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American Morning
Weekend Movie Preview
Aired July 19, 2002 - 09:21 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go in for Irwitz (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom, Dad, I'm going in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Stuart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Do it -- do it, Stuart. OK. Hollywood's smallest star returns to the big screen this weekend in "Stuart Little 2." We'll have a squeak preview, as our writer Gary Kay (ph) would say. And speaking of stars, Harrison Ford is back in the Cold War thriller, "K-19: The Widowmaker."
So are we talking "must-see" movies? Let's find out now from KTLA's entertainment editor Sam Rubin.
Hey, Sam, good morning.
SAM RUBIN, KTLA ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Good morning, Arthel.
I think we're talking about movies to go see, particularly if you require the air conditioning. I don't think we're going to hear about these films come awards season time.
However, "Stuart Little 2" is, in fact, better than the original. That might be a damning slightly with faint praise. Stuart is little and so too the movie, 77 minutes long. Really brief, but very, very big hearted. And you could certainly take the entire family.
There was some concern earlier in the year that "Lilo & Stitch" and a few other movies were not appropriate for really little kids. But you know from 2 to 200, anybody could see this and really enjoy it. It is cute and clever, and I think will do well.
Opening in an extraordinary number of theaters. The tracking, as it were, the prediction of the box office is that "Stuart Little 2" will outdo the original and probably make a lot of money. Over 3,200 theaters today.
NEVILLE: Wow! And 77 minutes is a good time.
But let's move on now for -- to Harrison Ford and "K-19: The Widowmaker." I hear you're saying this is just eh (ph).
RUBIN: This is the tossup, Arthel. I think it really -- first of all, I think the title is confusing to people and they might confuse it with a bad dog movie called "K-9" from a few years ago. Harrison Ford is obviously a big, big star, but we really haven't seen him since 2000 in "What Lies Beneath." And the attention that this movie has generated, quite honestly, and you know the huge premiere in New York the other day,...
NEVILLE: Right.
RUBIN: ... is for who he's taking to the premiere, Calista Flockhart, less so on the movie. So it's a...
NEVILLE: Actually that...
RUBIN: ... grownup movie. Go ahead, I'm sorry.
NEVILLE: That probably saved him, Sam. Though they probably saved him. We didn't need to focus on the movie in this case, you know, because he was...
RUBIN: Yes.
NEVILLE: I mean I'm a Harrison Ford fan, but he's, what, he's making 25 million in this -- for this movie. And just wondering if he pulled off the Russian accent?
RUBIN: Well, you know that's the thing, will audiences accept him this way? I think we always think of him as being this, you know, sort of straight-ahead American hero.
Production budget said to be over $80 million. And as you mentioned, more than 20 maybe as much as 25 going to Harrison Ford directly. He is one of the biggest stars in box office history, and he's obviously still a big star today. Is he as big? I don't know. This is really the tossup in terms of when people call up the ticket services in advance to order their movie tickets, this is not tracking as well as "Stuart Little."
A little movie to tell you about, though, that's received the best notices of the three, quite honestly, is a film called "Tadpole." John Ritter, of all people, Bebe Neuwirth and Sigourney Weaver in sort of a May-December comedic romance. This was a huge hit at Sundance, and of the three is really the best one. Very, very well done.
But you know how there's been so much discussion, Arthel, about keeping production budgets down?
NEVILLE: Absolutely.
RUBIN: This was shot on digital video, and that's something I wonder if films fans will notice or care. Really good script, really clever. Junior Soprano is in it. But it looks like it was shot with your home movie camera. It doesn't have a big-screen good look. So I don't know how it'll do. NEVILLE: He's...
RUBIN: And then of course second -- go ahead, I'm sorry.
NEVILLE: Yes, no, go ahead. I was going to say but a second weekend for "Road to Perdition."
RUBIN: There we go. And this is the thing here, Tom Hanks. Of course this was the movie that has been certainly the best reviewed movie of the summer. Last weekend's box office was terrific. And now producers are counting on word of mouth. They made the big push last weekend, got a lot of adults into the theater, $21 million. Will they tell their friends to go this weekend? I imagine the movie certainly will finish in the top five, maybe second or third, we'll see.
NEVILLE: All right, Sam Rubin, thank you.
RUBIN: You bet, Arthel.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Arthel.
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