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CNN Live At Daybreak

A Look at Some New Movies Opening on the Big Screen

Aired August 24, 2001 - 08:45   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to see what's on the big screen this weekend. And for that, Leah Rozen, "People" magazine's movie critic, is in New York this morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN ANCHOR: Leah, good morning to you.

LEAH ROZEN, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

KAGAN: Woody Allen, let's start there?

ROZEN: Yes, you know, Woody Allen used to always really, really look forward to a Woody Allen movie, and now you go with somewhat diminished expectations. And...

FLOCK: But this one is supposed to be so cool?

ROZEN: Well, it's pleasant, and I wouldn't go much farther than that. It's a caper film. It's set in 1940 in Manhattan. He and Helen Hunt work at insurance agency. He is investigator. She is efficiency expert. They are antagonists under hypnosis at a nightclub one night, they are hypnotized in believing they love each other. It involves a jewelry theft. It's cute, it's pleasant, but there's no getting around the fact this is a very small work. Allen is now a miniaturist. You have the sense it is more a sketch than a big film.

And the other problem is Woody Allen is how does one say this nicely, really, really old. He's 65 now. Helen Hunt in real life is 38. And no one really talks about the difference in age there, and you're going, shouldn't we be discussing this?

FLOCK: Is this a metaphor for real life somewhere, I don't know?

MCEDWARDS: Some people argue he doesn't make the distinction in real life. I read it a review of this, and I think it was a little bit harsh, suggesting his themes are so worn out, it's time for him to hang it up, mentioning his age as well. But this guy is a great filmmaker.

ROZEN: He's a great filmmaker, and he's certainly artist and it's his right to make a movie about whatever he wants, but Woody Allen makes one a year, at least every year, and he sort of doesn't have something to say, and you go, OK, he isn't really saying much with this one. So it's pleasant, and I'm not going to go farther.

MCEDWARDS: What about "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back?"

FLOCK: Good silent?

ROZEN: "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," this is a stoner film. Kevin Smith, who did "Clerks," did "Chasing Amy," did "Mall Rats," did "Dogma." Jay and Silent Bob are two characters that show up in all of his films, supporting roles in all the films, and now he's made him them the stars. Parts of this are fun. It's sort of a road movie. It's a Hollywood spoof. All kinds of people show up in cameos -- Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Carrie Fisher, and that stuff is kind of fun. When they take off on Hollywood movies, there is good a takeoff on "Goodwill Hunting," there is a funny "Charlie's Angels" spoof, and that is sort of fun, but on the whole, this is pretty much aimed directly at about a 15-year-old boy.

MCEDWARDS: I wondered that about them, actually. I wonder if you saw "Chasing Amy," but they're in snippets there, and they're really entertaining in snippets, but maybe not a whole film.

ROZEN: The whole thing you go, this is a little old, a little tired.

FLOCK: Baseball movies, now you're in my league there. Is this going to make me forget "Bull Durham?"

ROZEN: This is not going to make you forget "Bull Durham." It's going to make you regret that this is minor league "Bull Durham." This movie is hitting single. Freddie Prinze Jr. plays a kid who mows lawns. He's a college dropout. It's his dream to play in the Major League. He gets his last chance playing one summer for the Cape Cod League. There is a girl he's in love with. She's the rich girl, played by Jessica Beal, but the film keeps reminding you the whole time of better baseball film, mostly Bull Durham. There are even scenes that pay homage to Durham.

No cornfields, but there is women's underwear worn by a male player, and an older woman who has sex with the younger players, and you're just going, wasn't this done better by Susan Sarandon? This one is aimed at Freddie Prinze fans, and I think they're dwindling fast.

MCEDWARDS: Let's look at John Carpenter's "Ghosts of Mars." What do you think about this one?

ROZEN: Not much. I'm sorry to sound so negative, but we really are in the dog days of summer.

MCEDWARDS: I was going to say, is it just that it's summer? We got to find something you like.

ROZEN: Let's hope fall is better. This is horror thriller, sci- fi horror thriller, where Natasha Henstridge right there, and Ice Cube, they have to team up to fight this sort of deadly presence that's taking over people on Mars and causing them to become killers. The bad guys in the film look like a cross between zombies and refugees from a heavy metal band. There's sort of this thrashing guitar score written by John Carpenter as well, and the whole thing looks like drive-in movie supreme. So unless you are at a drive-in, not a lot of reason to see this either, I'm sorry to say.

FLOCK: Leah, Rozen, thanks for the heads up, at least.

MCEDWARDS: Not going to any movie's this weekend.

FLOCK: "Rat Race" is still fun.

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