Thursday, May 24, 2001

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With one week until Pearl Harbor gets bombed again, a lovelorn green ogre named ``Shrek'' ruled the North American box office with the industry's second-best opening for a cartoon, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

``Shrek'' grossed about $42.1 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, and ranks behind only 1999's ``Toy Story 2'' ($57.1 million) as the No. 2 opening for an animated feature.

The new film is the best bow for its distributor, DreamWorks, whose previous best launch was last year's eventual best picture Oscar winner, ``Gladiator'' ($34.8 million).

The box office champ for the previous two weekends, ``The Mummy Returns'' (Universal), slipped to No. 2 with $20.5 million, followed by ``A Knight's Tale'' (Columbia) with $10.7 million. The only other new entry in the top 10 was the Jennifer Lopez vehicle ``Angel Eyes'' (Warner Bros.), which opened at No. 4 with $9.5 million.

``Moulin Rouge,'' which kicked off the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, opened in one theater each in New York and Los Angeles, playing to sell-out crowds who broke into applause during the screening, said a spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox. Director Baz Luhrmann's colorful period musical, which stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, earned $165,086 for the three days. It goes into wide release on June 1. Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. .

Receipts for the top 12 films jumped 36 percent from last weekend to $96.9 million, but the tally was off 5.5 percent from the year-ago weekend, when the animated ``Dinosaur'' opened at No. 1 with almost $39 million.

Walt Disney Co.'s $135 million WWII epic ``Pearl Harbor,'' currently being unveiled with great pomp and pageantry in Hawaii, debuts on Friday, capitalizing on the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend.

STARS POWER ``SHREK''

``Shrek,'' which follows an ogre's odyssey from contented oblivion to unexpected love despite his green skin and bad breath, features an A-list voice cast headed by Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz. After they saw the movie, the talent enthusiastically promoted it, said Jim Tharp, DreamWorks' distribution president.

Going into the weekend, the privately held studio had forecast an opening of between $30 million and $35 million, Tharp said. Strong reviews pushed the figure past $40 million. ''Shrek'' played at 3,587 theaters, a tally surpassed only by the 3,653 sites for last year's ``Mission: Impossible 2.'' Tharp said the film would add a few hundred theaters next weekend.

DreamWorks said exit polling showed the audience was evenly split between family and non-family viewers. The latter category was split 50/50 along gender lines and under/over 25 years of age. Over 90 percent of moviegoers rated the film ''very good'' or ``excellent.''

``Shrek'' replaces 1994's Disney's ``The Lion King'' as the No. 2 animated opening, and thus ranks as the best nonsequel bow. ''Lion King'' opened with $40 million and ended up with $313 million, the best haul for a cartoon. Tharp declined to speculate if ``Shrek'' would reach that level. Either way, ''Shrek'' confirms DreamWorks as a serious animation player in a field that has long been dominated by arch-rival Disney.

Including receipts from Wednesday and Thursday, when ''Shrek'' played exclusively in New York and Los Angeles, the total stands at $42.15 million.

``Angel Eyes'' ends a winning streak for Lopez, whose two previous movies, January's ``The Wedding Planner'' and last year's ``The Cell'' each opened at No. 1, with $13.5 million and $17.5 million, respectively. Lopez plays a cop whose life is saved by a mysterious stranger. The reviews were bad, although her performance won some praise.

The film played strongest with females aged 18 and older, and in urban markets, said Warner Bros. distribution president Dan Fellman. WB is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. .

Elsewhere at the box office, the total for the Brendan Fraser adventure ``The Mummy Returns'' now stands at $146.5 million after 17 days. ``A Knight's Tale,'' starring Heath Ledger as a medieval knight, has earned $32.2 million after 10 days. Rounding out the top five was British romance ``Bridget Jones's Diary'' (Miramax) with $3.8 million, and $56.6 million after six weekends.

