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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2000)
Fall movie lineup makes up for lackluster summer BY SAMUEL MCKEWON It wasn’t a particularly pretty summer for movies. How could it have been? “Gladiator,’’ a film with some serious issues of brutality to deal with, was the most critically well received film. “Mission: Impossible 2“ was the only movie to gross more than $200 million. When starved audiences had to get their fill with dirty trash like “Scary Movie,” it’s scary, indeed. And then there was “Battlefield: Earth” and “The Adventures of Rodcyand Bullwinkle." The advent of the autumn movie slate typically brings better quality. It, along with the holiday ms Auditions for the Big Red Express. August 21-24,2000 Be a part of a high energy pep band that performs at Husker volleyball and basketball games. Contact the band office for an appointment. 472-2505 season, is when studios trot out their Sunday bests in terms of drama. And after a thoroughly lackluster summer, the field is wide open for best-movie-award stuff. There have been good 1999 movies - “American Psycho,” “Love and Basketball,” “Time Code,” “Erin Brockovich,” “The Virgin Suicides” and “Hamlet” head the list - but out of those only “Brockovich” and its star, Julia Roberts, will have any significant staying power for award nomina tions. It’s possible “Gladiator” and “The Patriot” have that sort of clout, but it’ll be a reasonably poor fall if that’s the case. Well, guess what - it could be worse than that, at least in Lincoln, where the smaller films don't make the rotation until they hit the Mary Riepma Ross Theater six months afterward. Theiefc a sizable chunk of the big-budget fare through the Thanksgiving holiday, when the winter season generally starts. There'S a few small, controver sial movies that hit big this sum mer at Cannes Film Festival in France. But a strange twist of events in the early 2001 scheduling allowed a few quality fall films to nudge themselves into the holiday sea son for a better box office. The surge could be because of die decision to release “Hannibal,” the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs,” exactly 10 years after its February release date in 1991. “Bridget Jones’ Diary” followed suit Movies that were once slated for near Christmas - Martin Scorsese’s “The Gangs of New York” and the sci-fi epic “Final Fantasy Vm” have been moved to far-off futures. That may free some dramas for better box office during school breaks. Apply Today! Become a PERKINS PROl^HllBF f All Positions : Servers • Host/Hostess • Line Cook Trainers • Assistant Managers Work with a diverse group of people and build a great resume! Apply in person at Perkina/Airport 2900 NW12th St. or call at 474-6162 xAWELCOME jk J\ toUNL fv Don’t ENDANGER your smile by letting your teeth become ExtinctL University Health Center DENTAL OFFICE 15th and U Streets 472-7495 for appointments * Bring'in this coupon and... i we'll give you the 1 SHIRT OFF 1 OUR BACKS! (Free shrt with any purchase) Over4000 tons put out per day! THE THRIFT DEPARTMENT STORE Lin* one coupon par ■ "" ' " parson, par day | 4960 Leighton Ave - 467-1991 uSSS-w!!* j I * + * Or maybe 1999 was just an anomaly, with gems like “The Insider,” “Three Kings” and “Being John Malkovich” lurking in the weeds, not to mention “American Beauty” and “Fight Club,” a movie I more or less hate but admire on some level Either way, quality shouldn’t affect what looks like a bankable slate. Only “Beauty” did exceedingly well among the aforementioned films. Last year, two genuine fall movies - “Beauty” and “Double Jeopardy” grossed more than $100 million. \ The James Bond picture opened five days before Thanksgiving. But this fall d shows a possibility ■ of six from the start of September until turkey day. But where I will the nomina- I tions come from? Time to I wonder... September DEIAN LONOWSU/DN XpiHIUKT “Whipped” - A held over sex comedy from last spring. Amanda Peet, pert and perked up in “The Whole Nine Yards,” does the whip ping. (Sept 1) “Highlander Endgame” -The highlander meets the TV version, and both realize there can only be one What fun. (Sept 1) “The Watcher”-James Spader is an obsessed cop tracking down serial killer Keanu Reeves, who’s