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American Morning

Look at Movies Coming Out This Weekend

Aired July 19, 2002 - 10:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Glenn Kenny, senior film critic for "Premiere" magazine, joins us now from New York to talk about this weekend at the movies. Good to see you, Glenn. How are you?

GLENN KENNY, "PREMIERE" MAGAZINE: Very well, thank you. Good to see you.

HARRIS: All right, let's start off with "K-19." What did you think of this one? I've heard mixed reviews.

KENNY: "k-19" the fresh maker. Well, I think it depends on, you know, how you feel about submarine movies in general. There's not a lot of. It's almost a generic kind of thing that happens. And if you look at the tension between Ford and Liam Neeson, it kind of reminds you of, you know, Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington in "Crimson Tide."

This is a really well done movie. The director, Kathryn Bigelow, is really great with action and visuals, and it's got a lot of tension, and it's a nice, long, tense kind of air-conditioned ride for moviegoers.

HARRIS: How would you juxtaposition this against all the other action film this summer, "Spiderman" and everything? This is a different kind of action.

KENNY: Yes, it's not as much as a cartoon, and it's based, purportedly, on true events. Who can tell how much is true or not in a Hollywood production. But -- and it's also, Harrison Ford is an action hero who's proved his mettle, but he's also an aging action hero, and this kind of role is a little different for him. I mean, the two big action heroes of the summer have been, aside from Tobey MaGuire for "Spiderman," have been Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, respectively. And who would have thought back when we were enjoying "Goodwill Hunting" that these guys would be in friendly competition to see who's be the next movie action hero.

HARRIS: Yes, who would have thought it?

KENNY: Ford still has something to prove in that respect, I think, and it will be Interesting to see how this film does.

HARRIS: And you know what else will be interesting is to see what happens with "Stuart Little." I've heard almost everyone who's even seen anything of the second time around says that the second time around is better than the first one.

KENNY: Yes, I think with the first film, they sort of had doubts about how to, you know, set its tone, and so on. And I think the film did well enough, and the parts of the film that really connected with audiences, such as the snarky cat who menaces Stuart Little and then becomes his friend. All these elements are sort of amplified in this sequel, which aside from being really, really, cute and boasting an interspecies romance, because Stuart gets involved with a small bird, it's also very short. I think it's about a half -- it's longer than.

HARRIS: Seventy-seven minutes is what I heard this morning.

KENNY: Yes, yes. And so there will be a lot of showing, so I think it will make a lot of kids very happy.

Look at that little guy. How can you resist? He's so cute.

HARRIS: It'll make parents happy, too, because this is one of the few movies where everybody in the family can see it, and everybody gets all the jokes, too.

KENNY: It's entirely wholesome.

HARRIS: How about "Tadpole?"

KENNY: "Tadpole" is what we in the biz like to call counterprogramming. It's a small intimate adult comedy about a very precocious teenager who comes home for Thanksgiving weekend, from his boarding school, with the intent of declaring his love for his stepmom, played be Sigourney Weaver. The wrinkle in it, is he ends up being seduced by his stepmom's best friend, and you see there is Robert Iler from "The Sopranos." And movie is, I would say slight, but it's got a lot of laughs. And Bebe Neuwirth, who plays the best friend of Sigourney Weaver who seduces this young man is just fantastic as the sophisticated and rather, you know, freewheeling older woman.

HARRIS: Heck of a choice, if you ask me, between her and Sigourney Weaver.

KENNY: We could talk about it, but probably not in this venue.

HARRIS: We'll talk about that off camera. On camera, let's talk about "Austin Powers," got to talk about this one, because A lot of people have been waiting for a long time to see this one.

KENNY: This is a hugely successful franchise, and it's a hugely successful summer franchise, and what people don't realize, is that, you know, I think the "Austin Powers" series is going to be the "Pink Panther" series of this era. And you know, usually, you don't associate summer movies with comedies; you associate with big sci-fi blockbusters. But the thing that "Austin Powers" has are these great pyschadelic visuals. It's got this, you know, very distinctive character. And also the way that Newline is scheduling its release, it's almost like a light summer refresher coming after all these either bombastic or seemingly important blockbuster pictures. It's sort of just a very light break from that sort of thing.

And the thing is its creators are keeping on top of things with the casting of Beyonce Knowles as "Foxy Cleopatra."

HARRIS: Good move there, yes.

I don't think I've seen a pimp mobile like that since I was in high school in Akron.

KENNY: Pretty intense.

HARRIS: Glenn Kenny, thanks very much. Hope to talk to you again later on. Have a good weekend, all right?

KENNY: You, too.

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