THE CHOSEN ONE:

HALF NELSON (THINKFilm)
Starring Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Karen Chilton, Monique Curnen, Tina Holmes, Collins Pennie, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Sanders, Sebastian Sozzi, Nicole Vicius, Tristan Wilds
Directed by Ryan Fleck; Written by Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden (various documentaries and shorts)
Genre: Drama
Rated R for drug content throughout, language and some sexuality
Story: Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling), a teacher at an inner city school, turns to drugs to get over his disillusionment about life by taking drugs, but when he’s caught getting high by Drey (Shareeka Epps), a teenage girl who has her own domestic troubles. Through their unlikely friendship, they try to help each other get through their situations.
REVIEW

In the slew of really good indie coming of age movies this year—for those counting, this is the fourth one to be featured in The Chosen One—this Sundance favorite is different in that it’s not so much about the coming-of-age of a young teen girl, played by another great newcomer in Shareeka Epps, but also a discovery of self for the inner city teacher she befriends. The part of Dan Dunne is another great role for Ryan Gosling, whose acting I’ve enjoyed since first seeing him in The Believer four years ago. Gosling is a solid actor’s actor, and this Jekyll ‘n’ Hyde type role, where he has to be a strong role model of a teacher in front of his class while being a drugged-out @$$hole when he leaves, makes this a riveting story. As the movie progresses, we learn more about why he is that way, particularly after meeting his family. Half Nelson also stars one of my favorite actors, Anthony Mackie, who has had small roles in Million Dollar Baby and other movies since starring in Spike Lee’s awful She Hate Me two years ago. Like Gosling, Mackie is someone to watch, because I think that he’ll soon get a role that will break him out—maybe the upcoming We Are Marshall--and he’ll finally be recognized as one of the best African-American actors, post-Denzel. In this movie, he plays a drug dealer, but it’s far from your normal “gangsta” stereotype, because he has taken on the responsibility of watching out for Shareeka’s Drey by her brother, who’s in jail for dealing drugs.

Last week, I had a chance to talk with director Ryan Fleck and his collaborator Anna Boden, who cowrote and produced the movie, which got its start as a short film called Gowanus, Brooklyn. Anna told me about the original short which was so well received at the Sundance Film Festival: “When we readapted the script as a short film, the first thing we realized was that this Dan Dunne character, a crack-addicted teacher, is just too complex and unsympathetic in certain ways to explore fully in a 19-minute film, so we put the focus instead on the girl, Drey. She finds the teacher in the bathroom [smoking crack] and it’s about the mystery of that and how she responds to it. It was a great way to workshop that character who was less well developed than the Dan Dunne character in the original version of the script.”

Ryan, who grew up in Oakland and was often the “only white kid in the school,” told us where the idea for a story about a teacher working in an inner city school came from. “The seed of the story came maybe four years ago when we started playing around with this idea which came out more from a political frustration we were feeling and an inability to make a difference. We were going to protests all the time, and it felt like nothing was getting done.”

“The frustration of integrating that political activism, those feelings into your everyday life,” said Anna, continuing Ryan’s thought “We thought this was an interesting character, this idealist who wants to make a change in the world and wants to make a difference, so he takes up teaching, but he’s constantly coming up his own limitations and hypocrisy and can’t really seem to get it together in his own life.”

Ryan explained how they went about expanding the short into a full feature. “The short did well in the festival circuit and won some awards. We got into the Sundance writer’s lab and workshopped the script there and got feedback from professional writers. Then, they hooked us up with a casting director, Eyde Belasco, working on spec until we had financing in place, and she was just getting the script out there to actors for the Dan Dunne role. Shareeka we had cast in the short, so of course, we wanted her for Half Nelson.”

“Shareeka [Epps] went to a school that was about eight blocks away from where we were living,” Anna told us when asked about how they found their young star. “We just invited people to come to the audition, which wasn’t the traditional ‘read this script in a few different ways for us.’ It was just talking to kids and getting a sense of what their personality was like and she just is incredibly charming and magnetic and won us over.”

