Cruise's ``MI-2'' has slim victory over ``Big Momma''
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) - In a cliffhanger result, Tom Cruise's ``Mission: Impossible 2'' fended off a surprisingly strong
debut by Martin Lawrence's genderbending comedy ``Big Momma's House'' to retain the top spot at the North American boxoffice.
According to studio estimates issued Sunday, ``M:I-2'' (Paramount) pulled in about $27.0 million for the Friday-to- Sunday period, while ``Momma'' (Twentieth Century Fox) opened with about $25.6 million.
At No. 3, the animated ``Dinosaur'' grossed $12.0 million, followed by the comedy Western ``Shanghai Noon'' with $8.6 million and the Roman epic ``Gladiator'' with $8.1 million. Each slipped one place from last weekend. Final data will be released Monday.
With ticket sales boosted last weekend by the Memorial Day holiday, receipts predictably slid this time. According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., the top 12 films grossed $95.9 million, down 43 percent from last weekend, but up 17 percent
from the year-ago period when the ``Star Wars'' prequel was enjoying its third round at No. 1.
``M:I-2'' led the declines this weekend, losing 53 percent of its audience from the comparable three-day period last weekend. A Paramount spokeswoman said the fall was in line with expectations since the 1996 original fell 52 percent in its second round.
After 12 days in release, Hong Kong director John Woo's stylish sequel has grossed $130.7 million; the original had pulled in $107.0 million at the same point, and ended its domestic run with $181 million. Paramount executives expect this one to finish above $200 million. In passing the century mark Wednesday, its eighth day of release, ``M:I-2'' became the third $100 million
release of 2000, after ``Erin Brockovich'' and ''Gladiator.''
``Big Momma's House'' stars Lawrence as an FBI agent who goes undercover as a plus-size Southern grandmother in order to lure a crook to the surface. As often happens in such role-reversal comedies, he falls for a pretty girl (played by Nia Long) who is unaware of the caper.
The film skewed towards young girls, said Tom Sherak, chairman of Twentieth Century Fox's domestic film group. ``It's a sappy love story,'' he said.
Exit polling indicated that 80 percent of viewers rated it as a definite recommend, Sherak added. Females made up 60 percent of the audience, and 68 percent of ticket buyers were under 25. Its average of $9,136 from 2,802 theaters was the highest in the top 10, followed by ``M:I-2's'' $7,391.
``Momma'' was the weekend's only new wide release. Opening next weekend is the action drama ``Gone in 60 Seconds,'' starring Oscar winners Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie.
After 17 days in release, ``Dinosaur'' has tallied $96.8 million, while Jackie Chan vehicle ``Shanghai Noon'' has lassoed $31.9 million after 10 days. Both are released by Walt Disney Co. . Privately held DreamWorks' ``Gladiator'' has $138.7 million after 31 days.
Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. (NYSE:FOX - news).
costume on. Looking closely at the preview for BMH, the makeup looks
awful. The face looks like a rubber mask and does not pass for a human being in
the least bit. Maybe this is described in the movie, but how is Lawrence
supposed to imitate someone that everyone knows when he meets the neighbors,
friends, and church folk? Maybe Big Momma's alzheimers is setting
in. But, this is a movie, so you have to accept it for what you are
given. You have to believe that people can't tell the difference between
the real momma and the fake one and that Lawrence's look is as convincing as any
CGI'd Mission Impossible 2 mask. I have seen the actress who plays the
real Big Momma, and she does look like Martin Lawrence in a fat suit and 8
pounds of facial makeup appliance. Also, a few months ago, Martin had
collapsed after jogging in a sweat suit thing that dehydrated him. I guess
he was preparing for this role to get used to jumping around in a dress and
weighing an extra 100 pounds. I was a fan of Martin's tv show in the early
and mid nineties and he used to play several characters on that sitcom including
his own mother. That was probably the inspiration for the writers to come
up with this movie. Big Momma's House had a pretty big ad campaign and I
think I heard the line "damn you're fine.. oh" about a million times
over the last 3 months. It was a good advertising blitz since it set up
the plot and showed various comedic situations like the basketball game, karate
instruction, and the "is that a flashlight in your pocket or do you have a
penis" bit. Anyone going into this movie this weekend knew what to
expect and from the looks of it's box office, they got it. I can't predict
how well this movie will do, but if is real successful, Nutty Professor II might
have some trouble as this comedian in drag thing will being going a bit too
far. Every year we get 2 movies that come out with similar plots.
