© St. Petersburg Times
published May 16, 2002
Everyone noticed how Shrek dominated the summer box office numbers last year, and how other films with family ties through video games (Tomb Raider), familiarity (Dr. Dolittle 2, Jurassic Park III) and hype (Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes) cracked the $100-million benchmark.
But don't think the success of these PG and PG-13 films is the only reason Hollywood is presenting a more family-friendly lineup for the summer of 2002.
Those films were expected to make money, in some cases more than they actually did. What caught the attention of studios last summer was audience support for smaller films aimed at young viewers that were throwaways by comparison to the blockbusters. The biggest sleeper was The Fast and the Furious, a $40-million movie that grossed $136.8-million.
Studio projections of grosses were surpassed by such youth-driven films as Legally Blonde ($71-million), Cats and Dogs ($86-million) and The Princess Diaries ($108-million), a rare live-action, G-rated hit. Meanwhile, serious adult material such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence, America's Sweethearts and Moulin Rouge struggled at the box office.
This summer, Hollywood is thinking about selling a lot of cheap children's tickets. For the first time in recent memory, at least one movie aimed at the elementary school set will be released on each of eight consecutive weeks from June to August. From Scooby-Doo to Spy Kids 2, this summer is dedicated to the kiddies.
Each week will also bring movies that young viewers will be convinced to see through marketing tie-ins and media hype, movies that are rated PG or PG-13 but contain material that some parents get nervous about, such as Austin Powers' frisky ways and the alien creepy crawlies hunted by men in black. They'll have MTV stars like J-Lo and Adam Sandler or radical stunts like XXX. Adults will drive to the theater, but children will drive the box office numbers.
Then there are those films intended solely for adults that some thoughtless parents will take their children to see anyway. Sure, the kids like Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire and Flubber, but do they need to see him as a stalker in One Hour Photo and a murder suspect in Insomnia? Have a heart, for the kids and the rest of the audience.
Those three divisions of summer movies -- at least the ones that will matter -- are listed below with the usual caveat that release dates can change at any time:
THE CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE
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The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course -- Crikey, mates, this could be a sticky situation. Australian adventurer Steve Irwin brings his tease-the-animals act to the movies, meaning there's a lame plot hooking together the good parts. One of the crocs he catches has swallowed a top-secret satellite beacon, and CIA poachers are out to find it. Co-starring spiders, snakes and a first-aid kit. (July 12)
Stuart Little 2 -- Sequel to the 1999 charmer about a talking mouse (voice of Michael J. Fox) adopted as a son by a human family (Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki). Columbia Pictures has been quiet as a mouse about the plot, but Nathan Lane returns as the skulking kitty Snowbell, and Christopher Walken voices an ill-tempered falcon. (July 19)
The Country Bears -- Disney regularly turns successful movies into theme park rides. Now, an attraction closing at Disney's parks for lack of interest becomes a movie. Go figure. The story concerns a cub named Beary, raised by humans, convincing an over-the-hill bear band to perform one more concert. No, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards do not provide voices. (July 26)
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams -- Last year's surprise hit makes an encore. Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino return as parents of a pair of pint-sized secret agents (Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara). They team up with another set of spy kids to combat an evil scientist played by Steve Buscemi. (Aug. 7)
GROWING UP FAST
Not exactly for kids, but just try to keep them away.
