THE SUMMER OF NOSTALGIC DISAPPOINTMENT

or

MOVIES OF SUMMER 1999: A REVIEW

1999, Christian Sauvé

 

1. INTRODUCTION

It was the biggest summer in the history of cinema.

It was the summer where box-office records were broken: Fastest-grossing $100, $200 and $300 Million-dollar film. Biggest comedy opening. Biggest August opening. Biggest weekends. Highest-grossing August film. Most profitable film of all times. Highest ticket prices ever.

It was the summer of insane hype, where good movies couldn't live up to wildly inflated expectations. We were promised "high-class porn with famous actors", "scariest movie ever", "highest-rating romantic comedy", "funniest film of the decade", "best sequel", etc... Nothing was predicted to be adequate or average... which of course was proven false once the films were seen.

It was the summer where the few sequels (or prequels) were really remakes, but where Hollywood pillaged everything from theatre classics to current TV series in the hope of attracting audiences.

It was the summer where eleven films made more than a hundred million dollars.

It was the summer with two Julia-Roberts romances, two big-water-animals thrillers, two teen movies set in the seventies...

It was the summer where horror had many faces, from a special-effects-filled blockbuster, through no-budget ad-libbed experiment to understated psychological film. Only one of them failed miserably.

It was the summer where the limits of raunchiness were pushed back even further, while the MPAA came under fire for increasingly unacceptable restrictions.

It was the summer that proved nothing and everything, as audiences went crazy for high-budget special-effects and no-budgets no-effects, most often disregarding critics' opinions in the box-office results.

It was the summer where seven movies were released nationwide in June, and seventeen were released in August.

It was the summer of individual excitement and collective indifference.

It was the summer of 1999.

 

This essay tries to bring order in this madness, to provide a handy summary of the films of summer 1999. Expect to find here nothing but opinions.

 

2. NUMBERS

Hollywood isn't usually located on planet Earth, and their idea of "summer" is similarly extra-terrestrial, corresponding to the months of May-August rather than any other rational standard. This essay will limit itself to films released and seen during this timeframe.

A handy list of films seen and discussed in this essay:

Date Released
Film Title
Cinema Seen
Price Paid ($Can.)
May.07
The Mummy
World Exchange
5
May.19
Star Wars 1
Silvercity
6.5
May.28
The 13th Floor
Vanier
2.75
Jun.11
Austin Powers 2
World Exchange
5
Jun.30
South Park
Rideau
5
Jun.30
Wild Wild West
Silvercity
6.5
Jul.16
Eyes Wide Shut
Rideau
5
Jul.23
Drop Dead Gorgeous
South Keys
5.5
Jul.23
The Haunting
World Exchange
5
Jul.23
Inspector Gadget
Rideau
5
Jul.28
Deep Blue Sea
Coliseum
0 (Adv. Screening)
Jul.30
The Blair Witch Project
World Exchange
0 (Adv. Screening)
Aug.06
The Iron Giant
Capitol Square
4.5
Aug.06
Mystery Men
World Exchange
5
Aug.06
The Sixth Sense
Rideau
5
Aug.13
Bowfinger
World Exchange
5
Aug.27
The13th Warrior
Rideau
5

Here, courtesy of http://www.the-movie.times.com/ is a list of box-office results for the movies of this  summer, as of 05/10/1999: (100+$ Grossers in Italics)

