'Stuart Little' Takes Box Office Crown
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - While adults were popping champagne corks, youngsters appeared to
celebrate the New Year by crowding their local theaters to watch ``Stuart Little.''
The talking mouse movie, based on the classic E.B. White tale, jumped
two places to reclaim itscrown at the holiday weekend box office in North America, according to studio estimates issued
Sunday. The death row drama ``The Green Mile'' was No. 2, followed by last weekend's champ,
director Oliver Stone's football opus ``Any Given Sunday.''
``Stuart Little,'' whose titular character is an orphaned mouse adopted by a human family, sold about $16.0 million worth of
tickets for the Friday-to-Sunday period, said a spokesman for the film's distributor, Columbia Pictures.
The tally was about $1 million greater than its No. 1 debut score two weeks ago, and its per screen average of $5,517 was the
highest in the top 10. After 17 days in release, ``Stuart Little'' has earned about $79.7 million, and is well on its way to passing
$100 million, the spokesman said.
``The Green Mile'' (Warner Bros.) jumped three places to No. 2 with $13.2 million, taking its 24-day total to $78.1 million. Its 42
percent boost over last weekend's haul was the best in the top 10.
``Any Given Sunday'' (Warner Bros.) scored with $13.1 million, a modest four percent decline from its opening round, and its
12-day haul rose to $47.3 million.
The top 10 contained no new entries, and no new wide releases are scheduled for next weekend either. Among films bowing in
limited release were ``Fantasia 2000,'' a 75-minute giant screen cartoon billed by Walt Disney Pictures as a ''continuation'' of its
1940 animated classic. Opening Saturday on 54 Imax screens, the film's estimated two-day haul exceeded $1 million from the 46
locations that reported data to Disney. It averaged about $22,000 per screen.
Universal opened ``The Hurricane'' on 11 screens in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, and punched up about $295,000 for
the weekend and $452,000 since its Wednesday bow. Its average was $26,818. The film is very loosely based on the true story
of boxer Rubin ``Hurricane'' Carter, who was imprisoned for three murders he did not commit. Bob Dylan (aided by lyricist
Jacques Levy) recounted the story in his 1975 song ``Hurricane.''
According to Exhibitor Relations Co., which collects the studios' estimates, the top 12 movies this weekend grossed a combined
$103.7 million, up nine percent from last weekend, and up two percent from the year-ago weekend.
``Toy Story 2'' (Walt Disney Pictures) held steady at No. 4 with $12.2 million, while ``The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (Paramount) fell
three places to No. 5 with $12.0 million. The 45-day total for ``Toy 2'' is $208.6 million, while ``Ripley'' has $39.4 million after
nine days.
Rounding out the top 10 were DreamWorks' ``Galaxy Quest'' at No. 6 with $9.7 million (nine-day total $27.3 million); the
Touchstone Pictures double of ``Bicentennial Man'' at No. 7 with $8.0 million (17-day total $39.3 million) and ``Deuce Bigalow:
Male Gigolo'' at No. 8 with $5.3 million (24-day total $46.1 million); Universal's ``Man on the Moon'' at No. 9 with $5.2 million
(12-day total $24.4 million); and Fox's ``Anna and the King'' at No. 10 with $4.8 million (17-day total $24.2 million).
Shaping up as one of the biggest disappointments of the holiday season, ``Man on the Moon,'' starring Jim Carrey as late
comedian Andy Kaufman, registered the steepest fall in the top 10, sliding 31 percent from last weekend when it opened at No.
6.
Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc. Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone
Pictures are units of Walt Disney Co. DreamWorks SKG is privately held. Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.
Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. (6758.T) (NYSE:TWX - news) (NYSE:DIS - news)
(Toronto:VO.TO - news) (NYSE:FOX - news)
still be pretty pointless. Quick plot summary (if that's possible) is that
Joh Cusack plays a puppeteer who gets a job at an office on the 7 1/2 floor of a
building and one day finds a portal behind his filing cabinets that leads to the
brain of the actor John Malkovich from such movies as In the Line of Fire and
Dangerous Liaisons. My favorite scene of JM's is in the TV version of
Death of a Salesman where he played Biff Loman and he spit all over himself
yelling a Dustin Hoffman. To like this movie you have to first accept the
premise which is difficult because it is completely entrenched in fantasy.
The other thing is you have to be somewhat familiar with Malkovich and actually
like him as an actor since the last third of the movie, Malkovich tends to take
over. If you do not care about JM or the premise, you might still like the
movie because the first 30 minutes or so before the portal is found is very
funny. In some ways it is the best part of the movie and when the portal
is found, the flick sort of loses its uniqueness. The previews give away
the main gag, but the stuff that is done to develop the characters of John
Cusack, a strangely attractive Cameron Diaz, and a quite fetching Catherine
Keener as Maxine is quite fun to watch. They have the strangest love
triangle I have ever seen. They would make Jerry Springer blush or at
least put it one of his uncensored videos. I have to say that my favorite
parts are the beginning office gags and employees and the origin of Elijah which
was the roll on the floor moment of the flick. Also when Malkovich learns
of his portal and enters his own mind, it is the most surreal thing I have ever
seen. I had a nightmare that night that had the same thing, except it was
my own mind. Also the sex scenes from JM's point of view are disturbing
and erotic at the same time. There are 5 main characters in the
film, and they get their own screen time. Cusack, Diaz, Keener, Malkovich,
and Orson Bean as Dr. Lester each do things that are crazy. Also of note
are the cameos by Charlie Sheen. This is his best work since Ferris
Bueller's Day Off. His 2 scenes are laugh out loud
funny. The director of this movie, Spike Jonz was the southern
soldier in Three Kings. You might call him the fourth King in that movie
who become enthralled with the Muslim religion and Marky Mark. He has a
interesting directing style that is similar to Terry Gilliam from Monty
Python. He has potential to go far, and may get some Oscar nods later
on. I would even consider giving Malkovich an oscar nomination, but I am
not sure if it should be for best lead or supporting actor. His name is in
the title, but it is more of a supporting role. The movie will probaby get
awards for screenplay. The movie is good, but whey they try to put in
every scenario involving looking through another man's eyes, the movie gets a
little bogged down. It should have ended around the time JM entered
his own mind, but from that point on it goes in very strange
directions. This movie did not do well at the box office because the
premise is so weird and not many people give a damn about John Malkovich.
