Movie studios wage war for summer dollars

Published: Monday, June 29, 1998

Monday, June 29, 1998

FILMS: Hollywood's top season has biggest names scrambling to lure audiences to theaters

By Lonnie Harris

Daily Bruin Staff

Even though Godzilla has already stomped his way through Manhattan, and everybody knows the contents of the X-Files, the summer movie season is far from over.

In previous years, the studios would normally target their blockbuster films for June release, but intense competition has caused them to seek out big opening weekends in July and even August.

Some of the most popular summer movies, including "Independence Day," "Men In Black," and "The Fugitive" were released in either July or August, and 1998 is no exception.

Hitting screens July 4, "Armageddon" has all the makings of a huge, box-office hit. Though the premise (a huge piece of space debris hurtles toward Earth, and only a team of astronauts armed with drills and explosives can stop it) was used in May's surprise smash "Deep Impact," Buena Vista hopes that their film will attract the action-seeking crowd. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has a history of summer action spectacles, with credits including "Top Gun," "Con Air" and "The Rock."

Coming the following week (July 10) is Dreamworks SKG's "Small Soldiers," which follows a group of artificially intelligent action figures which wage a battle on the streets of suburbia. The warring action figures, whose leader is voiced by Tommy Lee Jones, are computer-generated creations from Industrial Light and Magic, the movie world's premiere effects studio, known for their work on "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park." "Soldiers" director Joe Dante is no stranger to films about small creatures menacing a suburban town: he previously directed "Gremlins."

Also on July 10, the newest edition of the popular "Lethal Weapon" series opens. Rounding out an already full cast (which includes Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Joe Pesci) is Chris Rock as a wisecracking cop (is there any other kind?) and Hong Kong action star Jet Li. Richard Donner once again helms this installment, the fourth in the series, hoping the combination of comedy and action will once again score with a summer audience.

The first big comedy of July, "There's Something About Mary," is the new project from the "Kings of Gross-out Humor," the Farelley Brothers. The Farelleys, whose previous works include "Dumb and Dumber" and "Kingpin," crafted this story about a geeky high-school kid (Ben Stiller) with a crush on the most popular girl in school (Cameron Diaz). When the kid grows up to be a success, he hires a private detective (Matt Dillon) to seek out his lost love. Despite the film's romantic-comedy premise, look for plenty of bathroom humor and outrageous slapstick.

An alternative to the summer's modern action films arrives on July 17 with the Steven Spielberg-produced "The Mask of Zorro." This film, which features Anthony Hopkins as an aging Zorro training Antonio Banderas as his replacement, fashions itself as a throwback to the old-fashioned swashbuckling films of Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks. Whether a savvy modern audience will swallow classic Hollywood style remains to be seen.

Spielberg, it seems, will be competing with his own film. His war epic, "Saving Private Ryan," opens just one week after "Zorro." "Saving Private Ryan," from Spielberg's Dreamworks studio, is the true story of a troop in World War II assigned to rescue the one surviving son of a family who has already lost three to the war. Tom Hanks portrays the leader of this bunch, which also includes Tom Sizemore and Ed Burns (known more as director of "Brothers McMullen" than as an actor).

A more conventional action film, "The Negotiator," opens July 31. Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson portray dueling hostage negotiators who team up once Jackson is framed for a series of crimes. The film was directed by F. Gary Gray, a long-time hip-hop music video director.

In a very different vein than "The Negotiator" comes its competition on July 31, Universal's "Baseketball." David Zucker, one of the creators of "Airplane!" and "Top Secret," directs the infamous creators of Comedy Central's "South Park" in a madcap spoof of professional athletics. Look for appearances by Jenny McCarthy and Yasmeen Bleeth amidst the collection of zany sight gags and verbal sparring.

The trend of remaking TV shows into films has given the world successes like "The Fugitive" - as well as failures, like "The Beverly Hillbillies." The genre's newest attempt is "The Avengers," opening Aug. 4 and based on a 1960s adventure series. In the new film, Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) and John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) are chasing after a supervillian (Sean Connery) bent on controlling the world's weather. The main attraction of the television series, the innuendo-heavy relationship between the two heroes, has inevitably survived in the big screen version.

Finally, Brian De Palma's "Snake Eyes" slinks into theaters Aug. 7. The film opens as the Secretary of Defense has been murdered in a crowded boxing arena in Atlantic City. Cops Nicholas Cage and Gary Sinise lock the doors to the arena and refuse to let anyone leave until they have solved the mystery, which eventually leads them to a massive conspiracy. De Palma, who has long aspired to be the new Alfred Hitchcock, will get his chance with this intense thriller.

These films are only a sample of the dozens of titles making their way to theaters this fall. Horror fans may also look forward to "Disturbing Behavior" and "H20," and those with an inclination towards the dramatic may choose "Polish Wedding" or "Ever After." Studios, whether they are successful or not, certainly attempt to bring something for every potential film viewer during this, the industry's most profitable season.

Multi-Oscar winner Tom Hanks plays John Miller in "Saving Private Ryan."

Photos courtesy of Dream Works Pictures

Antonio Banderas plays Zorro in "The Mask of Zorro."