Movies of 1999 Listed by Release Date

FILM
Release
Opening $
Total $
Theatres
The Mummy
5.7.99
$43.370
$155.248
3,411
Midsummer Night's Dream
5.14.99
$4.286
$15.947
1,099
Star Wars I
5.19.99
$64.811
$425.360
3,126
The Thirteenth Floor
5.28.99
$4.278
$11.723
1,815
Instinct
6.4.99
$10.390
$34.050
2,129
Austin Powers II
6.11.99
$54.918
$205.399
3,314
Tarzan
6.18.99
$34.222
$169.813
3,131
General's Daughter
6.18.99
$22.332
$102.557
2,858
Big Daddy
6.25.99
$41.536
$163.028
3,254
Wild Wild West
6.30.99
$27.687
$113.745
3,342
South Park
6.30.99
$11.336
$52.008
2,128
Summer of Sam
7.2.99
$5.952
$19.129
1,536
American Pie
7.9.99
$18.710
$101.332
2,544
Arlington Road
7.9.99
$7.515
$24.363
1,631
Eyes Wide Shut
7.16.99
$21.706
$55.638
2,483
Lake Placid
7.16.99
$10.974
$31.652
2,101
The Wood
7.16.99
$8.515
$24.895
1,191
Muppets From Space
7.16.99
$4.826
$16.252
2,265
Blair Witch Project
7.16.99
$1.512
$138.880
2,538
The Haunting
7.23.99
$33.435
$90.114
2,881
Inspector Gadget
7.23.99
$21.889
$94.275
2,877
Drop Dead Gorgeous
7.23.99
$3.986
$10.504
1,207
Deep Blue Sea
7.28.99
$19.108
$72.235
2,901
Runaway Bride
7.30.99
$35.056
$147.931
3,240
Dick
8.4.99
$2.210
$6.153
1,522
The Sixth Sense
8.6.99
$26.681
$234.548
2,821
Thomas Crown Affair
8.6.99
$14.601
$66.807
2,427
Mystery Men
8.6.99
$10.018
$29.656
2,142
The Iron Giant
8.6.99
$5.733
$22.208
2,179
Bowfinger
8.13.99
$18.063
$64.874
2,732
Brokedown Palace
8.13.99
$3.872
$10.044
1,740
Detroit Rock City
8.13.99
$2.006
$4.193
1,802
Mickey Blue Eyes
8.20.99
$10.178
$33.106
2,573
Universal Soldier II
8.20.99
$4.605
$10.431
1,639
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
8.20.99
$3.327
$8.910
1,710
The 13th Warrior
8.27.99
$10.268
$31.496
2,313
The Astronaut's Wife
8.27.99
$4.027
$10.403
2,209
The Muse
8.27.99
$3.927
$11.410
1,263
Dudley Do-Right
8.27.99
$3.018
$9.694
1,855
A Dog of Flanders
8.27.99
$0.808
$2.039
1,267

And finally, though it is a dicey prospect to assign numbers to critical judgement, here's a list from http://www.rotten-tomatoes.com/, which tells us which percentage of critics gave a good review to a given film: (100+$ Grossers in Italics)

97% The Iron Giant
90% Blair Witch Project
88% Disney's Tarzan
86% Notting Hill
85% Sixth Sense
84% Bowfinger
81% Eyes Wide Shut
80% Dick
79% South Park
75% Thomas Crown Affair
74% Midsummer Night's Dream
65% Austin Powers II
65% Muppets from Space
64% American Pie
64% Mystery Men
64% The Wood
64% Arlington Road
54% The Muse
53% Deep Blue Sea
53% Mickey Blue Eyes
52% Star Wars I
50% Runaway Bride
46% The Mummy
44% Big Daddy
43% Drop Dead Gorgeous
40% Lake Placid
37% Detroit Rock City
34% Brokedown Palace
33% Instinct
33% Summer of Sam
29% General's Daughter
29% Love Letter
26% 13th Warrior
23% Dog of Flanders
20% Astronaut's Wife
18% Dudley Do-Right
17% Teaching Mrs. Tingle
17% 13th Floor
17% Inspector Gadget
16% Wild Wild West
14% The Haunting
12% Universal Soldier II

(Note: Even though I think rotten-tomatoes is a wonderful site, I don't necessarily agree with their methodology, which leaves a lot of place for their own personal interpretation. Caveat moviegoer.)

 

3. BAROMETER

Just so that you don't start reading my opinions without adequate preparation, here's a quick random barometer of my choices for 1998:

GREAT GOOD AVERAGE SUBSTANDARD
DARK CITY
MASK OF ZORRO
BLADE
SAVING PRIVATE...
PLEASANTVILLE
SHAKESPEARE IN...
A BUG'S LIFE
MR NICE GUY
OUT OF SIGHT
ARMAGEDDON
...ABOUT MARY
BASEKETBALL
RUSH HOUR
THE BIG LEBOWSKI
LOST IN SPACE
GODZILLA
LETHAL WEAPON 4
DEAD MAN...CAMPUS
VAMPIRES
THE SIEGE
FEAR+LOATHING...
BLUES BROTHERS 2K
THE X-FILES
SMALL SOLDIERS
SNAKE EYES
KNOCK-OFF
..DREAMS MAY COME
SOLDIER

 

4. AND THE WINNERS ARE...

In this summer of disappointment, only three movies managed to fulfill expectation, and truly give their money's worth to the moviegoer. So here are the three must-see movies of this summer. Drum roll, please...

