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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Paul Clinton
Aired February 09, 2002 - 08:42 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A look now at the terrorism in the movies. After September 11, movie studios were forced to rethink release dates for some pictures that portrayed terrorist themes. One of those films is Warner Brothers "Collateral Damage." The film eerily similar to the 9-11 scenario. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose family is killed in a terrorist bombing in a downtown high rise. His character is forced to hunt down the terrorists.
Joining us now to talk more about this movie and some other issues is Paul Clinton. He is a film critic for CNN Radio and he's also with cnn.com.
Paul, good to have you with us.
PAUL CLINTON, FILM CRITIC, CNN.COM/CNN RADIO: Hi, Miles. How are you?
O'BRIEN: Good. I guess the question is: Is the public ready for this sort of thematic content?
CLINTON: Well, you know, it's, there's a Bush in the White House and we're in a recession and there's a war going on in the Mideast and Arnie's back on screen. I don't know about you, but it's beginning to smell like the '80s to me. And I don't know whether they're ready for this or not. The point is it's a bad movie. So ready or not, here it comes.
O'BRIEN: So no one, if a movie falls in the forest, who cares, right?
CLINTON: Right. Who cares? I mean this has been given a lot of press. It's gotten millions of dollars worth of press because of the similarities to the September 11 tragedies. And that's, you know, good for the movie, but it's bad for the movie also. I mean it really brings it to a level it shouldn't be at. It's just a trite little stupid action/adventure flick that was supposed to come out in July. They pulled it back to October and then when September 11 happened they pulled it back again to February.
It's really an embarrassing stupid little film. There are some similarities but...
O'BRIEN: Is it worth even getting into why it's embarrassing, stupid and trite or should we just leave it at that? CLINTON: Well, I mean, you know, he is a fireman and, but he's a Los Angeles fireman. He fought for the hero to be a fireman instead of a CIA agent or something. But the point is that the last few films that Arnold's done, "End Of Days" and "The Six Days," he's tried to be an every man. He's trying to be, you know, an actor. Well, Arnold's many things. He's, you know, an icon. He's a role model. He's a billionaire. But he's not an actor. He never has been.
And "End Of Days" cost like $83 million to make. They only made $66. "The Six Days" made $34 million and Arnold was paid $25 million.
So this every man thing is not working because he's really not a very good actor. He should stick to the action, action, action, which he is doing. He's going to be doing "Terminator 3," which is going to be one of his next movies.
O'BRIEN: So he can't act, he can't run restaurants. What can he...
CLINTON: He marries well.
O'BRIEN: He married well, yes.
CLINTON: He lifts weights.
O'BRIEN: Let's, I mean is Arnold Schwarzenegger's box office, or his days...
CLINTON: He's 54, he's going to be 55 this summer, not that anything is wrong with your 50s, but the...
O'BRIEN: I'm not going to say anything about it. Io know you won't.
CLINTON: I'm not going to say a darned thing. No.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CLINTON: Fifties are great. But I mean the fan base for that kind of film is your 17, 18, 22, 23-year-old. And those guys have moved on to, you know, to the new things, "Men In Black" and "Men In Black 2" and those type films and those type of action films. Arnold's day has, I think his career in that genre has, you know, has peaked.
O'BRIEN: And as you say, since he can't act, where does he go from there?
CLINTON: Governor of California.
O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, very interesting.
CLINTON: That's what we're hearing.
O'BRIEN: That's an interesting prospect. That would be, you know... CLINTON: It's happened before.
O'BRIEN: Jesse Ventura in Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, it's a great country, isn't it?
CLINTON: Yes, well, Ronald Reagan did it, you know?
O'BRIEN: Yes. What about some other 9-11 movies that may or may not do well...
CLINTON: There's another movie...
O'BRIEN: ... because of, you know, people's mood right now?
CLINTON: Well, the movies were moved around quite a bit. This was the most, you know, spectacular move because it has so many things that are similarity to 9-11. But there were a couple of war type movies that were moved back. "Behind Enemy Lines" was moved back because it had the subtext of being set in Bosnia and it starred Gene Hackman. So they thought they were going to be able to make that a big movie by putting it on earlier. Well, unfortunately it's just a bad movie so it really didn't make much money.
On the other hand, they did the same thing with "Black Hawk Down," moved it forward because it, again, it's another action film, this one to do with Somalia in 1993, and this one really took off. This is a good, good movie. So "Black Hawk Down" moved back and really cashed in. It was on the top 10 lists for a lot of reviewers. It was on my top 10 list. And it really cashed in by coming out earlier and being associated with the mood of the country right now. But "Behind Enemy Lines" did not work at all because it was a bad movie.
So good or bad, it still has to stand on its own creativity.
O'BRIEN: So, Paul, you like "Black Hawk Down," huh?
CLINTON: I like it a lot, yes.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I just didn't, it didn't work for me. I didn't get enough character development. Now, of course, I probably made the mistake of reading the book and was disappointed as a result of all that. But...
CLINTON: Well, apples and oranges. The books and the film are never the same.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes. Well, you know, it's interesting how Hollywood, you know, with the pipeline they have developing ideas and concepts, filming and all of this, you know, world events can change the way things go. I guess this is not unprecedented.
CLINTON: No. It's going to be interesting to see what comes out a year from now because things are being put into the pipeline now with the, you know, mindset of September 11. So it's going to be interesting to see what we'll have in a year from now in terms of films and how they approach, you know, the human condition. There are other films that probably, my favorite war film of recent times was "Three Kings." And I don't think that would be made right now...
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CLINTON: ... because it was very anti-government, it was anti- military. There were renegades. It showed the Iranian point of view. Americans were shown as oil hungry and in the Mideast as predators. And it probably would not be made right now in the current mood of the country.
O'BRIEN: That was a good movie. I liked that one, though. All right.
CLINTON: Yes, that was good.
O'BRIEN: Paul Clinton with cnn.com and CNN Radio, thanks for joining us.
CLINTON: Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: We'll see you again soon, we hope, and we'll talk about the Oscars some day soon.
CLINTON: Oh, very soon.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
CLINTON: Yes, it should be interesting.
O'BRIEN: If you plan to head to the movie this weekend, see a movie this weekend, I should say, and you intend to see "Collateral Damage," in a word: "don't." Paul Clinton just told you, stay away from it. Save your $9, $10, whatever it is now. And if you want to get a little more information on why Paul hates it, just log onto cnn.com/entertainment and there you'll get the gory details, if you will.
Paul, thanks for being with us, by the way.
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