“We were fans of Anthony’s from Spike Lee’s She Hate Me and Sucker Free City, and Brother to Brother was at Sundance while we were there,” Ryan said about finding Shareeka’s better-known co-stars. “Ryan [Gosling] was a different situation because we only had seen The Believer so we were not aware of his work. He was 19 and we had written the part for someone in their early 30s, so he wasn’t on our radar at all. We found out he got a hold of it somehow and he liked it a lot. We looked at his other movies and he had aged a few years, though he was only 24 when we shot, but he had an older presence. It felt like it was believable that there was something from his past that was rough around the edges. We got together and we agreed that we should make the movie with a younger teacher.”

“I think they all learned from each other,” Ryan said about how the more experienced actors worked with Shareeka on her first film. “I think of course she learned from Anthony and Ryan, being totally inexperienced, but I think they also learned from her, in her simple approach to everything. That was fascinating to watch.”

Ryan also told us about the dedication that Gosling brought to the project. “He wanted to come out here for a month to six weeks before we started shooting. Most actors are too busy.”

“We put him up in an apartment in Fort Greene [in Brooklyn] right near a school where we were shooting at,” Anna added. “He didn’t need to stay at the Regency Hotel or anything. He just stayed in an apartment that was somewhat similar to the type of apartment that Dan Dunne would live in, and we hooked him up with a teacher that he could shadow and observer. And he spent some time with Shareeka. We all hung out together, and they just got comfortable with each other and learned to trust each other over the very casual time they were able to spend together during the weeks that he was out here early.”

“The name for me is so evocative as a wrestling hold,” Ryan told me when asked about the movie’s esoteric title. “It’s such a strange name, “Nelson”, and there’s a half one you can be in and a full one in which you’re doomed. You can’t escape from that, but the half Nelson you can somehow maneuver out of, and that was there fairly early. We thought that since we were tying to be make this subtle, evocative film that the title should sort of match it in some way. We hoped that people would come out of the movie and talk about it and then maybe the title would come up and someone would be like, ‘What’s going on with that title?’ and they can sit around the table and people can have different ideas about it. We like that people can leave the theatre and still chew on something for a while.”

Half Nelson opens in New York at the Angelika and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on Friday.

NEW THIS WEEK:

As the very hot month of August continues to drag along, there are four new movies, a few of them which ended up here after being moved several times, and what do we end up with? A movie that looks like Sky High, another one that looks like Save the Last Dance, a third that looks like The Grudge, and Oliver Stone trying to stir things up with…

WORLD TRADE CENTER (Paramount)
Starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Peña, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jay Hernandez
Directed by Oliver Stone (in no particular order: Wall Street, Platoon, The Doors, Any Given Sunday, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, U Turn, Talk Radio, Alexander and many more); Written by Andrea Berloff (Domestic)
Genre: Drama
Rated PG-13 (for intense and emotional content, some disturbing images and language)
Tagline: “A True Story Of Courage And Survival” (And I can almost post this without smirking.)
Story: Two Port Authority policemen—Sgt. John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Peña)—get trapped in the wreckage when the World Trade Center is knocked down on September 11, 2001. This is the story of their struggle to help each other survive while their wives and families frantically worry about them.
REVIEW

How do you follow an expose on the JFK assassinations, Wall Street insider training, and showing the more fashionable side of Alexander (the Great)? How about a drama set during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center?

And with that, Oliver Stone sets himself up to forever remain one of the most controversial American directors since Roman Polanski. Stone’s World Trade Center is the second non-documentary feature this year to deal with the events of the 9/11 terror attacks, although this is a very different film than Paul Greengrass’ United 93, which only grossed $31 million after an opening weekend of $11.5 million.

A big difference between the two movies is that Greengrass is still fairly unknown in this country despite having directed The Bourne Supremacy, while Stone is a bit of an American institution after directing powerful and timely dramas like Platoon, JFK, Nixon, Born on the Fourth of July, and Wall Street. Even The Doors and Natural Born Killers have a firm place in American pop culture. Every new Oliver Stone movie is an event in some way, whether due to the controversial subject matter (check!) or just because he’s so well-respected from his amazing filmography. Then again, his last movie, the Greek epic Alexander, was not received well by critics or moviegoers, when it opened over Thanksgiving weekend in 2004, and Stone is going to be working against that.

