'Rules' Still Engages Moviegoers
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Reigning box office champ ``Rules of
Engagement'' edged out the new Sandra Bullock drama``28 Days'' for the No. 1 slot at North American movie theaters, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
``Rules'' (Paramount Pictures), a military legal drama starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson, pulled in about $10.9
million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, taking its 10-day total to $30.6 million.
``28 Days,'' in which Bullock plays a party girl who is sent to alcohol rehab after one too many drunken escapades, earned
about $10.4 million. It overcame mixed reviews to attract a predominantly female audience aged 25 and over, said a
spokesman for the film's distributor, Columbia Pictures. Its per screen average of $4,122 was the highest in the top 10.
The $30 million film was directed by Betty Thomas from a script by hot scribe Susannah Grant, who also wrote recent box
office leader ``Erin Brockovich.''
According to Exhibitor Relations Co., which collects the studios' estimates, the top 12 films this weekend grossed a total of
$67.9 million, down three percent from last weekend and down eight percent from the year-ago weekend.
Also debuting this weekend were ``Keeping the Faith'' (Touchstone) at No. 3, ``American Psycho'' (Lions Gate) at No. 7 and
``Where the Money Is'' (USA Films) at No. 11.
``Faith,'' starring Edward Norton as a priest, Ben Stiller as a rabbi and Jenna Elfman as the object of their desires, earned
about $8.2 million. Norton also directed. As the sole true comedy in the top 10, the film attracted plenty of couples drawn to its
story and cast.
``This is one of those leggy things that will stick around forever,'' said Chuck Viane, distribution president at Buena Vista
Pictures, the Walt Disney Co. arm that released the film.
At the other end of the romance scale, ``American Psycho'' pulled in about $4.9 million and a solid $3,964 average, which was
on par with Lions Gate's expectations. Based on the gruesome 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the film stars Christian Bale as
a yuppie serial killer with a jones for the music of Whitney Houston and Huey Lewis.
Rave reviews from such outlets as the New York Times and Rolling Stone played a bigger part in attracting audiences to the $7
million satire than did the controversy about its subject matter, said Lions Gate co-president Tom Ortenberg. He predicted the
movie would end up grossing about $15 million, a good figure for what Lions Gate is billing as an art house release.
``Where the Money Is,'' a heist picture starring Paul Newman, debuted with about $2.7 million.
Rounding out the top five was ``Erin Brockovich'' (Universal) at No. 4 with $7.0 million, and ``The Road to El Dorado''
(DreamWorks) with $6.2 million, both down two places from last week. Their respective totals are $99.3 million after five
weekends and $33.1 million after three weekends.
Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram
Co. Ltd. DreamWorks SKG is privately held. Lions Gate Films is a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. USA Films is a unit
of USA Networks Inc.
expand her acting talent by taking on that classic Hollywood character made
famous by Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend, the uncontrollable drunk.
Acting parts like these are loved by the Oscars, just ask Nicholas Cage.
Bullock must have thought this would be a big difference from her romantic
movies like last years Forces of Nature with Matt Damon's evil half brother
Ben. Unfortunately, the marketing department for 28 Days did not have the
confidence to show Bullock in a falling down drunk light. It's more of a Meg
Ryan in When a Man Loves a Woman. The ads say that Bullock gets to spend a
month in rehab to recover from alcoholism but you never see her in any type of
stupor. Just her crashing her car and frolicking around with "hot"
guys she can fall in love with. The newspaper ad has her laughing with a glass
of something to show how great you can look if you become addicted to the
Milwaukee barley. It looks like a Virginia Slims ad for gosh sakes.
Most alcoholic movies don't make money and the ones that do get a profit or get
some sort of positive critical attention show the main actor as a complete
lush. Cage looked horrible in his ads to show how pitiful he was. He
received a best actor Oscar for his trouble. It made no money because even
though he was a drunk, he still got to bang Elizabeth Shue. Typical
Hollywood. Most drunks don't get the hot babes like the ones in movies do,
so people ignore the unreality of it all. 28 Days does not look any
different than the last few crappy Bullock movies so people stayed home for the
most part. Also, the writer of the script wrote Erin Brockovitch.
That writer's style is to glorify the lead actress like in EB, but it does not
work for this movie. If it was little hardcore and Bullock allowed herself
to look more like Meryl Streep in Ironweed or Faye Dunaway in Barfly then maybe
she would have a had a chance. Now it looks like Net 2 will start to head to the
top of her script pile.
Touched
By an Angel on CBS is extremely popular because it takes religion and faith very
seriously. Religion is taken very seriously in this country and throughout
the world, and if you violate its canons you are asking for trouble.
Movies like Dogma and The Priest sort of made people question the validity of
religious beliefs and showed people of the church in ways that the orthodox
frown upon. Those movies failed to get any box office and just some tepid
negative protest publicity. Keeping the Faith takes on two religions and
their vows of celibacy and premarital sex. These are verbotten subjects to
the religious lot. This is not the Thorn Birds folks. The premise is
sound of 3 friends, 2 boys and a girl who grow up and sort of go their separate
ways. One becomes a Catholic priest, one a rabbi, and one grows up to be
that annoying Jenna Elfman. They see that their best friend who was a
tomboy has grown up to be a 5 foot 11 inch "hottie" and they want to
dump all of their Godly ways. The rabbi faints at a bris, a priest sets
himself on fire and puts himself out by sitting in holy water, and the object of
their affection puts her cell phone on vibrate so that she can get a sexual
thrill when it rings. Hilarity ensues all around I guess. Ed Norton
is an actor that a lot of people still are not familiar with unless you name at
least two of his movies, Amercian History X and Primal Fear. His name
still does not mean nothing and the guys that approved him to direct KTF must
have been fooled by his Oscar nomination. Ben Stiller has had one, count
them, one hit movie in There's Something About Mary. He has bombed on
television on MTV, SNL, and FOX. He can be funny. His Tom Cruise is very
good. I think his dad who was on Seinfeld is a bigger box office
draw. I have liked Stiller in the past, but he still can't get a good
movie gimmick that is consistent. He also almost destroyed Jim Carrey's
career with the underrated Cable Guy. It is all about the premise
Stiller. Jenna Elfman is my least favorite actress on television.