 

A new R-rated movie is in town, and it's naturally the biggest event among children. When concerned parent get a hold of the movie's harmful effect, they declare war on Canada...

SOUTH PARK: Say whatever you want from whatever sad little misconceptions you may have, but SOUTH PARK is this summer's most successful movie. No, not from the oh-so-superficial monetary standpoint, but -really- from an aesthetic one. It fulfilled all the fan's expectations. It fully exploited its R-rated rating to go well beyond the TV series. It delivered witty social comment in a hilarious manner. It pleased most critics.

Most of all, it's extremely funny. Coming in at the best possible moment to discuss the influence of movies on children (after the Columbine-massacre-inspired backlash against violent films), SOUTH PARK proves its cleverness by going after targets seldom touched, and by presenting itself as an example. you won't find this type of content in any other film this year, and despite a few flaws (the laughs diminish in the second half, and everyone will agree that some jokes are just truly offensive), SOUTH PARK is a clear winner. An entertaining agent provocateur with meaning.

It's even better for Canadian viewers.

 

A scientific experiment creates smart sharks. But now, a storm destroys the research facility and loosens the sharks among the humans. Who will die? Swim for your lives!

DEEP BLUE SEA: Summer wouldn't have been the same without one good old-fashioned action/thriller popcorn movie, and that's exactly -no more, no less- what DEEP BLUE SEA delivered. A crowd-pleaser of the purest form, this is the film to go see as a group.

This is not a very intelligent film, but it's a devilishly clever one. Despite the script's lack of finesse in matters of characters, dialogue and plausibility, DEEP BLUE SEA knows exactly what kind of film it attempts to be, and plays the game as it should be played. Ironically, this action film has more suspense, scares and jumps than all of this summer's crop of horror movies combined.

Technically, I'm still in awe of how the film was built: All the action scenes flow together incredibly well, and unlike some frenetic action films of late, the editing remains coherent throughout. The tension is cranked up exactly like it should be, and once past the setup, it's never boring. Standing proudly in the shadow of such genre classics as ALIENS and JURASSIC PARK, DEEP BLUE SEE is the must-see action film of the summer.

 

A giant alien robot bent on destruction suffers from amnesia and befriends a boy in 1950s America. Unfortunately, a military agent discover his existence and vows to eliminate the threat...

THE IRON GIANT: In this age of story-boarded roller-coasters and visual effects spectacles, it's becoming increasingly rare to be emotionally caught up in a film. It's even worse in animated films, where the Disney empire has imposed a paradigm of hypocrite emotions and made-for-marketing stories.

So it's doubly impressive to see what Warner Brothers has done with THE IRON GIANT, a heartfelt animated film completely devoid of humorous animal sidekicks, musical numbers or a merchandise-driven cast of characters. Animated in a deliberately-nostalgic style, this film goes beyond what is usually expected from a "cartoon" to produce a truly classic film. It's a measure of how much I was caught in the film that a display of massive firepower at the end provokes queasiness rather than enthusiasm.

It's a shame that THE IRON GIANT sunk without a trace at the box-office, because it's one of the few recent films that can be thoroughly enjoyed by the whole family while not being an empty exercise in simple entertainment. This is one of these rare films that truly deserve the adjective "magical". See it as soon as practically possible.

 

Special mention must be made of two commercials that packed more punch in thirty seconds than most of the two-hours movies of this summer.

 

5. THE RUNNER-UPS ARE...

Not every film has to be an all-and-out success. Sometimes, even a just-good-enough movie is all that we want. So here are the "should see" movies of the summer:

 

Archaeologists unleash an ancient destructive force in 1930s Egypt. it's up to an american adventurer to save the world...

THE MUMMY: Assuredly the top contender to the B-movie crown of the summer, this is one film that shouldn't be taken seriously mostly because it doesn't take itself seriously either. A mostly-successful mix of adventure, low-grade horror and comedy, it simply delivers pure entertainment.