Another reason why World Trade Center will probably do more business than United 93 is that it’s a dramatic movie featuring known actors, and Oliver Stone has assembled an impressive cast to bring the story to life. At the center of it is Nicolas Cage, whose illustrious career is covered in this week’s Star Spotlight, and his co-star is actor Michael Peña, part of the award-winning cast of last year’s Oscar winning drama Crash—he played the Latino locksmith—as well as a recurring player on a recent season of the FX police drama “The Shield.”

Playing the wives of the two trapped Port Authority police officers are two actresses that have both received a lot of critical acclaim. Maria Bello starred on “ER” during its heyday and had a few low-key film roles in movies like Duets before she got attention for her part in The Cooler with William H. Macy. She then starred opposite Johnny Depp in the Steven King thriller Secret Window, and in 2005, she appeared in the remake of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. She’s received a lot of critical recognition for the latter and for The Cooler, as well as receiving Golden Globes nominations for both, but that’s yet to translate into an Oscar nomination for the highly respected actress.

Likewise, Maggie Gyllenhaal got a lot of recognition for her early indie roles before starring in her 2002 breakout, Secretary, leading to roles in George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts. Gyllenhaal is having a busy summer/fall, which kicked off with the dramedy The Great New Wonderful, providing a voice in the animated Monster House, followed by this and the upcoming indie Sherrybaby. Oh, and she’s also having a baby with fiancé Peter Sarsgaard, which might take her out of commission for a while, so her fans should enjoy the abundance of movies she has coming out right now. Although Bello and Gyllenhaal are both fairly popular actresses, neither of them have proven themselves as box office draws.

Nicolas Cage offers the only true starpower and that should have some strength when combined with Oliver Stone, but both of them are just as likely to turn people off, as will the subject matter, which might make the movie seem too difficult to watch even for those who watched the attacks of 9/11 play out on television. World Trade Center is certainly much heavier than most normal summer fare, but it may be a good time for a serious drama to counterbalance all the silly comedies and kids films in theatres. Surely, older adults might be looking for something a bit substantial, and some journalists and critics are already hailing the movie as a possible Oscar Best Picture, though that opinion is by no means across the board. Some might feel that the movie tries too hard to be dramatic, much like Seabiscuit and Cinderella Man, and others might find the movie too slow.

Then again, World Trade Center is certainly a good concession by Stone to make a movie that appeals to his older fans, although really, Stone is not the big box office draw that some might expect. His early war film Platoon is still his highest grossing film, followed by his 1999 football drama Any Given Sunday, which topped out at $75 million. Even though, it’s not being released into more than 3,000 theatres, World Trade Center will still be in more theatres than any of Oliver Stone’s previous movies, and it’s opening in 1,000 more theatres than United 93 as well.

Oddly, Paramount Pictures is trying to target a younger audience in hopes that they’ll see the 9/11 attacks as their Pearl Harbor and want to learn more about it. (Not likely, since this is the summer and who wants to do Social Studios homework with school out?) The fact that the movie is PG-13, rather than R, will make it easier to find that audience, but the commercials are going out of the way to make the movie seem important with its tagline of “every generation having a defining moment” and the use of Coldplay to appeal to the 20 and 30-somethings that will probably be the most interested in the movie.

Expect those intrigued by all the advance hype and those looking for controversy, as well as the Oliver Stone fans he didn’t lose with Alexander—surely there’s a handful of them—to go to see the movie opening week, although the early Wednesday opening will either help the weekend with word-of-mouth or hurt it, if regular folk aren’t as enthralled by the film’s slow pace or the way the subject matter is handled. Either way, the movie’s production cost of $63 million, compared to Alexander’s $150 million plus, gives it a better chance of breaking even despite the film’s unsettling setting.

Why I Should See It: This is a little-known story that took place during one of the most important events in recent American history, told by one of America’s great directors.
Why Not: Because it’s directed by Oliver Stone who movielovers love to hate, no matter what he does.
Projection: $9 to 10 million on Wednesday and Thursday and another $17 to 19 million on the weekend, making its way to around $65 million total.