One year we had 2 volcano movies, then we had 2 asteroid will destroy the world,
and now we have 2 comedians with similar styles playing big fat black
women. I hope Mrs, Klump never robs a bank.
typecast
in the role, the hot babe who has little to do but repeat the same lines over
and over again, the child prodigy who has to save the ship, and the so called
"red shirt" who dies in the first five minutes of the episode because
his name is not in the main credits and is expendable. If you watch old
Trek you will notice that all of the crewmembers who are killed wore red
shirts. This movie is very similar to the movie "Trekkies" that
came out last spring for about 5 seconds in that it tries to explain or make you
understand the type of fans who become obsessed with science fiction characters
and how they affect the actors who play these parts. We have the human
fans at the sci fi convention who know more details about the show than the
people who actually made the episode as well as minutiae that is never mentioned
on the actual program but is made official because of published books about the
design of the starships used on the program. The other type of fans are
the aliens known as Thermians who have intercepted the tv signals of the show
and think they are a historical record of fact and not fiction. They are
appealing characters even if they actually look like squids. The Thermians
take all of these space antics so seriously that they run their life by the
shows concepts of working together as a team and never giving up and never
surrendering. There are fans like that on Earth in real life not just for
Star Trek but for other tv shows as well sci fi, sitcom, drama, it does not
matter. What happens is that these characters show up every week in our
homes and they almost become real and if you get the chance to meet an actor who
plays or played a favorite character of yours from a television program, you
tend to call them by their fictional name and not their real name. Once
you do that, you have gone Thermian. I have met several of the actors who
have been on the Star Trek shows like James Doohan (Scotty), Leonard Nimoy
(Spock), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), John de Lancie (Q), and Patrick Stewart (Picard
- well I sort of saw the top of his head since it was so crowded I never got to
see him up close). Heck, I have met Bill Mumy (Will Robinson) and Mark Goddard
(Major West) from Lost in Space, as well as Adam West (Bruce Wayne) from
Batman. However, I would not call them by their character names to their faces
as if that was their real names since I know that drives them crazy and makes me
look like a loser. Galaxy Quest shows how obsessing over a tv show can
hurt you if you take it too seriously whether you are a fan or an actor.
As entertainment, the move works as a good adventure almost like what an actual
Galaxy Quest episode might be like. The actors have to become their
characters to survive when they realize they are dealing with a life and death
situation. The chemistry works between all involved. My only
criticism is that if you are not familiar with the cliches of science fiction
shows and the strangeness of its fans, then many of the jokes in GQ will go over
your head. You will probably not enjoy the film. If that is the
case, just watch it as an adventure movie and it works on that level. The
DVD for this movie is full of extra stuff like a behind the scenes feature and
several deleted scenes, many of which should have remained in the final film,
especially the bed of nails one. There is also an audio track of the
movie that can be listened to in the Thermian language like it was a dubbed
foreign film. However, I don't recommend doing that for too long since
their language can get quite irritating over a long period of time. It sounds a
lot like Darryl Hannah in "Splash" when she pronounces hour mermaid
name in her own language mixed with a rake across a chalkboard. No
director or actor commentary on the DVD which is a downer since I love that
stuff. Final review: 3 1/2 stars out of 5; 7 out of 10; B; thumbs
up. Good movie.