The post-summer lull begins. But luckily the pre-Christmas buzz
is not far off. Movie seasons tend to mimic the academic year with
Hollywood acting as a kind of collective creep with enticing candy
treats, waiting for school to let out. In case you were wondering,
you’re the intended victim.
Franchise Folly The candy comes in the form of
franchise films: sequels upon prequels upon trilogies that are
tasty but ultimately empty. Tim Allen looks for a Mrs. Claus in
“The Santa Clause 2″ (Nov. 1). Trekkies can get some
“Star Trek: Nemesis” (Dec. 13) pumped into their blood.
The world’s best-dressed superhero comes back in the new
James Bond flick “Die Another Day,” (Nov. 22)
co-starring an unbelievably small bikini which, incidentally, is
worn by Halle Berry. Of course, those franchises just warm us up
for “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (Nov.
15), which apparently is about Harry starting puberty, and
“Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (Dec. 18). Some
franchises are sustained without making more sequels. Instead, the
creators make the film bigger in size. Both “Apollo 13″
(Sept. 30) and “The Lion King” (Dec. 25) are being
digitally-enhanced for IMAX viewing, since those two films failed
to make enough box office revenue the first time around. Most
surprising is that one of the more promising art documentary films
is also a franchise. “Naqoyqatsi” (Oct. 18) is the
third and last of the “Qatsi” trilogy
(“Koyanniqatsi” and “Powaqqatsi” were
watershed films). Directed by Godfrey Reggio under executive
producer Steven Soderbergh, the trilogy is a study of
civilization’s advancement (or perhaps degeneration) from the
natural world to the technological world. Philip Glass has produced
some of his best music for the films and for good reason; the
images stick with you long after you leave the theater.
Talented Teamworks Aside from
“Naqoyqatsi,” your best bet is to avoid the franchises
and to go for films with filmmakers which actually have talent.
With writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson’s
“Punch-Drunk Love” (Oct. 11), Adam Sandler joins the
list of comedians trying to attain dramatic heft (see Robin
Williams and Jim Carrey). While “Boogie Nights” may
have been too phallic and “Magnolia” too long and
froggy, Anderson’s new effort could solidify his monopoly on
giving wannabe actors their best roles (see Tom Cruise and Mark
Wahlberg). Besides, Anderson-regular Philip Seymour Hoffman is
always a joy to watch. “Adaptation” (Dec. 6) reunites
the team (director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman) that
brought us “Being John Malkovich” and stars Nicolas
Cage and Meryl Streep. Cage does double duty as a confused version
of the film’s own screenwriter Kaufman as well as his
freeloading twin brother, Donald. If anything, the mind bending
antics will at least allow Cage to switch between his madcap style
and meditative schlock as in “Face/Off.”
Snap, Crackle, and Do it Again Then there is
the nefarious case of pop stars wanting to reach movie star status.
They often do this by enlisting A-list directors. Madonna did it
the hard way; she married one (Guy Ritchie) and is nagging him
about how “her” film , “Swept Away” (Oct.
11) ends. Apparently the material girl thinks two people who fall
in love on a deserted island would remain together after they leave
the island, taking her cue from the similarly titled “Cast
Away,” where Tom Hanks falls in love with a volleyball and
maintains a healthy relationship with it via air pumping. More
intriguing is Eminem’s acting debut opposite Kim Basinger in
director Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile,” (Nov. 8) a
semi-autobiographical tale of a poor, abused kid who learns he has
a genius for violent rap lyrics. It’s “Good Will
Hunting” for misogynists. Of course, Eminem’s music has
always been a deconstruction of his persona and it’ll be
interesting to see whether the film will further his nihilism or be
a standard, coming-of-age redemption film. Film remakes are almost
always worse than the originals but provide Hollywood with solid
material known to work. Foreign film remakes are even better,
because the chances American audiences will think it’s new
are increased. Russian Andrei Tarkovsky’s
“Solaris” (Nov. 27) gets the Steven Soderbergh
treatment (he remade “Ocean’s Eleven” too),
complete with George Clooney and nifty special effects for some
space station insanity. Japanese Hideo Nakata’s “The
Ring” (Oct. 18) gets remade by Gore Verbinski, a scary
proposition since his last foray into foreign film was “The
Mexican.” Hopefully talented Naomi Watts in the starring role
can produce magic. She provided some of the most explosive yet
sensitive acting of recent years in last year’s
“Mulholland Drive.”
Chinese Connection Waiting to fully exploit the
Asian filmmaking boom of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon,” Chinese filmmakers get their due with the spotlight
on two new Jackie Chan films, “The Tuxedo” (Sept. 27)
and “Shanghai Knights” (Feb. 14, 2003), and Ronny
Yu’s new Samuel L. Jackson film “Formula 51″
(Oct. 18). Most worthy as a successor to “Crouching
Tiger” is the Chinese import “Hero,” (December)
directed by Zhang Yimou and starring the Chinese dreamcast of Jet
Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. The film threatens to
be the Chinese martial arts film to end all Chinese martial arts
films but as long as the poetry of sword-fighting in a bamboo
forest remains, I’m sold.
A Time for Giving and Fighting over Leo
Fulfilling all of our Christmas film buzz dreams, Christmas Day
will be the tootsie pop; we won’t know how many licks
it’ll take to get to its core. It’ll be fun to watch
directors Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese fight over the
rights to use Leonardo DiCaprio on films opening the same day. Leo
stars in Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” and
Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can.” Personally,
I’m betting on Scorsese and those amazing “Gangs”
teaser trailers, where Daniel Day-Lewis scares the living daylights
out of me, (although Spielberg’s “Minority
Report” can be seen as proof that he has decided to start
making good films again.) Other than the Leo Wars, we have Spike
Lee’s “The 25th Hour,” Roberto Benigni’s
“Pinocchio” and a singing Richard Gere and Catherine
Zeta-Jones in “Chicago” to watch out for. Those movie
theater waters can be treacherous, but as long as you steer clear
of the strangers with candy, perhaps you’ll make it to
(that’s right) the summer of 2003, baby!