STEP UP (Disney/Touchstone)
Starring Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Mario, Drew Sidora, Rachel Griffiths
Directed by Anne Fletcher (debut from the choreographer); Written by Duane Adler (Save the Last Dance), Melissa Rosenberg (“The O.C.)
Genre: Drama, Dance
Rated PG-13 (for thematic elements, brief violence and innuendo)
Tagline: “Every second chance begins with a first step.”
Story: Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum), a rebellious outsider from the movie cliché side of the tracks, who wants nothing more to be a dancer, so when he ends up performing community service at the prestigious Maryland School of the Arts in Baltimore, he hooks up with their star ballerina Nora (Jenna Dewan), who is desperately in need of a dance partner. It’s Tyler’s chance to show that he can … wait for it… Step Up!

From the writer of Save the Last Dance… comes Save the Second to Last Dance, Too! Honestly, how am I possibly supposed to write about this movie with a cynicism factor of less than 90%, when the guy who wrote the big breakout hit of 2001 follows that by writing the exact same movie? Except that this time, it’s set in Baltimore and the dancer trying to corrupt the prim and proper ballet dancer is white instead of black. I mean, seriously, how many of these movies will we see before the dance genre dries out again?

The funny thing is that Save the Last Dance started this whole string of modern dance-related movies that included You Got Served, Jessica Alba’s Honey and Antonio Bandera’s Take the Lead. (Of course, it wasn’t anything that new as anyone old enough to remember the ‘80s may remember the success that was Dirty Dancing, which spawned the less successful 2004 sequel Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.)

The film is relying on two stars that are not very well known, Channing Tatum recently having appeared opposite Amanda Bynes in She’s the Man, following the 2005 flop Supercross, and the ultra-hot former dancer Jenna Dewan starred in the indie horror film Tamara, which opened earlier this year, as well as a role in Bandera’s Take the Lead. The only other actor of significance is Australia’s Rachel Griffiths, best known for her role as Brenda on HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” but none of them will be a very big draw.

Unlike Take the Lead, which was the film debut from video director Liz Friedlander, Step Up is the debut from choreographer Anne “Mama” Fletcher, whose resume includes providing the choreography for movies like The Pacifier, Bringing Down the House (remember Steve Martin’s dance moves), The Longest Yard (presumably the end zone dances) and the “physicality” of Catwoman. Anyone who thought that anyone involved with Dana Carvey’s Master of Disguise would never work again, was not giving Anne Fletcher enough credit, 'cause here she is directing her first movie.

The movie pretty much came out of nowhere appearing on the schedule during the spring. A few weeks later, a dance contest appeared on MySpace with the winners given a chance to appear in a music video associated with the movie. Disney/Touchstone’s use of the up ‘n’ coming MySpace to attract the teen girl audience that would normally like this kind of movie was a big news story, which prompted other studios to follow suit. A few months later, you can barely find a movie that doesn’t have its own MySpace page in addition to an official site. (Step Up's page has over 70,000 friends, to give you some idea of how many young people know about the movie.) The recent John Tucker Must Die and upcoming Accepted have used a similar MySpace marketing plan in hopes of attracting a hip, young audience.

Fact is that people young and old love to dance, they love to watch other people dance, and that will be this movie’s primary draw rather than the cast or premise. Because of this, the movie may follow Touchstone’s gymnastics comedy Stick It as another breakout hit to do better than expected opening weekend despite a moderate release. Still, it doesn’t seem like Touchstone is offering very many original ideas, and movies like this and the military drama Annapolis might be used as proof why Disney has decided to cut down on the output of the “adult” division of the company.

Why I Should See It: If you’ve always wondered what happened when a guy from the “wrong side of the tracks” took up ballet. (Besides having to keep silent when meeting with his drinking buddies to talk about his day.)
Why Not: Let’s face it… the only reason this isn’t Save the Last Dance 2 is because it’s being released by Disney instead of Paramount and MTV Films.
Projection: $10 to 12 million opening weekend on its way to $27 million.