Universal is a unit of Vivendi Universal . Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. . Miramax is a Disney unit.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the May 18-20 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross Gross

1. Shrek .......... $42,347,760

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $42,387,348

2. The Mummy Returns ..........$20,435,840

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $146,540,900

3. A Knight's Tale ..........$10,406,836

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $31,873,171

4. Angel Eyes ..........$9,225,575

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $9,225,575

5. Bridget Jones's Diary ..........$3,730,451

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $56,534,427

6. Along Came a Spider ..........$2,352,157

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $67,651,167

7. Driven ..........$1,827,516

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $29,026,703

8. Blow ..........$1,401,608

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $49,565,919

9. Spy Kids ..........$1,286,388

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $103,544,406

10. Memento ..........$1,280,291

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $11,990,528

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

John L.: It is the season of the big opening weekends, and this season's second mega hit has arrived in Dreamworks' Shrek. This is the first animated film released to really challenge the stranglehold Disney has on the genre. I saw this fractured fairytale and have a full review in this report. The other wide release was J Lo's Angel Eyes. This movie was not promoted very well and it showed in its box office take. Jennifer Lopez is a well known name, but she is not at the level where her name alone can bring in $15 million to $20 million on opening weekends. Julia Roberts seems to be the only female actress that can guarantee that range while only a handful of male actors can. More on Angel Eyes later in the report and what it means for Miss Lopez's future. Okay, let's see what's going on.

Shrek tales the story of a loveable but stern Ogre who lives in the woods who makes a deal with a somewhat evil King to rescue a princess from a dragon. Along the way, Shrek meets up with a babbling donkey who won't leave his side. Fun, adventure, heartache, pain, suffering, redemption, and death await them all. This movie is getting some of the best reviews of the year and to a certain degree it deserves it. Forgetting the story for the moment, let's look at what Shrek gives us. It is one of the most technically advanced computer animated films to come out. It puts the "Toy Story" movies to shame with its realistic animation. Only the upcoming "Final Fantasy" film looks better. This animation style is strange to behold since if you look sort of sideways at the screen, you think you are watching a live action film. This is especially well done with the human looking characters. I had several double takes as I saw merry men doing the lord of the dance jig. The four main characters of Shrek, the donkey, Princess Fiona, and Lord Farquaad are animated very well. Shrek is a lovable guy who enjoys his role of scaring the nosy townspeople when they try to attack him. A growl here, a sneer there and they run like cockroaches in a kitchen when the lights come on. Mike Myers does the voice in his classic Scottish brogue. Think Fat Bastard from "Austin Powers 2" but on half a capsule of Prozac.  The late Chris Farley was originally slated to do the voice, but he had a bad reaction to some drugs and passed away before he could reach the recording studio.  If you are familiar with Myers' Saturday Night Live characters, you can see where he got the inspiration for Shrek. Eddie Murphy's "The Donkey" runs the movie. He gets the best lines and his scenes with the fire breathing dragon are some of the better ones in the film. Murphy is funny, but he is doing the same bit he did as the little dragon, Mushu, in "Mulan." Murphy also ad libs a lot when he does comedy and it shows here. However, he needs to be careful when he makes modern references to tic tacs when those things don't exist in this setting. But, if you can accept a talking donkey, I guess out of place pop culture moments are not too much of a stretch. Cameron Diaz's Princess Fiona is a very unique character put in a very common storyline. She is the princess held captive in a tower by an angry dragon. She awaits her Prince Charming to come rescue her and is quite surprised to see that what she gets is a 6 foot 5, 500 pound, green, smelly ogre with a loquacious jackass for a steed. Now, since modern tellings of fair tales have to be different, Fiona just can't stand around and cry for help while being tied up. She has to be physical. Sort of like Princess Leia leading her own rescue in Star Wars. I wish there was a way to make female characters stronger without having them be as violent as the men. Women don't have to be men to get over with an audience. They don't have to be victims either, but some better respect for the fairer sex would be nice. I must say though, I do enjoy it when women do shoot guns and punch bad guys, so maybe things should not change much. Diaz does nothing special with her voice in Shrek. She pretty much plays herself. John Lithgow is the villainous Lord Farquaad who has a height deficiency. He also hates fairy tale characters like the three little pigs, Snow White, and the Gingerbread Man. Farquaad is hard to look at sometimes because unlike the other characters, LF looks a lot like Lithgow dressed as Prince Valiant. Farquaad is not given a lot to do in the film except to set up Shrek's quest. A couple more scenes like the one with the Gingerbread Man would have been nice. This movie will make a lot of money at the box office this Summer, but it I have seen much better. The animation is good, but the motion capture of the actors to help the movement is so strange that you want to turn your head away from the screen sometimes. I prefer my animation to look like a cartoon and not real life. The movie also starts to look a lot like last year's "The Emperor's New Groove" when Shrek and Donkey start approaching the castle with Fiona. Some scenes seemed to be ripped right from that movie. Shrek also moves at a somewhat leisurely pace. It relies on the humor of the characters to carry the story and not the action sequences. More bits with the fairy tale characters would have been good. That stuff was funny and gets dropped for the most part. Oh, tell Jeffrey Katzenburg to drop his grudge against Disney. Katzenburg is the producer of Shrek and a former employee of Walt Disney Pictures. When he formed Dreamworks, it was in part to compete with the juggernaut that is the Mouse. What he does now is take shots at his former employers with various inside jokes. Shrek is full of digs at Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and one really brutal one geared at a classic bird singing bit from "Mary Poppins." Make your own bits Jerry, and stop goofing on Walt every 5 minutes. Shrek is pretty good family entertainment that is risqué enough in parts to bring in the teenagers and the mild violence in it is no worse than what you see in regular cartoons. Parents might have problems with the pro wrestling segment with Shrek and a bunch of knights since you know, kids might imitate his flying cross body by jumping off the kitchen table onto their brother or sister. I am recommending this movie, but it did not move me to the point of kissing its ass like so many other reviewers are doing. It's above average and is technically better than it is story wise. The big twist in the movie I saw coming a week before I saw the film. The 2 disc box set for Shrek should be pretty good though. Final Review: 3 1/2 stars out of 5; 7 out of 10; B; thumbs up.

