THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230146
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 210 lines
THE SUMMER of the big bang.
That's the most obvious way to characterize the race for the millions as the movie industry moves into high gear this week. About 60 percent of the entire year's box office cash is taken in during the summer months.
With top actors charging up to $20 million for their services, this summer the studios are banking on special effects instead of special actors. ``Twister,'' the earliest hit to hold over into summer, had no big stars. ``Independence Day,'' projected to be one of the biggest hits, stars Bill Pullman and Will Smith - not exactly box office names.
All the usual ingredients will be here. There's an action flick starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (budgeted at over $100 million), a Disney animated musical, an attack from the Martians, a dragon and explosions everywhere.
Mark your calendar, but keep an eraser handy. The studios are still juggling these schedules.
FRIDAY:
``Spy Hard'' - Leslie Nielsen stars in a James Bond spoof, as Agent WD-40. Andy Griffith is the villain.
MAY 31:
``The Arrival'' - Charlie Sheen stars in a sci-fi thriller about things from outer space. It is not an ``E.T.'' sort of summer; these aliens are markedly unfriendly.
``Dragonheart'' - A knight (Dennis Quaid) and a dragon (the voice of Sean Connery) team up to take on a mean king. They're hoping that ``Braveheart'' will revive interest in medieval sword fights.
``Eddie'' - Whoopi Goldberg is a limo driver who becomes coach of the New York Knicks for a single night. Frank Langella, her real-life beau, plays the team owner.
JUNE 7:
``The Phantom'' - The famed comic strip becomes an action-packed live film. Billy Zane has the title role, his newly muscled bod clad in a purple skintight suit. Could be a surprise hit. Treat Williams, Kristy Swanson, Samantha Eggar and Patrick McGoohan are featured.
``The Rock'' - Nicolas Cage, post-Oscar, joins with Sean Connery to try to stop a madman, Ed Harris, from sending rockets exploding into San Francisco. Harris takes over Alcatraz and, well, don't expect it to make sense.
JUNE 14:
``The Cable Guy'' - Jim Carrey scrunches up his face one more time. He plays a cable service man who becomes obsessed with scrambling the life, and TV reception, of customer Matthew Broderick. How long before viewers get tired of him?
JUNE 21:
``The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' - The big Disney animated entry has a half dozen songs livening up the classic Victor Hugo story about the bellringer of Paris. Tom Hulce (``Amadeus'') is the voice of the hunchback Quasimodo and Demi Moore voices the dancing girl Esmeralda. Just say ``Oui.''
``Eraser'' - Ah-nuld, back in action for the first time since ``True Lies.'' Schwarzenegger plays a federal agent who hides government witnesses, and ends up on the lam himself. Big bang. Vanessa Williams, the former Miss America, is his co-star.
``Lone Star'' - This one may be late getting here, but it's rumored to be the most thought-provoking of the bunch. It concerns a mystery in a Texas town, written and directed by John Sayles.
JUNE 26:
``Kingpin'' - A bowling comedy with Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid. Shamelessly, it is being touted as coming from the ``the creators of `Dumb and Dumber.'' Harrelson is a former bowling star who is reduced to small-time hustling until he finds Quaid, a new star to promote.
JUNE 28:
``The Nutty Professor'' - After several flops, many think this is Eddie Murphy's last chance at a comeback. It's a remake of the classic Jerry Lewis comedy. Eddie is fat until he invents a potion that turns him into a ladies' man.
``Striptease'' - Demi Moore, who does the title striptease, keeps telling us that it's a comedy, not another ``Showgirls.'' Demi plays a single mother who strips in order to get money for a custody battle. Sure. Moore received a record $12.5 million for her efforts.
JULY 3:
``Independence Day'' - Martians attack Washington, D.C. Some are predicting this will be the biggest hit of them all. Will Smith is a fighter pilot and Bill Pullman is the president. Jeff Goldblum is prominent among the mere humans. During previews, audiences cheered when the White House was annihilated.
``Harriet the Spy'' - Based on the popular children's novel by Louise Fitzhugh, this is about a tomboy who kept a notebook on all her friends, until it got her into trouble. Rosie O'Donnell stars as her likable nanny.
``Phenomenon'' - John Travolta's appeal is the hope of selling this ``Forrest Gump with Brains'' fantasy-romance. He's a simple, beloved mechanic until a bolt of light from above makes him a genius. Kyra Sedgwick and Robert Duvall co-star.
``The Grass Harp'' - This long overdue version of the Truman Capote novel concerns an orphan who moves in with two eccentric Southern aunts. Piper Laurie has a featured role.
JULY 12:
``Multiplicity'' - Stressed out by too many movies by this time? Michael Keaton's character has a good idea. He clones himself. This means there's time for both the family and the job.
``A Time to Kill'' - John Grisham's first novel is the last one to be sold to the movies. Matthew McConaughey stars as an idealistic lawyer caught in a mess of southern corruption. The supporting cast includes Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey and Donald Sutherland.
JULY 17:
``Kazaam'' - Shaquille O'Neal plays a genie who befriends an inner-city boy.
JULY 19:
``The Frighteners'' - Special effects are the star as Michael J. Fox (who desperately needs a hit) plays a psychic con man who confronts a ghost. The film boasts more than 400 computer-enhanced effects.