Most people don't know him by name. I do know that he has not done a jewel
thief movie. Final rating: thumbs up; 3 stars; 7 out of 10; B.
Not for everybody, but if you like quirky and clever comedies with a dark side,
then check it out. All others go see Stuart Little a second time.
jizz
off your fingers, a severed head still talking, a disembowled family, a knife in
a males crotch spurting blood, a castration, the eff word being spouted every 5
seconds, and spit wet fingers shoved up guys' asses. This was Rose
McGowan's first starring role, but it never got a good release so most people
have never heard of it. RM is didn't make waves until she got stuck in the
garage door in Scream. She gives the same performance she gave in
Jawbreaker with that Valley Girl "whatevvverr" tone in her voice. It
makes her look like a bad actress and very annoying. She says every curse word
in the book except ass which she keeps substituting anus, rectum, and butt
for. For the guys, she does go topless a few times so you get to see what
her real life boyfriend/fiance Marilyn Manson gets to peep at every night.
I give those puppies a thumbs up. Her 2 cohorts in the movie played by
James Duvall (boyfriend) and Jonathan Schaech (drifter) are pretty bad
actors. Duvall acts like he is stoned or trying to remember his lines all
of the time. He sort of reminds me of a mutant Keanu Reeves. Schaech
actually gives the best acting performance in the movie, but he is sort of goofy
looking. His sounds of sex rant is pretty funny though. The movie's
tag line is that it is a "heterosexual movie," but there are some
definite homosexual over and undertones in the movie. The ending
especially gets creepy on this issue. The movie also tries to have some
sort of hidden blatant message. Everything costs $6.66 as some sort of
number of the beast symbolism and there are all of these signs that say
"obey" and the "end is near." It seems to be saying that the
current young generation is headed for a big fall and if the people of our
future don't make it there, then we are all doomed. At least that's what I
got from it. There are some celebrity cameos thrown in like Heidi Fleiss
and Perry Farrell. They pretty much only say "that'll be
666." Deep man deep. Final review: Thumbs up; 1 1/2
stars; 5 1/2 out of ten; D+. I recommend it because there are enough weird
things to get you talking about what filth you just saw and Rose McGowan is hot
nekkid. Not a good movie, but definitely a must see.
classical music by putting pretty pictures with it. However, what it does
is confuse the heck out of people. You associate the music with the
cartoon, but if someone asks you who composed what song, you won't remember it
unless you are constantly exposed to the music outside a Disney music
video. The Warner Brothers cartoons are famous for all of the classical
music they ran during their cartoons such as Wagner's Valkyrie thingie.
Better known by 6 year olds as Elmer Fudd singing "Kill da Wabbit, Kill the
Wabbitt!" For years I would hum these little ditties and not until I
was older did I realize they were real compositions. Innocence lost. I did
not like the first Fantasia. I wanted to see it for years because of it's
legend in the movie business of being so spectacular. I had seen the
Sorcerer's Apprentice bit before and liked it, but it took years for Fantasia
1940 to be rereleased. It had 2 good bits, the apprentice and the dancing
hippo segment. I was put off by the nymphs, sound wave, and hell
demon. Fantasia 2000 has a good gimick with the giant IMAX screen, so if I
ever get a chance to see it I will check it out because I love those 75 foot
movies. From what I have seen, I like the whale animation and the Donald
Duck Noah's Ark numbers. It looks like it may be a bit better. It is
supposed to play for about 4 months in theaters, but it won't make a whole lot
of money because it is on very few screens. They should have it float
around to some of the other IMAXs every 4 months so more people get a chance to
see it. 
the
family of the victims, or why the police would frame someone for murder while
letting the true killer escape to kill again. This movie shows the
injustice the black man faced (faces) in the 1960s and that regardless of the
facts, the law was out to put all African-American men in jail or kill
them. Movies like this never do too well because whites do not like
looking like the bad racist all the time since they want everyone to forget that
happened and start over. And black people hate movies like this because racisim
is not entertaining to watch and it is no fun to watch black people so
downtrodden. Only the politically correct wannabes check movies like this
out like Bob Dylan and helpful Canadian activists. I have read that this
movie takes great liberties with the facts of this case. Rubin Carter was
innocent of committing the crime he served time for, but he was not alone in
being accused and the conspiracy against him was a lot deeper than what is
portrayed on film. These lapses in facts may hurt it at Oscar time.
Read the books about this guy if you are really interested and then see the
movie so you know when characters are composited or omitted
altogether.