Brendan Fraser makes a good action hero, Rachel Weisz is a suitably curvaceous heroine and the Mummy is at its best when computer-generated. Ignore the plot holes, the hit-and-miss approach to comedy and you'll have a good time. Guaranteed.

 

You may have heard of it already...

STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE: Take away the hype and twenty years of background preparation, and you still end up with a lavishly spectacular film with occasionally impressive moments. Though obviously aimed at children (no, the unconvincing "political" stuff doesn't count) without much attention to structural originality, THE PHANTOM MENACE should be adequately satisfying to everyone but the obsessive fans.

It doesn't mean it's nearly as good at it should have been, but then again George Lucas is laughing heartily all the way to the bank. With our money, but with less of our money if he'd produced something better. And that, finally, will be the dismissal of the hyper-hyped STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE: An okay film.

 

A security guard is wounded by a supervillain, and brought back to service, modified with an array of sophisticated gadgets.

INSPECTOR GADGET: Though supposed to be a children's film, and savaged by critics for no particular reason, I found INSPECTOR GADGET to be a dynamic action/comedy film, deliciously enjoyable in its over-the-top fashion. Though Matthew Broderick isn't my favourite actor (nor a definitely good choice for the role), he makes an effective Gadget and an even more effective anti-Gadget.

Considerable liberties were taken with the source TV series, with happy results. Some of the gags are simply too good to miss --the ROBOCOP, GODZILLA and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE parodies are hilarious. Points must be given to a mostly-clean brand of humour. As long as one goes in not expecting a revolution, INSPECTOR GADGET is good fun.

 

Who will free Capital City from the evil Casanova Frankenstein? Not Captain Amazing; he's busy. But what about the other superheroes...

MYSTERY MEN: Roughly treated by critics and ignored by audiences, this film still remains a remarkably amusing quasi-fannish parody of superheroes fantasies. While the script shows more promise than it actually delivers, the film provides a steady stream of chuckles for the whole family. The acting is superb, the characters are distinctly sympathetic and if a certain conventionality sets in after a while, one almost feels guilty of not appreciating what's on screen.

In other words, this is a film with substantial flaws, but which still satisfies adequately. Don't miss the Sphinx's numerous one-liners, and the equally-good Ben Stiller. A good choice for video rental.

 

In 1973, two teenage girls wander into the White House and, like, discover stuff about President Richard Nixon, you know?

DICK: Joining MYSTERY MEN as this summer's contender to the "inside-joke movie that somehow got green-lit by studio executives" award, DICK is a pleasant comedic re-working of the Watergate scandal as seen from the perspective of two bubbly teenagers.

It's not often laugh-out hilarious, but it works more often than not, and the historical feel seems accurate. The soundtrack is very well-chosen and seeing the two lead actresses use every teen cliché in the book only heightens the fun. Though it might be useful to brush up a bit on Watergate, DICK is a pretty good divertimenti.

 

A psychologist with issues to solve is asked to help a troubled little boy who claims to see dead people.

THE SIXTH SENSE: Coming out from nowhere to become one of the decade's highest-moneymaker, this little psychological supernatural drama might not be as good as some claims, but still delivers a good story effectively. Directed with some skill by a hitherto-unknown director and featuring some fantastic acting, the popular success of this slickly competent film is heartening.

Flaws range from inconsistent usage of supernatural device, to slow pacing and a structure that seems to hinge on a trick ending, but even considering these, THE SIXTH SENSE manages to impress without tons of special effects, huge explosions or a considerable amount of gore. Admirable.

 

One honorable mention goes to the second DETROIT ROCK CITY TV commercial, which was first out of the gate in spoofing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT: "In the summer of 1979, four teenagers disappeared on their way to a KISS concert in Detroit. Twenty years later, this footage was found." So far, quite funny, but the real howler comes at the end title card, which mimics the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT stickman... holding an electric guitar.

 

6. THOUGH WE SHOULDN'T FORGET...

Once you've seen the best, it's time to sample the rest. So, in anticipation of that cold winter day where you'll be browsing the video store in search of anything you still haven't seen, here are this summer's "maybe" choices:

 

A man is suspected of a murder he might or might not have committed. But in these days of virtual reality, who can tell?