She is quite the annoying broad. She is also box office poison when she
appears on screeen. Just ask Richard Dreyfuss. I see her in the credits
and I save money. She is just too hyper and when she does interviews she
is still in that Dharma character and it gets tiresome. I guess Cameron
Diaz was too busy learning judo for Charlie's Angels. This movie will be
liked by people who see it who like gimmicky romantic comedies. Also, if
it is seen on video it might play a bit better. 
female, female sluts, female good girls, imitators, or have bad skin.
However, if you are gay, he might get so disgusted he let's you
live. Chrisitan Bale stars as Patrick "nail gun, chainsaw, nail
gun, chainsaw, axe" Bateman who has these deep rooted obsessions about
killing people who suck. The movie is promoted as an ironic dark comedy
about a serial killer. It is also advertised as being a bloodbath of sex
and violence. However, the movie has a good share of violence, but only
gunshot wounds are actually shown on camera. If someone gets axed, all you
see is blood splatter Bale's face but no blade hitting a body. A head is
shown in a refrigerator, but you never see the head actually severed from the
body. This is done to lessen the onscreen terror and make you think about
how these things actually looked like. Much like Fight Club, the violence
and the sex in the movie is not what the movie is really about. It is
about one's internal struggle to come to grips with their own boring day to day
life. Some people bowl or golf. Some people read or write. Others
skydive or bungie jump. Bateman fantasizes about killing his business
partner because he has a better looking business card. Since the sex is
sort of blah and basic R-rated Showtime after dark stuff, it is not all that
shockiing. Since the violence is off screen for the most part, it is
not all that unsettling for the people expecting worse. So, the only thing
to latch onto is the first person point of view thoughts of the Bateman
character. This part is actually quite interesting and fun to watch.
Before he attacks someone, Bateman likes to rant about his favorite types of 80s
pop music like Huey Lewis and the News 
and
Phil Collins. He analyzes the meaning of their most popular songs and how
they make a statement about how we live. The other thing that is good is
how Bateman prepares himself everyday to exist in his physical world. His
showering ritual is quite amazing and many people should take notes. What
is funny is how he does all of this to be perfect realizing that no matter what
he does there are still people that are still better than he is. I liked
all of the anal retentive stuff in the movie because I have some of those
rituals myself. I just don't want to kill or hurt anyone. However, the
things that make the movie interesting also make it weak. The book the
movie was based on is quite graphic in its violence, I know, because I read
it. I won't compare it to the book since I have forgotten much of it, but
it seemed to edit out many of the killings by just showing the bodies after the
fact. The little details Bateman agonizes through are okay, but much like
his life, it can get boring. If you don't know the premise of the movie,
then the first 30 minutes are somewhat confusing since you're not really sure if
this guy is crazy or not. Then there is the final 20 minutes or so of the
film where it tries to explain what has happened in a not so satisfying
way. It sort of rips off Fight Club's plot twist. Fight Club's bit
was spelled out and made clear, but by the end of American Psycho, you are not
really sure what was real and was not. Symbolism is also thrown in like a
sign above Bateman sitting in a restaurant saying "this is not an
exit." I guess that is supposed to mean something. Only in the
movies. The most debated scene will be the one between Bateman and his
lawyer. It is very confusing what that whole scene means and what
you decide really happened may affect how you feel about the overall film.
Coming out of the movie, I did not like it. I thought that even though the
movie was from Bateman's point of view, you still did not really get inside his
head. In fact you come out of the theatre
realizing he is a psycho American. I felt sort of ehh after it was
over. I did keep thinking about the film days after I saw it, but I
still cannot recommend it. The acting is not the greatest though
sufficient. Christian Bale is from Wales like Catherine Zeta Jones
"Douglas" and has to put on a forced American accent. I hate
when actors do that. If you see this movie, try to avoid seeing any
Christian Bale interviews because then you will notice the difference. He did
work out a lot to get in shape to play the part and it should attract a strong
female audience who may want to avoid a serial killer movie. He is the
best part of the movie and he had to be. I never found him scary in a
Hannibal Lector type of way which sort of lessened any type of terror you might
feel when he points a nail gun behind a woman's head ready to pull the
trigger. A little less smiling would have helped. Chloe
Sevigny from "Boys Don't Cry" plays Bateman's secretary who comes
closest to learning the secret of the psycho. I am not a fan of hers, but
I am glad that she has finally done her first straight film after playing
somewhat gay and full out dyke in her last two acting roles. She is a
little too mousy and out of it in this movie to call her acting good.
Chloe seemed to be walking through this movie. Reese Whitherspoon shows up as
Bateman's fiancee who is pretty useless. I am not giving too much away, but she
never gets physically attacked in the film. Anyone could have played that
part. Whitherspoon is still trying to get that breakout role that
"Election" did not give her. American Psycho tries to tell you
that the rich guys are Wall Street during the 80s were shallow and high on
cocaine all day. It also tells you that these people are hiding feelings
that could erupt violently at anytime. Whatever. Final Review:
2 1/2 stars out of 5; 6 out of 10; C+; thumbs down. Okay movie, but cannot
fully recommend. Read the book and then see the movie.