Enough -- Pop diva Jennifer Lopez plays an abused ex-wife making the same mistake again. Her new husband (Bill Campbell) isn't as nice as he first appeared, so she gets into fighting shape for a showdown. Call it Sleeping with the Enemy Then Kicking His Butt. (May 24)
[Photo: Universal Studios]
UNDERCOVER BROTHER
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Undercover Brother -- Preview trailers of this blaxploitation genre spoof are hilarious. Eddie Griffin (The New Guy, Double Take) plays Anton Jackson, an Afro-haired, leather-suited combination of Shaft, Black Belt Jones and, as the name implies, Action Jackson. Can you dig it? We think you can. (May 31)
Bad Company -- Talk about an odd coupling. The ever-so-elegant Anthony Hopkins teams with the ever-so-aggravating Chris Rock in a comedic CIA yarn. Rock plays the twin brother of a murdered agent recruited by Hopkins to complete a top-secret mission, bringing a streetwise swagger to the halls of justice. (June 7)
Mr. Deeds -- A remake of Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Adam Sandler replacing Gary Cooper? Sounds like heresy, but the movie turns out to be pretty good. For a Sandler movie, that is. He plays an abnormally nice small-town guy who inherits a fortune, bringing his sweetness (and a decent left hook when needed) to the big city. Winona Ryder stopped shopping long enough to play the love interest, and John Turturro is a stitch (not the Lilo type) as a Latino valet. (June 28)
[Photo: Columbia Tristar]
MEN IN BLACK II
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Men in Black II -- Will Smith (Ali) wants to reclaim his title as heavyweight champion of the Fourth of July weekend after taking last year off. This time, the roles are reversed, since Smith's Agent J must re-initiate Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) to intergalactic law enforcement after his memory was erased in the first movie. Can't forget that $586-million worldwide gross, though. (July 3)
Reign of Fire -- There's no MPAA rating yet for this one, but children love fire-breathing dragons, don't they? Matthew McConaughey plays a dragonslayer called into action when a bunch of those scaly pyromaniacs start torching the planet. (July 12)
Eight Legged Freaks -- Warner Bros. hopes audiences aren't fed up with spiders by the time this horror movie comes out. Poisonous spiders are stalking David Arquette, earning the encouragement of film critics everywhere. (July 19)
[Pphoto: Warner Bros.]
EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS
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Austin Powers in Goldmember -- You only live twice, but a funny idea can stretch to at least three movies. Mike Myers reprises his multiple roles as an oversexed British secret agent and three arch enemies: Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard and Goldmember. Michael Caine, whose Harry Palmer character in a trio of 1960s spy flicks inspired Myers, appears as Austin's father. (July 26)
[Photo: Columbia Pictures/
Revolution Studios]
XXX
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XXX -- This could be the summer's surprise hit. The actor with the best name in action movies, Vin Diesel, plays an extreme sports star recruited as a secret agent, using his masochistic instincts to save the world. The stunts make James Bond's close calls look tame, and Diesel's gruff, nonchalant persona gets ultra-cool support from Samuel L. Jackson. (Aug. 2)
Jackass: The Movie -- MTV's controversial reality series about people doing dangerous things to themselves gets the Hollywood treatment. Hmmm. Buy a ticket or bake myself like a potato over an open fire? Decisions, decisions. (Aug. 9)
The Tuxedo -- Jackie Chan plays a chauffeur who tries on his employer's formalwear and discovers its supernatural powers, using them to battle international espionage. No Chinese laundry jokes, please. (Aug. 16)
The Adventures of Pluto Nash -- Eddie Murphy has done well with voice-overs, remakes and sequels to remakes lately, so excuse us if a new flesh-and-blood character doesn't seem exciting. Pluto Nash is a nightclub owner on the moon dealing with a lunar mob shakedown. The project was in the works for nearly 20 years, then delayed from 2001's lineup. (Aug. 16)
The Master of Disguise -- Dana Carvey eats his former partner Mike Myers' dust, saddled with the summer's dumbest character name (Pistachio Disguisey) and a plot enabling him to transform himself into any inanimate object. Can't he blend into a better movie? (Aug. 16)
GET A BABYSITTER
For mature audiences only
Insomnia -- A trio of Academy Award winners collaborate on a remake of a haunting 1997 Norwegian film. Al Pacino plays a detective who accidentally kills his partner during the investigation of a girl's murder, then covers it up. Robin Williams gets in touch with his dark side as the chief suspect who witnessed the cop killing, taunting his pursuer with that knowledge. Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) co-stars. (May 24)
The Sum of All Fears -- Okay, it was distracting enough when Alec Baldwin was replaced by Harrison Ford after The Hunt for Red October introduced Tom Clancy's CIA hero Jack Ryan to the screen. Two movies later, Ford is replaced by Ben Affleck in the role, looking a bit too wet behind the ears for the assignment. Good thing he has Morgan Freeman along to hold his hand through a nuclear weapons crisis at the Super Bowl. (May 31)
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood -- Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise) makes her debut as director, adapting two Rebecca Wells novels about relationships between mothers and daughters. An impressive cast includes Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Ashley Judd, Maggie Smith and Fionnula Flanagan (The Others), plus James Garner speaking up for the menfolk. (June 7)
[Photo: Warner Bros.]
