Carrey's 'Grinch' Steals Box Office Lead
By Dean Goodman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Christmas arrived early at the North American weekend box office as JimCarrey's holiday-themed ''Grinch'' comedy opened at No. 1 and set several new records in the process.
According to studio estimates issued Sunday, ``Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'' grossed about $55.1 million for
the three days beginning Friday, the second-best opening of the year behind ``Mission: Impossible 2'' with $57.9 million. It
averaged $17,621 from 3,127 theaters.
``Grinch'' obliterated the competition. The animated comedy ''Rugrats in Paris: The Movie'' (Paramount) opened at No. 2 with
$23.0 million, while ``Charlie's Angels'' (Columbia) slipped to No. 3 with $13.7 million after two weekends at No. 1.
``Grinch'' marks new career bests for both Carrey and director Ron Howard, and the fifth-highest launch in history. If numbers
hold up when final data are released Monday, it will become the best ever non-sequel opening, replacing ``X-Men,'' which
opened to $54.5 million last July. ``Grinch'' is also the fifth consecutive No. 1 for Universal Pictures, a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.
All this despite generally unfavorable reviews. Of 42 leading critics in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C.,
surveyed by trade paper Daily Variety, 10 liked ``Grinch'' and 18 did not; the rest were mixed.
All but unrecognizable in heavy green makeup, Canadian funnyman Carrey plays the cave-dwelling curmudgeon originated in
Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book and re-created in director Chuck Jones' animated 1966 Christmas TV special.
``The film delivers to all quadrants of the audience,'' said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president of distribution. ``It's an event film
and not just a holiday film. It appeals to everyone.''
Rocco said Carrey was ``extraordinarily happy'' with the opening figures, having suffered some disappointments recently with
``Me, Myself & Irene'' and ``Man on the Moon.'' His previous best opening was 1995's ``Batman Forever'' with $52.7 million.
Howard's previous best was the Mel Gibson kidnap thriller ''Ransom,'' which opened to $34.2 million in November 1996. The
director's Imagine Films banner, which he owns with Brian Grazer, produced ``Grinch.''
The all-time box office record of $64.8 million is held by 1999's ``Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,'' followed by
three other sequels, ``Mission: Impossible 2,'' ``Toy Story 2'' and ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park.''
Tracking firm Exhibitor Relations estimated the top 12 films grossed $148 million, up 53 percent from last weekend, and up 42
percent from the year-ago weekend when the James Bond thriller ``The World is Not Enough'' opened with $35.5 million.
``Grinch'' will face keen competition next Thanksgiving holiday weekend when the Walt Disney Co. pair of family comedy ''102
Dalmatians'' and superhero thriller ``Unbreakable'' open in theaters on Wednesday.
Although the critics were overwhelmingly enthusiastic -- only one grinch out of 24 reviews -- ``Rugrats in Paris'' opened with
$4 million less than 1998's forerunner, ``The Rugrats Movie.'' The new film averaged a strong $7,839 per theater.
Based on the hit Nickelodeon TV series, it follows the Parisian exploits of a gang of pre-schoolers headed by Tommy, Dill and
Angelica Pickles. The original ended up with $100 million domestically and about $40 million overseas.
After 17 days in release, ``Charlie's Angels'' has racked up $93.6 million in North America. The female crimefighter action-
comedy film opened in 27 countries this weekend and was No. 1 in Mexico, said a Columbia spokesman. Final numbers will
be released Monday.
New releases ``The 6th Day,'' a cloning thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and ``Bounce,'' a romantic drama pairing
tabloid faves Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, rounded out the top five.
Columbia's ``6th Day'' earned $13.2 million, about $6 million less than Schwarzenegger's November 1999 release, ``End of
Days.''
``Bounce'' (Miramax), in which Affleck's duplicitous character courts the widow (Paltrow) of a plane crash victim, earned
about $10.5 million. They averaged $5,242 and $5,996, respectively. Critics gave ``Bounce'' the thumbs-down, and were only
slightly kinder to ``6th Day.''
Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. Miramax Films is a unit of Disney.
and seen the special several times. I liked the story of how this green
goblin like creature living on a hill was disgusted with the overly nice and
friendly Whos of Whoville. Their constant singing and playing kept
interfering with his brooding. He wants them know his pain so he decides
to take awau all of their Christmas presents to ruin their
holiday. He succeeds, but to his surprise, the Whos are still
singing and smiling even without the material gifts to unwrap. The Grinch
was so shocked by this that he became a good person and learned the true meaning
of Christmas. Ahhh. Ever since I was 5 I have never been ever to
figure this story out. What pissed off the Grinch so much that he would
result to breaking and entering and why was it so easy for the Whos to deal with
the invasion of their homes? Christmas is about a lot of things, but at
least a good 40% of it is the exchanging and receiving of gifts. The Whos
must have been upset when they woke up but Geisel had to cut the story down a
few pages and the cartoon minus commercials was only about 23 1/2 minutes.
What the live action movie does is try to answer the main question of why.
Was the Grinch always mean? Are the Whos all nice. Is Cindy Lou too
idealistic? What really happened when the Whos found all of their presents
had been stolen? The movie attempts to answer these questions.
However, just doing that does not help make this movie some great artistic piece
of cinema. Let's look at what we get. Jim 
Carrey
seems to be a natural if not the only actor who could come close to pulling off
a live action version of a cartoon. He has done it before with "The
Mask" and he channels that performance for much of the film. He also
rips off one of his more popular In Living Color characters, Fire Marshall
Bill. Carrey pretty much does his stand up routine and impersonates the
Grinch if he wore that ancient mask from the "The Mask." It
works, but it causes you not to think of the Grinch as a character and more of
just another Jim Carrey vehicle. He looks to be having fun doing the part
and is energetic enough, but anyone could have been in that costume since Carrey
is unrecognizable. The most impressive thing Carrey did was not even in
the film. Last year when it was announced he was going to play the "Mean
One" he came out without makeup and contorted his face into the shape of
the G-man. He looked more like the Grinch doing that than in the full
makeup. The actors playing the Whos are okay with probably the father of
Cindy Lou being my favorite. The problem with the Whos is the nose and lip
extension makeup. It is very creepy to look at these Whovians. They
reminded me of the doctors and nurses in that Twilight Zone episode, "Eye
of the Beholder" where the "normal" looking people all had these
pig faces and the ugly ones looked like what we would consider a
supermodel. I could deal with the makeup personally, but what annoyed me
was the excuses made for other Whos to not have the full nose and lip
appliance. Little kids had to wait to grow into their noses and I guess
some of the women had plastic surgery to get rid
of their defect. For example, Christine Baranski plays Martha May Who, a
potential love interest for the Grinch. For some reason, this fully grown
Who has no racially formed nose and mouth. Baranski is somewhat strange
looking in her normal look and it makes you think the makers of the movie
thought she looked so much like a Who already that no extensive makeup was
needed. Also, when movies about cartoons are made, they sometimes make the
sets too cartoony. So, buildings and camera angles are all crooked and it
becomes another frustrating thing to sit through. I did like the movie
overall because it did explain the nagging questions I have always had about the
story and that they show the Grinch as a little boy and that image was one of
the funniest things I have seen all year for some reason. This movie will
appeal to grade school kids and parents looking for something to kill
time. Older adults or the Gen Xers who grew up watching and reading the
story may not dig it. The movie has to extend a children's picture book
and half hour cartoon into an hour and 45 minute film which causes things to
drag from time to time. In fact the main story everyone is familiar with
does not even occur until the last half hour. There are problems with the
Grinch, but I found it enjoyable enough to recommend it marginally. Final
Review: 2 1/2 stars out of 5; 6 out of 10; C+; thumbs up. 