Jennifer Lopez shows up for the second time in 5 months in this week's Angel Eyes where she plays a street cop whose life is saved by a mysterious stranger played by Jim Caviezel. This is a romantic drama about how two people who seem to have nothing in common and would never meet, do collide with each other through what can only be described as fate. Lopez's character is far from the perfect person the actress carries herself as in real life. In the movie she plays Sharon Pogue, a Chicago cop who has a poor personal life and problems with her immediate family especially her parents. One day the crime ridden streets of the Windy City are about to catch up with her when Catch Lambert (Caviezel) steps in and saves her life. Sounds like a neat way to pick up chicks to me. Lopez then of course falls for the guy with the "angel eyes" and tries to figure out why she is so drawn to him. Could he be someone from her past she does not remember, or is he otherworldly in the Biblical sense? These mysteries are supposed to get someone motivated to pay money to find out the answers. Judging by the box office of its opening week, not many people were intrigued by the creepy music and slow motion reaction shots to find out. The preview makes Angel Eyes look like a drama with some action with a love story stuck in the middle. Also, there is a chance we might get some supernatural activity going on to spice things up. Caviezel has a strange gaunt look that makes him appear strange in all of his movie roles. The unshaven 5:00 shadow look seems to get him hired a lot. However, he is not yet a box office draw. He still needs the material and a 30 second plot synopsis that has a hook to entice people to the theater. Jennifer Lopez has become a household name. She is at the point now where you can say "it's a Jennifer Lopez movie" and people will know what to expect - a poorly acted drama tolerated more because Lopez is attractive than by the annoying way she tries to suppress her Puerto Rican accent. Lopez is still trying to find her groove in movies. She has received a strong push from Hollywood with her having the lead role in most of her most recent films like "Wedding Planner" and "The Cell." Also, she has a fairly successful music career and is in the tabloids at least 2 to 3 times a month. She is a real star, but has only impressed people with her acting in "Selena" and "Out of Sight." The jury is still hung on how she really fits in the whole top actress scheme of things. Right now she is successful by default since so few women are hired to star in movies with their names above the title. Basically there is Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan, and Jennifer Lopez. Renee Zellweger is moving up that list, but still needs a little work. Meryl Streep is considered to be the best actress of all time, but she still only makes a little more money than they paid Lopez to play Selena. Whoppi Goldberg is stuck in the center square, Kate Hudson is still Kurt Russell's step daughter, and Zhang Ziyi can't speak English. Men still overly dominate the movie scene, and it is sad that there are only about 3 1/2 actresses who can star in movies. Lopez needs to step up her game if she wants to remain on the top tier of Hollywood. Angel Eyes is not the way to go. She has a good presence and is pleasing to look at. Her strength is still in drama or action, since her comedy acting style is too obvious and wide eyed to really be considered any good. Hollywood wants to revive the musical badly, and is hoping Moulin Rouge will bring it back. If it does, Lopez might want to look for a movie musical role that plays on her strengths of singing (matter of opinion but something she has been successful at) and dancing (Fly Girl on In Living Color). They can even throw in a Latin number to bring in all the white people who glom off every other culture but their own to look like they respect and enjoy other styles of music. Lopez might also want to try an action role since she would look good in fancy superhero type spy outfits. Maybe she could play the villain in Spy Kids 2. The reason Angel Eyes did not fare too well this week is simple. With Lopez being in the news everyday about her love life which is sometimes fascinating, why pay money to see some fake crap that can't come near her adventures with Puffy.

