Hey folks, Harry here with a full on report from Showester of the special screenings that took place at ShoWest this year and... well I'm jealous... I can't wait to see SHREK, ATLANTIS and SPY KIDS... but oh well, instead we get to hear about it from a veteran of such lavish works of Vegas Entertainment.... the Showester, so sit back and listen to tales of films yet to come...
Headgeek,
I just got back from Las Vegas where very few distrib's showed their reels to the masses. Most of them decided to do invite only screenings or have small parties and play their trailers on a 19 inch t.v. Very disappointing. I was able to see four full length screenings of upcoming features.
Heartbreakers: Overall this film is funny and entertaining. It's not as good as it could have been. The Gene Hackman part could have been cut down and it would have helped the picture. The movie starts off with Ray Liotta and Sigourney Weaver getting married. Sigourney thanks Ray for respecting her religious beliefs about premarital sex. Ray finally gets Sigourney into the honeymoon suite and Sigourney passes out on the bed. The next morning, she is sick and so Ray Liotta leaves to go to work for a couple of hours and is about to burst. Of course he has a very sexy secretary (Jennifer Love-Hewitt) who is more than willing to help him unload. Sigourney walks in on Ray and Jennifer and before he can get his pants zipped up, he is in divorce court.
It turns out the Sigourney is Jennifer's mother and the two of them are scam artists. There is some very funny stuff in this movie. However, a lot of it has been done before. There are also not a lot of twists and turns. Ray Liotta is on top of his game and delivers a funny performance. Watching the Gene Hackman/Sigourney Weaver stuff, you get the feeling that you are watching two actors trying to be funny with their accents or their coughing attacks. Overall, I would rate it worth a matinee ticket on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Spy Kids: Everything you've heard about this one is true. Basically it's Matrix meets James Bond for kids. I think children will like it and I think families will have a good time. There is enough in the movie so adults won't be bored out of their freaking minds.
The film starts off with a bedtime story in which the mother tells the kids about a couple of international spies who are assigned to kill each other but they fall in love and end up getting married instead. After the story the children go to sleep and the mother joins Antonio Banderas in the bedroom. It is revealed that the parents are in fact (big surprise here) the international spies from the story and it seems that they are anxious to get back into the game. After some father/son angst setup scenes, the parents find themselves going off to rescue some missing spies. It is at this time that the under used Cheech Marin arrives to baby sit the kids who think that he is their uncle. Cheech is barely through the door before the bad guys have kidnapped the parents and stormed the house to get the kids. The kids escape but alas, Cheech is not so lucky. From here on out, the film is about the kids trying to rescue the parents from the evil Floop. Floop is trying to develop and army of super children who will take over the world.
The action sequences were entertaining. The acting wasn't bad. I laughed a couple of times. I have to admit that I am not the target audience for this picture and if it wasn't being shown in digital, I would have most likely skipped it. The digital presentation was great! The colors and contrast were very good. Overall, the picture was entertaining but if you don't have kids you may want to wait for the DVD rental.
Atlantis: I had to sneak into this one because it wasn't part of Showest and was by invitation only. The screening was in the "O" theatre at Bellagio. It was a great setting to see the film. The film itself was almost overshadowed by the 30 minutes of "O" performance we were treated to after the screening.
The film starts off with several airborne vehicles racing back to Atlantis only a little bit ahead of a giant tidal wave. The dialogue in the beginning is in Atlantian and there are subtitles. The city is covered by the tidal wave and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. The movie then cuts to the character voiced by Michael J. Fox practicing his speech about finding the lost empire of Atlantis. He works at a museum and needless to say, the curators of the museum have no interest in spending money to find Atlantis. Luckily for him, someone does want to spend the money and already has a huge expedition mounted and ready to go as soon as MJF signs on.
The expedition only has to go a little ways before they encounter the guardian of Atlantis. There is a good chase sequence but it is a little short. The expedition then gets on the road to Atlantis. This road trip takes a long time and feels very slow. They finally arrive at Atlantis and Michael J. finds out that his fellow explorers have other motives for finding Atlantis.
The animation of the film is enjoyable and the actors lending their voices to the movie do a good job. There are no musical numbers or talking animals. The movie seems to be going for the same audience the Titan A.E. went for and we all know how that worked out. As a movie goer, I enjoyed the film a lot. As a movie exhibitor, I'm worried about the box office potential. If the release schedule holds as it is, I would suggest seeing Tomb Raider on June 15 and then catch Atlantis on Saturday. In my opinion, this film had more adult entertainment value than Spy Kids.
After the show and after "O", Michael J. Fox came out and was greeted with a standing O. He waved a couple of times and then left the stage.
Shrek: I'll tell you right off, I thought this movie was very funny. It will easily do 150+ million at the box office. Jeffrey Katzenberg had a lot of fun poking fun at Disney and their empire. The print we saw was a working print and most people said that they would see it again when it played in the theatres. This film will be enjoyed by all ages but I think people should take the PG or PG-13 rating into consideration. There are a lot of jokes the kids are not going to understand. The film starts off with a funny sequence of Shrek reading a fairy tale. About half way through the story he says, "Yeah right, like that'll ever happen" and then he rips the pages out of the book. The action then cuts to the outside of the out house and we hear a flushing sound and the fairy tale is flushed down the toilet. Shrek then emerges from his completing his business and goes about the day.
The main plot is about Shrek making a journey to rescue the princess and bring her back to the castle so Sir Farkwad can marry her and become a king. There are a lot of references to all things Disney and every fairy tale character imaginable. Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers do a great job and have many funny moments. There are a couple of script problems that may be worked out in the final edit but even if not, they are not big enough to cause problems with the film. This one gets a rating of see it as soon as possible even if you have to pay ten bucks in New York. You won't be let down.
Dreamworks also showed a new trailer of Evolution. They brought out the stars and the director to introduce it. The trailer looks very funny. It looks to have the same kind of feel as Men in Black. I can't remember his name but the 7up guy seems to have a lot of funny lines and the action looks to be pretty good.
Hope this sheds some light on the upcoming films.
The Showester