from
the point of view of very little kids. Little kids have great imaginations
and go on wild adventures just playing with some blocks. Also, very little
kids are fascinated by bodily functions. Hmm, I think that appeal stays
with guys all their life though. The clips I have seen of the show and of
this movie look to be pretty entertaining, but I have commentary tracks to
listen to on my new DVDs so I don't have time to keep up with the latest
sustained kid craze. The last one I got into was the Mutant Ninja
Turtles. That was fun, but it was time to movie on to more sophisticated
fare... like South Park and Beavis and Butthead. The Rugrats movies seem
to be cash cows. The first 2 have opened very well considering the
competition and the fact that the name Disney is nowhere to be found in the
credits. Rugrat kids go to Paris, France and get into all sorts of
trouble. Simple enough plot and if it has a lot of pee and poopy jokes
thrown in, the more the merrier. This movie also attracts a lot of
celebrity voices who like watching the show with their own children. Susan
Sarandon shows up as Coco LaBouche who causes trouble for our heroes. John
Lithgow and Debbie Reynolds lend their vocal talents as well to keep things
moving. This movie looks pretty good, and I might have to give the show
another chance. I don't like being left out of the loop. 
powerful and influential family in America. His accent was so strong when
he first acted in Hercules Goes to New York that he was dubbed over like he was
speaking Japanese in a Godzilla movie. However, Arnold used that accent as
his trademark and it made him rich. His Austrian tone is as thick as ever,
but at least he enunciates better than he did in his Stay Hungry and The Villain
days. He even has his own catchphrase of "I'll be back" first
uttered in "The Terminator." His films have made over a billion
dollars worldwide, yet this week Mr. Schwarzenegger opened in "The Sixth
Day" to just over $13 million, his lowest since Jingle All the Way.
What happened? Why have people turned on Arnold Scwarzenegger movies.
Well, his last one, End of Days, which I liked personally, was hated by most
people who saw it. The previews of 6D were good but looked a lot like
other Arnold movies in the past few years like Eraser and End of Days that were
not as well received. Few people were willing to take the chance this
time. It did not help that promotional material said it was a cross
between Total Recall and True Lies. That just makes people rent or watch
their own copies of the original films. The other problem is that the
movie is trying to be topical with the clone storyline even though cloning is a
dead issue at the moment and no one cares. It is sort of how the internet
is the most popular thing to hit the planet since the invention of television,
but movies about the internet always bomb. Topical subjects work for TV
movies of the week, not theatrical films. Arnold is in trouble of becoming
Sylvester Stallone who no longer gets movie scripts on a regular basis since his
box office appeal has gone down to near zero due to trash like Judge Dredd.
Arnolds next movie, Collateral Damage sounds like one of his typical action
movies and unless it has some spectacular premise, it too is destined for the
$10 to $15 million opening weekend range. People seem to never have
forgiven him for the underrated Last Action Hero. I am a huge fan of
Arnolds and like almost anything he is in. My top three Arnold movies are:
1 - Commando; 2 - The Terminator; 3 - Conan the Barbarian. His worst
movies are 1 - Batman and Robin; 2 - Junior; 3 - Raw Deal. In fact, I
consider Commando the greatest action movie ever made and I am not afraid to
admit it. However, it is on my guilty pleasure list. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is a great entertainer, and I hope to see Sixth Day in the
theater before it leaves. I'm pulling for ya big guy. 
have
a cool premise for a story" plot. The story is that Affleck decides
to give up his seat on an airplane to another guy, and the plane crashes killing
the guy he gave the seat to. Oops. So, Ben finds out the guy was
married and decides to check up on the widow played by Blythe "Meet the
Parents" Danner's daughter. He starts to fall in love with her, but
he does not know how he will be able to tell her that he is the reason her
husband is dead. So, the whole movie you sit there waiting for the moment
when she will curse him out for lying to her all this time and he trying to
convince her that he wanted to tell her but could never find the right
moment. This type of plot plays a lot better on a daytime soap opera
than a theatrical movie. This movie opened better than I thought it would
but romantic dramas usually do okay if there is a big star or 2 involved.
However, the movie is all gimmick and in fact the previews barely mention the
driving force of the movie. Just looking at the trailer you would think it
is just another guy meets girl and falls in love while girl slowly realizes that
she has loved this guy from the moment they met. The marketing is afraid
to actually tell you what the movie is about. That rarely if ever
works. Affleck is looking to be as successful as his writing buddy, Matt,
and Paltrow seems to just go through these Hollywood guys one at a time.
She hung out with Matt Damon last year, Affleck this year, so next year I guess
it's time for a Rupert Everett star crossed romance. As for me, I am going
to bounce far away from any viewing of this film.