1. A few weeks ago, I said that I would start posting Rachel Weisz pictures in Zhang Ziyi style since I found her quite the looker in Mummy Returns, so here is the first pic:

2. As long as The Mummy Returns remains in the top 10, so will the new Rachel Weisz pic of the week remain in the rest of the top ten in ten.

3. Knight's Tale tried to be hip with its modern rock soundtrack but it just took away from the simulated reality of the film.

4. If Knight's Tale had played it a little straighter, like Gladiator and Patriot did last year, it might have garnered a better public response.

5. The success of Bridget Jones' Diary shows that a movie geared to a large female audience can still be profitable for a studio that spends less than $30 million on production.

6. With Along Came a Spider making about the same money as last year's "Shaft," I think a good idea for a film would be Dr. Alex Cross and John Shaft to team up in a movie called "Yeah, I Kissed the Girl and Made the Bitch Cry."

7. With Driven just barely hanging on in the top ten, it looks like you might soon see Sylvester Stallone try his hand at television in one of those star vehicle sitcoms that always fail after 13 weeks.

8. I can't wait for the Blow and "Traffic" double DVD box set to come out with its own glass and razor blade with a fine print note that says "actual blow not included by law."

9. I think it would be cool to see a Spy Kids 2 with Jennifer Lopez vs Carla Gugino fight to the death.

10. Memento has an interesting plot that if promoted and distributed well enough, could have become a sleeper hit, but the movie studio is determined to have the movie fail to reach a wide audience.

Next week is the debut of what people say is the most anticipated film of the year. No, not "The Animal," but Pearl Harbor starring Ben Affleck, Cuba Gooding Jr., and my favorite actress name of the moment, Kate Beckinsale. Next week's box office report will be a big tribute to the people who died that fateful day in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 (December 8, 1941 if you are Japanese). I plan to see Pearl Harbor as well as a classic video nose pick of the week on "Tora Tora Tora" the definitive Pearl Harbor movie that has both the American and Japanese points of view. The new movie has some controversy because the makers of the film did not want to offend the Japanese people so they changed some dialogue that might be deemed racist or offensive. Oh boy, there will be a lot to talk about next week. Until then, bye for now.