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American Morning
Showbiz Today Reports: Another Weekend Promises No Good New Movies
Aired June 08, 2001 - 11:48 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.
JODI ROSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joining me now is Peter Travers, movie critic for "Rolling Stone," to talk about the movie "Swordfish" and others. Peter, of course, can be seen on CNN's "He Said/She Said" film review show every Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
PETER TRAVERS, "ROLLING STONE": Oh, yes.
ROSS: Oh, yes.
TRAVERS: Oh, yes.
ROSS: That's your regular gig.
TRAVERS: You've looked at that scene from "Swordfish," and you can tell that it's almost like Checkov, isn't it. It just has so much character development in it. We see computers, we see...
ROSS: Are you being facetious?
TRAVERS: I'm being facetious. This is a vile movie that almost begins well. It's John Travolta sitting there talking about the sorry state of Hollywood movies today. He calls them garbage -- actually, he calls them something else, but we can't say that on CNN. And he says asks why is that happening? He talks about "Dog Day Afternoon" being a great heist movie made in 1975.
He's right. But the heist movie he's made about hacking into a computer system where there's a government slush fund of $9.5 billion is so tired it destroys the cast. You have Hugh Jackman, who's a Australian actor who it quite good, quite promising in X-Men...
ROSS: And Halle Berry, who's getting all this attention, right?
TRAVERS: Very yes, because, reportedly, in addition to Halle Berry's $2 million salary, she was given a bonus of $500,000 to do her first topless scene in the movie. So that would be $250,000 dollars per.
ROSS: Per.
TRAVERS: Last year, there was a movie David Mamet made called "State and Main," in which Sarah Jessica Parker's character was an actress who got the same kind of bonus. ROSS: Right, I remember.
TRAVERS: They thought that was satire. No, that's not it.
ROSS: No it's not?
TRAVERS: No, this is what happened.
ROSS: Hopefully, "Evolution," another film opening, with David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, directed by Ivan Reitman -- better feeling about this one?
TRAVERS: See, you're saying "hopefully," and I was hoping too. What Ivan Reitman did was make a movie that was completely lifted from "Ghostbusters," the last giant hit he had, in 1984. So what you have is David Duchovny and Orlando Jones, who does the 7 UP commercials, and I like him. Duchovny has a nice laid-back manner.
But what do they do? They find a meteor crash that's got a little gooey organism. Who are you going to call? These two professors from an Arizona community college.
And Julianne Moore is in the movie -- love her. A two-time Academy Award nominee.
ROSS: Can't save it?
TRAVERS: What do they have her doing? She is playing Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality." They have her tripping over her high heels, falling into doors. It's lazy.
ROSS: Third time may be the charm: "The Anniversary Party," smaller film, Alan Cumming...
TRAVERS: It is a smaller film, and it starts really well, and it was made cheaply, and yes, Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh act in it but wrote and directed it with their friends. And their friends happen to be people like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Kline and Parker Posey. In the beginning, it's an anniversary party shot on digital video, and it's funny -- I'm going to say that -- it's actually funny. The last third -- sorry.
ROSS: Wow! I don't even know what to tell hem back in Atlanta. I'm not sure what to see.
TRAVERS: Tell them to go to "The Anniversary Party," but leave early.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSS: That sounds good. Peter Travers, thank you so much.
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