ZOOM (Sony)
Starring Tim Allen, Courteney Cox, Chevy Chase, Spencer Breslin, Rip Torn, Kate Mara, Michael Cassidy, Ryan Newman
Directed by Pete Hewitt (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Thunderpants, Garfield); Written by Adam Rifkin (Going Overboard, Mousehunt, Small Soldiers, upcoming Underdog), David Berenbaum (Elf, The Haunted Mansion, upcoming The Spiderwick Chronicles)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Action, Family
Rated PG (for brief rude humor, language and mild action)
Tagline: “They’re going to save the world… as long as they’re home for dinner.” (Oh, you mean like Spy Kids?)
Story: Captain Zoom (Tim Allen), an out-of-shape former superhero, now powerless, is called back into action to train a group of super-powered kids to help save the world from destruction.

Pick your favorite David Spade snipe for this one:
1. “I liked it better…when it was called The Incredibles.”
2. “I liked it better… when it was called Sky High.”
3. “I liked it better… when it was called Fantastic Four” or
4. “I didn’t even like it when it was called The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl!”

Yes, folks, the superhero craze has officially gotten out of control and its latest victim is none other than poor Tim Allen, whose career seems to be surviving on its last fumes as he awaits the release of the sure-fire (?) holiday hit Santa Clause 3.

Disney/Pixar had decent success with their own superhero movie about the return of a retired superhero and his family (The Incredibles) in ’04, but then last year, things just went nuts with Disney releasing two more movies in the superhero genre, first (takes deep breath) Robert Rodriguez’s The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D (through Dimension Films) and then the far more friendly-titled Sky High with long-time Disney staple Kurt Russell. Sky High ended up making $63 million compared to AoSBaLGi3D’s $39 million gross, though both opened in the $12 to 15 million range. The Disney name certainly helped the former a lot since the company had already proven their superhero worth with The Incredibles. Zoom distributor Sony has also proven their superhero mettle with the Spider-Man movies, but Zoom is a different story, being loosely based on Jason Lethcoe’s two children’s books, “Zoom’s Academy.” Yeah, I know. I had never heard of it either.

You can read more about Tim Allen’s career HERE, because there’s only so many times I’m going to repeat myself in a year. His last movie, a remake of Disney’s The Shaggy Dog, failed to find the huge amount of business that one usually expects from a Tim Allen comedy, but considering his past failures like Joe Somebody and Big Trouble, one really can’t expect that every movie starring the former comedian will do well.

For what it’s worth, Zoom also stars former “Friends” star Courteney Cox, continuing her downwards spiral after providing a voice in last week’s Barnyard, and Chevy Chase, who hasn’t been in a hit movie since the late ‘80s. Also, Michael Cassidy from Fox’s “The O.C.” plays one of the super-kids, as does Spencer Breslin from Disney’s The Kid, while Rip Torn from Dodgeball has a prominent role. Do any of these actors really make anyone to see this movie even if there is more star power than Sky High?

This is another movie that has been moved all over the summer schedule before winding up here. Originally, it was given a plum release in mid-May, but 20^th Century Fox threatened to sue, claiming that the premise for Zoom was too much like the idea of a dark and dreary movie about mutant kids being taught in a school in upstate New York. Yes, Fox actually thought this might get confused with X-Men: The Last Stand, which probably cost about $100 million more to make than Zoom, but to avoid a lawsuit, Sony moved Zoom until the end of the summer, and then sort of forgot about it.

The effects in Zoom look like they fall somewhere between Sky High and Super Babies i.e. not great, which means it will probably have a hard time getting the discerning teen audience or anyone older to see it this weekend. Basically, this looks like another attempt to replicate the success of Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids series, though it’s more likely to be overlooked like the 2004 flop Thunderbirds.

Sony hasn’t made very much effort with this one--even the poster for Zoom looks like a direct rip-off of Sky High—and they’ve taken a strange stance by not screening the movie for critics. In the case of a family film, that’s almost certain death since even bad reviews could help raise awareness for parents that the movie is coming out this weekend. (Maybe they don’t care because this is one of the few pictures made by Revolution Studios.) The recent flop of Ivan Reitman’s My Super Ex-Girlfriend has proven that you need more than a few superheroes and effects to get people to see your movie, and Tim Allen just doesn’t seem like a strong enough draw to really do the job. Maybe it will breakout ala Sky High, but it’s more likely to open in the realm of Galaxy Quest.