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD
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The Bourne Identity -- While Affleck does Clancy, his best buddy Matt Damon tackles a Robert Ludlum spy thriller. Damon plays a professional assassin suffering from amnesia who traces his past with other hired killers nipping at his heels. (June 14)
Windtalkers -- Based on the true story of Navajo soldiers whose native language became battlefield code for U.S. forces during World War II. Adam Beach (Smoke Signals) plays the interpreter, and Nicholas Cage is the tough sergeant assigned to protect him, or kill him if the enemy gets too close. Directed by John Woo, delayed when the events of Sept. 11 made war movies risky. (June 14)
[Photo: Twentieth Century Fox]
MINORITY REPORT
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Minority Report -- Hard to believe that Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise haven't made a movie together until now. Cruise plays a detective in a future where technology allows criminals to be arrested before they commit the crime. Nice work, until the cop gets accused of a murder he hasn't committed, escaping to find out who and why he'll kill. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose writings also inspired Blade Runner and Total Recall. (June 21)
Road to Perdition -- I asked Tom Hanks in 1995 if he would ever consider shucking his nice-guy image to play a murderer. "Nobody wants to see that," he replied. Obviously, Hanks changed his mind, accepting a role as a Depression-era hit man called the Angel of Death, avenging the murder of his wife and child with a surviving son in tow. Paul Newman co-stars as the assassin's father. (July 12)
K-19: The Widowmaker -- Notice in the early preview trailers for this submarine adventure that you don't hear much of Harrison Ford's Russian accent. Paramount Pictures must be concerned that audiences don't want to see Indiana Jones go Commie. The movie is based on the true story of a 1961 incident when a nuclear sub malfunctioned, threatening a world war among super powers. Ford plays the captain holding things together. (July 19)
Signs -- The creator of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable gets creepy again, this time with National Enquirer proof on his side. Mel Gibson plays a farmer and clergyman who discovers a mysterious pattern cut into his corn field. Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan would like to think that's evidence of a UFO visit. This one has all the signs of a box office winner. (Aug. 2)
[Photo: Touchstone Pictures]
SIGNS
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Full Frontal -- Steven Soderbergh is still riffing on improvised cinema, just with more celebrities helping after winning an Oscar for directing Traffic. This secretive project has an ensemble cast including Julia Roberts (rumored to do a nude scene), Blair Underwood, Catherine Keener, David Duchovny and David Hyde Pierce (who, thankfully, isn't rumored to do a nude scene). (Limited release Aug. 2)
Blood Work -- A retired FBI director (Clint Eastwood) with a recent heart transplant agrees to find his donor's murderer, perhaps a serial killer who has eluded the agency for years. Eastwood also directed the film from a script by Academy Award winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). (Aug. 9)
Simone -- A movie producer (Al Pacino) loses his temperamental star, so he uses the latest digital technology to create a substitute that everyone believes is real. George Lucas is mad that someone beat him to it. (Aug. 16)
One Hour Photo -- Robin Williams in another menacing role, this time a photo lab technician who becomes obsessed with a suburban family through its Kodak moments. No more Mr. Nice Mork. (Aug. 21)
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