fans out there, “Fuck Fish.”

ROCKY VI:  Okay… a man in his late 50s comes out of retirement to be hit in the face again… great.  Are we waiting for him to pull a hamstring?  Are he and Adrianne going to be grandparents?  Is Stallone going to be in the empty New York City library, but find that his reading glasses are broken?  Do we really need to go here?

MONDAY: The Gangs Of New York Extravaganza….

READER OF THE DAY:  ALMOST PRIDE writes: “The problem of film makers wimping out and not trusting their own creative instinct have always been there in the past, but in recent years the problem has seemingly reached epidemic proportions.  One of the best known examples of a director not listening to his artistic intuition would have to be Ridley Scott’s

Legend.  Upon viewing his European cut of the film Scott freaked out thinking that the film wouldn’t be marketable at its intended length and chopped 20 minutes for the American release.  By his own addition, the decision was strictly his own and stemmed from fearing a timid reception by an American audience, who’d deem the film too dark and complex as opposed to what was originally planned to be a family-friendly film (huh?).  Of course history showed that cutting 20 minutes did absolutely nothing for the box office and might have actually turned many critics against the film since many of the scenes cut fleshed out characters and gave the film a hypnotic aura which was entirely lost in the cut version, where the action felt rushed and some events seemed arbitrary and without reason.  The altered happy ending didn’t jive with the dark, brooding nature of the film and felt compromised and derivative as a result.  Scott clearly should’ve stayed with the original vision, this much is clear from the cut featured on the DVD, which shows the first cut to be deeper and more eloquent than the 86 minute version. 

Ridley Scott did it again with Gladiator and made compromises to his vision, which altered art simply to appeal to the masses.  About 70% of the deleted scenes deal with the developing relationship between Maximus and Proximo, and they are simply brilliant.  The fact that they were cut for pacing and redundancy doesn’t apply here because they were only about 10 minutes in length (combined) and showed the side of Proximo which was barely scratched on in the released film, where Proximo was one of the crucial characters.  Scott’s explanation in his commentary is that he’d already had enough scenes in the film showing who Proximo was and how did his role affect Maximus. ...AND the film was running long.  Scott’s a genius, but here he’s simply wrong.  Since every other main/pivotal character in the film is beautifully fleshed out, why wouldn’t you want the same treatment for ONE other main character who is immensely important to the plot?  This is not some brainless sword and sandals action flick and the plot was clearly driven by the characters and not the other way around.  The cut scenes show how real and flawed Proximo was (I really miss Oliver Reed) and make his exit at the end of the film that much more emotional and poignant.  10 more minutes of time would not have affected the film in the least, as it was already long to begin with.  This is the case where you want to stay with the characters and get to know them and the lengthy running time is a blessing not a curse. 

On the other end of the spectrum some directors don’t know when to quit.  For example, Spielberg cut his balls off with the endings for A.I. and Minority Report.  Unlike Scott, Spielberg had no qualms about rambling on and both films had endings which were so bad and went on for SO LONG, you could actually see the seams showing where real art ended and the commerce began.  Had Spielberg ended A.I with the boy discovering the Blue Fairy and the bottom of the Ocean and Minority Report with Cruise being jailed (or at least a conclusion more in keeping with the intellectual first half) both of these films would have been among the greatest sci-fi epics ever made. Minority Reports first half featured some of the most unbelievable work (both intellectually and visually) Spielberg has ever done.  Which is why it was so frustrating to literally see the film come to a full stop and then slowly degenerate into a simple Agatha Christy murder mystery.  It was obvious that Spielberg was too afraid of the truths he might’ve discovered had he went all the way and also couldn’t resist his desire to have his work finish at the top of the box office and not in the brain of an audience.”

E ME:  You know how.