Why I Should See It: You just haven’t gotten enough superhero action this summer after X-Men, Superman Returns and My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Why Not: You’ve gotten enough bad family-related superhero action movies after last summer’s Sky High, Adventures of Shark Boy Etc. Etc, and Fantastic Four.
Projection: $6 to 8 million opening weekend to a not-so-grand total of $20 million.

PULSE (Dimension Films)
Starring Kristen Bell, Jonathan Tucker, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Milian, Ron Rifkin, Rick Gonzalez
Directed by Jim Sonzero (War of the Angels); Written by Wes Craven, Ray Wright, Stephen Susco
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi terror, disturbing images, language, sensuality and thematic material)
Tagline: “You are now infected.” (That’s what happens when people don’t wash their hands before using their computer!)
Story: A group of attractive young people get caught in a supernatural phenomenon when they discover that their computers are infected by the ghosts of the dead, hoping to increase their numbers and to eventually escape into the real world.
REVIEW (Coming Soon!) .

The desire of Hollywood to remake every single Japanese horror movie continues--where is our remake of Takashi Miike’s Audition?!—and undaunted by the failure of Touchstone’s Dark Water last year, this remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 thriller was shephered by horrormeister Wes Craven before he ditched it, leaving it to the far less experienced Jim Sonzero. It’s pretty clear that they’re hoping for a hit in the vein of The Ring or The Grudge, although the original movie wasn’t that huge a hit, maybe because its U.S. release was delayed for years due to images in the film vaguely resembling those from the 9/11 attacks. (In general, few of the original Japanese horror movies that have been remade have done very much business here theatrically though.)

The American Pulse has a stronger cast than some of the other horror throwaways this year, particularly Kristen Bell, star of the hit show “Veronica Mars,” which goes into its third season this Fall, and Ian Somerhalder, who starred on “Lost” for the first season until his character was killed off, giving him a chance to make movies like this one. On the “urban tip” is actress and pop star Christina Milian, whose career choices haven’t been that sound with roles in flops like Torque, Man of the House and Love Don’t Cost a Thing with Nick Cannon. She’s generally done better in the music biz, something which translated well into her role as a pop singer in the 2005 crime-comedy sequel Be Cool. The movie also stars one of my personal faves, Rick Gonzalez, who was great in 2005’s Coach Carter and Roll Bounce, and is likely to add some humor to the movie, though I wouldn’t expect him to last very long. The funny ones rarely do.

While the premise of the original Japanese movie is pretty interesting, the movie itself is rather dull, and though an American version might clear things up, it might be just as confusing or dull in English. The Japanese inclination towards technical-related horror films has certainly started to permeate this country with “original” horror ideas like last year’s Cry Wolf and the video game thriller Stay Alive, the latter which made around $23 million this past spring, twice what Cry Wolf made last October.

Dimension has the easy comparisons with successful horror movies like The Grudge, White Noise and The Ring to play up, and in that sense, they’ve released a great poster and trailer which does just that. It’s surprising that they aren’t even mentioning Wes Craven’s involvement in the project, something that has helped many low-key horror movies in the past. There’s a good chance that Craven has wiped his hands of the project since he isn’t directing and might not be happy with the way Dimension handled his previous movie with them, Cursed, after it was altered to get a PG-13 rating than dumped into a busy spring weekend where it didn’t do very well.

Now if only Dimension had been able to figure out when to release the movie because it was originally supposed to come out the week of July 11 (a week after Pirates: Dead Man’s Chest) but was then moved to early September, another busy weekend at the time, and then settling on August 11. Last week, the movie was moved back to August 25 “to finish the effects” and then returned to August 11 after the Universal comedy Accepted moved to August 18. Honestly, it doesn’t seem like Dimension Films knows what they are doing with this, which is a shame because at the beginning of summer, it looked like it could be a strong horror-thriller. After inexplicably moving Pulse around the release schedule, Dimension Films is now dumping it into only 2,000 theatres, which doesn’t show a lot of confidence, either by the studio or exhibitors. It’s still getting more theatres than last year’s Cry Wolf and will likely do better than Dimension’s 2005 offering Venom, which was dumped into less than 500 theatres with no marketing and ended up making less than a million dollars in theatres. Critics won’t be seeing this one early but at this point, I don’t think bad reviews can hurt this movie any more than the poor way it’s been handled by the distributor.