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR: Interesting title (though it doesn't have anything to do with the film), good cinematography, decent directing and one good premise, but why, then doesn't it work as well as it should? Part of the problem lies in the by-the-numbers script, but most of the film's impact is stolen by external factors.

Jaded SF readers will quickly recognize where the tale is going in a general fashion, and can pretty much describe the ending scene-per-scene maybe fifteen minutes before the end. That still wouldn't have been a problem if THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR had been released in 1997. But in 1998-1999, we've seen DARK CITY, THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE MATRIX and EXISTENZ, all dealing with the same subject. However technically well-done THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR is, it's not that fresh in a bigger context. Unfortunately.

 

SmallTown, USA. Beauty contests so quaint in big cities are, here, matters of life... and death.

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS: This clever mock-documentary satirizes many social flaws, and if the result is a bit too broad, it mostly achieve its objectives. It also works on many level, from some unfortunate slapstick to pretty witty straight-face sarcasm. The documentary format isn't convincingly maintained throughout. There is a noticeable drop-off in hilarity in the last unnecessary fifteen minutes.

Not many people saw this film, which is understandable given its rather average appeal. But it is mildly enjoyable, and is overall more successful than not.

 

In the Summer of 1994, three student disappeared while making a documentary near Burkesville... oh, so you know the rest.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT: Everything has been said and written about this surprise hit: The "true-story" filming method. The Sundance raves. The creepy website. The misleading marketing campaign. The early success in limited release. The nausea-inducing shakycam. The disappointment of mass-market audiences.

What about me? All of the above. Heard of it in January through Internet Sundance reports. Anticipation built up by months of superlative reviews. Attended an advance screening. Admired the way it was done, if not the final result. Though it an interesting effort, but a mass-market rip-off. Feeling slightly jealous of the millions made by the production team. My sister didn't like the shakycam.

 

What do you do if you're a producer with a hot script but no star? Why not go ahead anyway?

BOWFINGER: Ironically released a few weeks after the ultra-low-budget BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, BOWFINGER presents another side of the coin, being about a low-low-low-budget film-maker using every trick in the book to film a big-budget production for practically nothing. Assorted jabs at Hollywood follow, though most of them remain quite tame, almost as if Martin is voluntarily holding back so not to offend anyone. Thus the lack of any spark, or *specialness* from BOWFINGER.

I felt that most of the film's best jokes were spoiled beforehand by the trailers, most reviews, and a particularly despicable Entertainment Tonight segment. But that shouldn't take away from the movie, which offers enough clean, decent humor to satisfy anyone. It might not be *hilarious* humor, but it's amusing nonetheless.

 

A Viking village is under attack by Something Strange and Deadly. Swordfights ensue.

THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR: What can you say about a film that should be a disaster, yet isn't? The film's troubled production history (it was delayed for nearly eighteen months) and the terrible buzz lowered my expectations considerably, but the end result ends up being okay despite numerous flaws.

Ah, these flaws: Subplots raised but never answered, ill-defined characters, recurrent confusion, half-hearted mysticism, bland enemies, muddy cinematography, etc... And yet, the film works fine as a historical adventure, with enough swordfights, flaming arrows and cast-of-thousands shots to make it all look worthwhile. Antonio Banderas remains a dependable screen presence and it's in no small part because of that if THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR isn't a total failure.

 

7. OH, AND THAT ALSO CAME OUT...

While this may be a shock to some, it must be said that not every film is a good one. Some are actually pretty bad, or at least not very good. Without further ado, here are my least-favorite movies of this summer:

 

He's back! The buck-toothed, jive-talkin' sex-symbol of the sixties *and* the nineties! Austin Powers!

AUSTIN POWERS II: Understand that I loved the first AUSTIN POWERS. A clever, mostly non-offensive original parody of spy films, it -and the Austin Powers character- never failed to bring back a smile to my face.

But all of that was eradicated by this sequel, which turned out to be surprisingly vulgar, astonishingly stupid, unoriginal and more a parody of the first movie than a parody of a genre. A few chuckles, but the quasi-obnoxious marketing campaign soured by opinion, more like Mike-Myers-makes-big-bucks than Mike-Myers-having-fun. Worse of all, it *wasn't funny*, and with that I rest my case.