obsessed with Spader's shrink, played by MarisalbmeL Keanu a killer? Whoa. (Sept 8) "Nurse Betty” - Here’s an award contender - the third film from talented director Neil LaBute is a bit sunnier than his previous efforts. Renee Zellweger is a wait ress who, after her husband is killed, sincerely believes she is the long lost lover of a soap opera character. She begins a road trip from Kansas to Hollywood, with hitmen Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock in tow. Won best screenplay prize at Cannes for John Richards. (Sept 8) “Wayofthe Gun”-The direc torial debut of “The Usual Suspects* writer Christopher McQuarrie, who makes-surprise! - a quirky crime film with his ini tial effort Crooks Ryan Phillippe Homemade Plemium Ice Cream Comennlseeiiyieiiiiniw areihebes, fates.and most and Benido Ddlbro kidnap a sur rogate mother (Juliette Lewis) for a shot at a ransom reward. Guns - and blood - ensue (Sept 8) “Almost Famous" - A pretty hammy title for wtyat could be an amazing film. Cameron Crowe’s self-described “love letter to the 1970s rock music scene" follows a young Rolling Stone writer (uh, he’s 15) on his first assignment with a new stadium rock band titled Stillwater. Crowe a pioneer ing rock journalist, will undoubt edly survey all - die music, the women, the drugs and haze - in hopes of creating an indelible por trait. His track record - "Jerry Maguire," “Say Anything" - sug gests he might (Sept. 15) ' . “Birthday Girl" - Nicole Kidman is a Russian mail-order bride to Ben Chaplin. O.K. ... (Sept 15) “Bait” - Actor/comedian Jamie Foxx attempts his best Martin Lawrence imitation of Eddie Murphy as a convict tossed into a criminal heist plot by the cops. (Sept 15) “Beautiful” - Minnie Driver is possessed - possessed I tell you - to become a beauty queen from the wrong side of the tracks. Sally Field directs. (Sept. 15) “Urban Legends: Final Cut” - Thank God. (Sept 22) “Girlfight” - Winner at the Sundance Film Festival last year, newcomer Michelle Rodriguez has to choose between love and a commitment to boxing. A plot not entirely unlike “Love' and Basketball” (Sept. 29) “Remember the Titans" - Denzel Washington is finally cast as a football coach; it's in a story about a “special” team in the tumultuous racial era of the 1960s. It’s a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, so, well, cross your fingers, and hope they don’t muck it up. (Sept 29) “The Broken Hearts Club" - Women and the lovers who leave them-because they all turn out to be gay. (Sept 29) October “Bedazzled”-Biendan Fraser has found niche in the drippy comedy category, and here’s some more: He's a rube making a deal with the devil (Elizabeth Hurley). (Oct 6) “Imposter” -The first of two science fiction thrillers about cloning, this movie, originally slat ed for summer, has Gary Sinese awakening to an alternate reality where he’s the unlikely criminal (Oct 6) “Get Carter”-It’s been so long for Sylvester Stallone, who bemoaned last summer in the New York Post that he’d become the pariah of the movie picture business after the so-so “Copland." His return is a remake of a Michael Caine gangster film from the 1970s. Sly is Carter, a hit man out to avenge the death of his brother. Talented Alan Gumming (“Eyes Wide Shut,” “Titus”) is the villain. (Oct 6). “Meet the Parents” - Anybody’s worst nightmare - Robert DeNiro is the father-in-law from CIA helL Ben Stiller is the son that must put up with the pain. (Oct 6) “Dancer in the Dark” -The winner of Palmed’Or, best film, at the 2000 Cannes Festival the lat est film from maverick director Lars Van Trier of Dogme 95 finds a musical starring Bjoik, an immi grant who is going blind, in 1964 California who works as a punch button operator to deliver her daughter to a better life. Just one thing about Dogme 95 films - there can't be any soundtrack music over the movie. So expect scenes like the one where Bjork sings to the cliddty clack of steam train. (Oct 6) “Bounce” - Friday the 13th brings a romantic comedy of weird chance when banker Ben Affleck gives up his airplane seat to a man who eventually dies when that plane crashes leaving a wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) behind to pick up the pieces. A year later, Afflecks character searches her out (Oct Please see FALL on B7