Why I Should See It: The original Japanese movie has an interesting premise that might actually translate better into an American movie.
Why Not: That’s why Dimension isn’t screening the movie for critics, because it’s just WAY too good for them to truly appreciate it…. Just like When a Stranger Calls and See No Evil.
Projection: $7 to 9 million on its way to $18 million total.

STAR SPOTLIGHT: Nicolas Cage

Since we already looked at the career of Tim Allen when The Shaggy Dog came out, and it hasn’t really been doing much since then, it’s time to focus on one of the big guns, who recently provided his voice for the animated movie The Ant Bully and who has the Neil LaBute remake of The Wicker Man coming out in a few short weeks.

Where do you even begin with the 42-year-old nephew of Francis Ford Coppola? His early indie classics? His dip into the realm of action hero? His few comedies? Well, here at the Weekend Warrior, we strive to be thorough, but even we’re not crazy enough to try to cover the entire career of an actor who has appeared in over 30 movies since his debut over twenty years ago. If we did that, we’d have to do the same for Samuel L. Jackson next week, and then we’d have no time to actually watch movies.

Just one look at the chart below would save me a lot of writing, but it would also give you a pretty clear picture of how varied and erratic a career Cage has had. Even before the movies listed, he was a working actor in his teens, from his debut in movies like Fast Time at Ridgemont High, Valley Girl and his uncle’s Rumblefish, followed soon by more adult romantic comedies like Peggy Sue Got Married with Kathleen Turner (also directed by Coppola) and Moonstruck with Cher. Soon, Cage was starring in more eclectic far like the Coen Brothers’ early classic Raising Arizona, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart and the extremely odd Vampire’s Kiss, all of which played up Cage’s natural quirkiness. His eclectic choices continued into the ‘90s with movies like Honeymoon in Vegas and Guarding Tess, but it wasn’t until 1995, 12 years into his career, where Cage would be nominated and win his first Oscar for his role in Leaving Las Vegas.

Like many Oscar recipients, he used his upped Q-rating to get into the world of action films, teaming with Michael Bay and John Woo for a series of action films that would increase Cage’s bankability as a box office star. First was Michael Bay’s The Rock, a strong summer hit that made more than $134 million, followed a year later by Con Air and John Woo’s Face/Off, both which also topped the $100 million mark. 1998 and 1999 saw Cage’s return to more eclectic fare, his biggest hit during that period being the romantic drama City of Angels with Meg Ryan, followed by disappointments like Snake Eyes, 8MM and Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead.

In 2000, Cage returned to action with a remake of Gone in 60 Seconds co-starring a very young Angelina Jolie, which became his fourth movie to top $100 million, and then Cage closed off the year with the holiday film The Family Man before starring in two WWII related films, an adaptation of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin with Penelope Cruz, which didn’t do very well, and John Woo’s Windtalkers, which did a little more business but also cost a lot more money to make.

For 2002’s Adaptation, Cage dipped into his stranger side, teaming him with Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze for the dark comedy that got him a second Oscar nomination, followed by Ridley Scott’s drama Matchstick Men. Neither were huge hits, but they returned Cage to the world of dramedies that helped cinephiles take him more seriously after appearing in so many mindless popcorn flicks. Cage’s only 2004 offering was also his biggest movie to date, the surprise sleeper hit National Treasure, produced by The Rock’s Jerry Bruckheimer, and combining action with the type of clever mystery-solving enjoyed by those who read Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code.

Last year, Cage had two relative flops with Lord of War, followed a month later with Gore Verbinski’s Pirates stopgap, the dark comedy The Weather Man, but Cage is already setting himself for a very busy late summer with three movies, as well as a Comic-Con to promote next year’s Ghost Rider.

Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center is a smart move by Cage, because it returns him to more serious dramatic fare that will help him be taken more seriously as an actor among the older adults who have been following his career. It also might help him get over the fact that his first animated movie, The Ant Bully, was an unmitigated flop. Not sure if there’s anything that can be learned from the chart below except that Cage’s career has been all over the place and yet, the best may still be yet to come. Or not.