 

A gunslinger is teamed-up with a scientist to catch a Really Bad Guy in post-civil-war America.

WILD WILD WEST: Many movies fail to deliver on their premise. But not many movie can do it as utterly completely as WILD WILD WEST. On paper, it seems *so* simple: Team up the charismatic Will Smith with the great comedian Kevin Kline and put them in a script that combines elements of buddy movies, spy thrillers, steampunk, action and westerns, then back that up with the united talents of Barry Sonnenfeld and Industrial Light & Magic. Well, Something Happened and the result is an embarrassment even inside the theatre, unlike marginally better stupid movies which at least have the decency to wait until the credits to look rotten.

It's a measure of how much the film is inadequate that it features no less than six stunningly beautiful women, yet can't milk a decently sexy shot of any of them. The so-called comedy is juvenile *and* demeaning. The editing is by far the worst I've seen this year, letting stale joke running until they're rotten at least three times. Briefly; try to avoid this one unless you really can't help yourself. One of the biggest misses of 1999.

 

Husband. Wife. Temptations of infidelity.

EYES WIDE SHUT: The only genius of Kubrick is his ability to produce whatever people want to see in his films. You want something deep? EYES WIDE SHUT might be that. You want a lengthy bore? EYES WIDE SHUT might be that too. That should normally explain the divided reviews obtained by the film, though the misleading hype ("high-class porn film!") certainly contributed to the disappointment.

But let's consider the film on an ordinary level. Is it constantly interesting? No, not really: The deliberately episodic nature of the film is not always engrossing, and only hits its stride when the secret society is involved... which happens far too late and isn't pursued actively enough. As a morality tale about marriage, EYES WIDE SHUT isn't up to the task, as it never questions too deeply, never goes where it would be challenging to pursue. A curiously ordinary film.

 

Three insomniacs are locked up -as part of an experiment- in a creepy house. But creepy quickly turns to haunted...

THE HAUNTING: At least the movie starts off promisingly, as a few good characters are quickly introduced, and we're given a walkthrough of a wonderfully overdesigned house. But then, once everything is set up, THE HAUNTING loses steam up to a point where, like a car running out of gas on an uphill road, it starts to actually be counter-pleasing.

The difficulties start with a screenplay that clearly doesn't have a clue on how to play with the premise, that just isn't scary and evacuates all interest from the characters. (Witness how the delicious Catherine Zeta-Jones' character is quickly reduced to painful averageness.) It goes on with a fairly pedestrian directing job, from someone -Jan de Bont- who should know better. It doesn't stop with the good special effects, since these don't add anything to the movie. THE HAUNTING is closer to unintentional comedy than deliberate horror -if that-, but frankly, I demand more from a high-profile 1999 big-budget film.

 

6. FAVORITE MOMENTS, AND RANDOM AWARDS

My top-ten movie moments this summer:

Favourite Credit Sequence:

Best movie-related song:

 

7. TOP TEN LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

10. Scripts matter.

This isn't a startlingly original observation, but it's always worth repeating. When was the last time you heard "Great script, but the special effects were pretty bad!"? Thought so. You can't really say that box-office success is linked to the script (compare AUSTIN POWERS and BIG DADDY with THE IRON GIANT...) but it's certainly a factor when you look at the critical reception (and long-term video profitability) of the films. THE HAUNTING and WILD WILD WEST may have made a hundred millions, but how fast are they going to fade from memory...? Certainly, for the quality-seeking moviegoer, scripts matter.

9. People were ready for scary movies.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and THE SIXTH SENSE were this summer's biggest surprise hits. THE MUMMY and THE HAUNTING did good business. It wouldn't be sane to generalize from the four data points, but it sure looks like horror is in in these pre-Y2K days. Studio executives must be delirious with joy, given that Fall'99 sport no less than ten horror-related films. Oh boy, oh joy...

8. Gross-out humour still sells.

AUSTIN POWERS II. SOUTH PARK. AMERICAN PIE. Big money.