``Larger than Life'' - Bill Murray inherits an elephant and has to get it across the country in order to collect his inheritance. Janeane Garofalo co-stars with an elephant named Vera.
``A Very Brady Sequel'' - They're baaaack! Shelley Long heads the cast of the sequel that was ensured by the success of ``The Brady Bunch Movie.''
JULY 26:
``First Wives Club'' - The three wives (Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn) are hopping mad about the fact that their husbands have thrown them out for younger models. Could be the summer's surprise hit comedy. The cast also includes Marcia Gay Harden (a Virginia Stage Company veteran) with Maggie Smith, Eileen Heckart, Sarah Jessica Parker and Mandy Patinkin.
``The Adventures of Pinocchio'' - Now he's REALLY a live boy. Jonathan Taylor Thomas plays the long-nosed lad. Martin Landau (Oscar winner for ``Ed Wood'') is Geppetto.
``House Arrest'' - Kids will like the idea of their empowerment here. They lock their feuding parents (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollack) in the basement. Other neighborhood kids follow suit.
``Joe's Apartment'' - A musical? It's about a guy who lives in an apartment with 50,000 singing cockroaches.
JULY 31:
``The Fan'' - Serious stuff as Robert De Niro stalks a baseball player (Wesley Snipes) he thinks has let the team, and the fans, down. Not to be confused with the old Lauren Bacall movie of the same name.
``Chain Reaction'' - Andrew Davis, the director of ``The Fugitive,'' has Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman as scientists on the run. Keanu needs to get up to ``Speed'' again.
AUG. 2:
``The Crow: City of Angels'' - The cult comic book again makes it to the big screen after its ill-fated first episode (``The Crow''), which resulted in the real-life death of leading man Brandon Lee. The plot concerns an avenger who returns from the dead. Vincent Perez now has the title role.
``Courage Under Fire'' - Meg Ryan is a Gulf War victim, and heroine. Her case is reviewed by Denzel Washington as she's considered for a purple heart. It seeks both tears and patriotic cheers.
``Matilda'' - After ``James and the Giant Peach,'' here's a more conventional adaptation of a Roald Dahl children's book. Matilda is brilliant but she has stupid parents (Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman). She uses magic powers to escape the nasty ones.
AUG. 7:
``Jack'' - Robin Williams, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, plays a boy who ages four times too fast.
AUG. 9:
``Tin Cup'' - Back on dry land, Kevin Costner plays a lackluster golfer who challenges pro Don Johnson. Rene Russo is the woman in between. Ron Shelton, director of Costner's hit ``Bull Durham,'' directs here. The pro golf tour is pictured as great fun.
``John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.'' - Fifteen years after ``Escape from New York,'' Kurt Russell stars again. Different city. Bigger budget. More special effects.
``Fled'' - Shades of the classic ``The Defiant Ones.'' Escaped cons Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin run from the law and battle the mob.
``High School High'' - Jon Lovitz stars as an inner-city teacher. You're supposed to laugh.
``Bound'' - Two women join forces to steal a fortune from the mob. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon get away with $2 million, but will they be able to keep it?
AUG. 14:
``Alaska'' - Two kids, Thora Birch and Vincent Kathwiser, set out to rescue their father in the wilderness. He's a downed bush-pilot. Expect lots of outdoor scenery and wild animals. Fraser C. Heston directs. His father, Charlton, a frequent visitor to Virginia Beach, is also in the cast.
AUG. 16:
``Kansas City'' - Can master director Robert Altman do for Kansas City what he did for ``Nashville''? An all-star cast includes Harry Belafonte, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson. It's about jazz and gangsters.
``Tales from the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood'' - Do you need any more description than the title?
``Last Man Standing'' - Bruce Willis stars as a gunman who works for both sides in a Chicago gang war. This is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's samurai film ``Yojimbo.'' It's directed by Walter Hill.
``Emma'' - Gwyneth Paltrow has the title role in this adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Greta Scacchi and Juliet Stevenson also star in this tale of a meddler in romance. (Expect its opening to be delayed locally).
AUG. 23:
``Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe'' - This new version of the classic about Robinson Crusoe and Friday abandoned on a deserted island was made for television. Pierce Brosnan, now the successful James Bond, would rather it went straight there. It's lonely on an island with no 007 girls.
``The Relic'' - A murderer stalks a natural history museum. It just isn't safe anywhere this summer.
``Solo'' - Mario Van Peebles stars as a warrior who learns to become human. But does he learn to act?
AUG. 30:
``The Stupids'' - Tom Arnold heads the Stupids, a family so dumb that it constantly stumbles into life-threatening situations. It's based on the children's books by James Marshall and Harry Allard.
``The Trigger Effect'' - An ordinary couple face a series of disasters in this thriller. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Universal Pictures
["Dragonheart": Dennis Quaid plays Bowen...]
Color photos by Paramount Pictures
["Mission Impossible": Tom cruise is agent Ethan Hunt..]
["The Phantom": Billy Zane stars...]
Color photo by Castle Rock Entertainment
["Striptease": Demi Moore turns stripper...]
Color photo by Walt Disney Pictures
[Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame"...]
KEYWORDS: MOVIE PREVIEW by CNB