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CNN Live Sunday
Summer Movie Season Starting to Heat Up
Aired May 20, 2001 - 17:43 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The summer season is just about here, and for movie-goers, that means it is time to head to the multiplex for the best Hollywood has to offer in this long, hot summer. So, what's hot and what's not this season?
For that, we check in with Andy Seiler. He's the film critic with "USA Today," and we've already got a hot one out of the gate, and that is the movie "Shrek." Tell us about it.
ANDY SEILER, "USA TODAY": Well, "Shrek" is a hot one not just because it's going to make a whole lot of money, but because it's getting great reviews. You don't always get both with a film. This is a movie that's very likely to please grown-ups and also children at the same time. In fact, sometimes it's like they're watching two different movies. They laugh at different parts in the film.
SAVIDGE: You think this is really going to be maybe the most critically acclaimed of not just the summer, maybe the year?
SEILER: It's certainly been the most acclaimed so far this year, and I don't know what's coming out later on to take its place. It's better reviewed than anything that came out last year. Yes, I know it's a family movie, it's a computer animation film, but that's the way it really is. This hasn't been the greatest year.
SAVIDGE: Well, I've got a family...
SEILER: It's going to be a huge summer.
SAVIDGE: I've got a family, so I have no beef with that. But let's talk about "The Mummy Returns." I mean, that's one I've looked forward to as well. I liked the first one. What do you think of this one?
SEILER: Well, this one is already huge. I mean, it opened absolutely massively. I just think that what tends to happen in summers, when things are red hot, is that people go to more movies. They're not so much competing with each other, but bringing people out to see the movies again and again. This one kicked off the summer with a huge bang, and I think we're likely to see the summer continue on that level all the way until the end.
SAVIDGE: Well, another one people have talked about it, it's made the cover of many a magazine already, "Pearl Harbor," and this being the 60th anniversary. All that ties in to what you think will be a big hit?
SEILER: Oh, yes. I don't know how much they spent on it, mind you, or how much they're spending on marketing it. I know that people love those posters, they're stealing them, and I know that it's got the action scenes that people want to see. It's in the "Titanic" mold, which means it's a big, long epic. Whether or not in the end people thing it's a very good movie, we'll see. I'm hearing very mixed things about that.
SAVIDGE: Well, I think a movie like this one, "Saving Private Ryan," are wonderful reminders or World War II, but why are they popular today? It seems that that is something that may have passed on with those who participated in the war.
SEILER: Yes. Pearl Harbor, then again, is a very well know -- and this is terrible way to put it -- brand name. But this is something that people really know what that means, even if they don't know much about World War II and they didn't live through it.
I also think that we're seeing a lot of revivals along -- "Mummy" is a good example -- of film genres -- "Gladiator" last year -- that we thought were dead. They're coming back because of the computer special effects and the sheer technical virtuosity that the movies have today. They can show things they never could have shown back in the heyday of those kinds of films.
SAVIDGE: All right, well, let's talk about another revival, "Planet of the Apes."
SEILER: Oh, yes.
SAVIDGE: What do you think of this one?
SEILER: Well, it's very interesting. I mean, Tim Burton is one of the most imaginative film-makers there is. The people producing it say it's not a sequel, it's not a remake, it's a reimagining. Well, we'll see. I think it's probably slightly what they call a reimagining, but I also think it's also probably a sequel and a remake from the description that we've heard so far.
But this is something that people really, really, really remember fondly. It spawned a whole series, and a TV series, and I think it even was a TV animated cartoon once, and now the make-up is better than it used to be, and we'll see what Tim Burton does with the concept.
SAVIDGE: "Moulin Rouge"...
SEILER: Another one...
SAVIDGE: I'm sorry, go ahead.
SEILER: I was just going to say, I know that when I was a kid and the first one came out, I collected every single trading card in "Planet of the Apes," and it was the first one I ever got all of them. So, I know what that means to kids, and it's obviously a concept that lives on.
SAVIDGE: OK, well, now, let's switch gears somewhat and talk more on "Moulin Rouge" here. This is a whole different genre.
SEILER: Well, it sure is. It's a very outrageous director named Baz Luhrmann breathing new life into the musical, speaking of old genres, using different kinds of songs than you might think for something set in the "Moulin Rouge" and that period.
It's polarizing audiences, I've got to tell, critics and people. There are some who just love it, there are more who just hate it, but say it's so horrible you can't take your eyes off it. It's fantastic, it's folly. So, people are reacting in very extreme ways to this one. No one's in the middle.
SAVIDGE: All right, well, we will see what "Moulin Rouge" and the rest of these summer movies are going to bring into the box office, and of course, there's always video to look forward to. Thank you very much, Andy Seiler, film critic for "USA Today" joining us.
SEILER: You're welcome.
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