7. People go to movies if something interesting is playing

For a time, at the beginning of July, it seemed like a pretty empty summer. STAR WARS opened up on May 19, and sucked the life out of the release schedule for more than a month. This had the result of both an empty June (seven wide releases, and two of those the last *day*) and a month of August that nearly cracked up under the pressure of sixteen (an average of 4 per weekend!) new releases. NOTTING HILL brilliantly thrived under STAR WARS's shadow, proving that there isn't such a thing as an unique film in today's market, while THE SIXTH SENSE managed to keep the top spot during a whole month of rapid-fire releases. For theatre owners, STAR WARS was a success, but wasn't the end of the summer's box-office. Which brings us to...

6. STAR WARS wasn't the end of the world.

It came out. It played reasonably well. It cracked the unadjusted box-office top ten. And yet, despite the early-days "wacko" stories and the longer-term "Jar-Jar sucks" jokes (even Jay Leno made some!), people's lives weren't reformed by the film. No one committed suicide because the movie didn't match up to expectations. Frankly, from this immediate perspective, even THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT will have a bigger cultural impact than STAR WARS; just take a look at the thousands of parodies (including mine) on the subject. Can you honestly say that STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE is a movie for the ages? Hmmm...

5. Marketing still works.

Last year, GODZILLA made "only" a hundred-odd million dollars at the box-office despite a massive publicity assault. This year, WILD WILD WEST did more or less the same, but at the same time, AUSTIN POWERS II and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT raked up the big bucks, bolstered by very clever marketing strategies. Despite the actual quality (or lack thereof) of the films, enough people were suckered in seeing them. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is a pretty good example of self-generating hype: A great quote ("Scary as hell") leading to great indie-film buzz leading to a great website leading to a great limited-release schedule leading to mass-market success. The film might still have been better considered as a limited release (avoiding the "IT SUCKS!" reaction from the mass-market crowds), but look at the return-on-investment! AMERICAN PIE was marketed as something akin to a cult-classic (even before its released) and ended up doing more than a hundred million dollars.

4. Special effects might, or might not, succeed.

The days where two seconds of computer-generated images would ensure box-office success are truly over... or are they? Unless the SFX are truly impressive in number (THE PHANTOM MENACE) or quality (THE MATRIX), 1999 has seen most of its big-budget SFX contenders bite the dust, relatively speaking. THE HAUNTING, WILD WILD WEST, MYSTERY MEN were disappointments. On the other hand, THE MUMMY, INSPECTOR GADGET and DEEP BLUE SEA performed relatively well... so who knows?

3. Nostalgia always works

Whether it was straight-out historical films, sequels or throwbacks to earlier genres, many films made references to other, simpler times to sell themselves. STAR WARS and DEEP BLUE SEA might have been high-tech adventures, but both harkened back to the seventies and the original STAR WARS and JAWS. Two teenage comedies set in the seventies came out in the same month (DICK and DETROIT ROCK CITY). Two out of the three big animation films were historical pieces, from the nineteenth-century TARZAN to the fifties' THE IRON GIANT. AMERICAN PIE was a thinly-disguised throwback to the early eighties' teen-sex comedy. There was only one outright sequel (AUSTIN POWERS II, which went back to the sixties) but at least two old TV series adaptation (the nineteenth-century WILD WILD WEST and INSPECTOR GADGET), one classic film remake (THE HAUNTING) and a Shakespearian theater adaptation (MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM). We could go on... but why bother?

2. It was, as usual, a very disappointing summer.

Marketing hype killed a lot of movies this summer. No one thought THE PHANTOM MENACE was insanely great, damning three years of wild rumours. The Warner Brothers publicity lion roared, but WILD WILD WEST was a mouse of a film. Dirty old (and younger) men trenchcoated their ways in theatre for EYES WIDE SHUT and couldn't find any porn into it. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT broke out of arthouses and made a killing in googolplexes before audiences realized that it *was* a film project. Critics were merciless, savaging (perhaps unfairly) films such as INSPECTOR GADGET, THE HAUNTING, DEEP BLUE SEA and THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR...

and finally...

1. No one know anything.

There were huge disappointments and huge unexpected hits, but no one predicted anything resembling what actually happened. Both conventional and unconventional films grossed millions, and none is the wiser as to why that happened. As studio executives currently scramble to buy the latest independently hand-filmed horror picture, at least let's revel in the cold certitude that we cinephiles, at least, acknowledge that we don't know anything.

 

With that, see you in theaters next year!

 

Don't Miss
Movies of Summer 1999:
The Parody