Section C·Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 30,1998
This fall, audiences cool to art films
Chris Tucker battles crime in the action movie *Rush Hour*. Lawrence theater managers said big-budget movies like *Rush Hour* drew the largest crowds this fall. Contributed photo.
By Jeremy M. Doherty
Kansan movie critic
The weather cooled, but it was still summertime at the movies.
Big-budget action movies and comedies, normally the mainstay of the summer months, continued to draw substantial crowds at Lawrence theaters. But dramas and art-house flICKS such as A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries failed to attract their share of the viewing audience, theater managers said.
"Usually, it's a very terrible time of year," said Nick Guinan, general manager of Southwind 12, 3433 Iowa St. "It's been a little stronger this year than usual."
Guinan said the most popular films at Southwind had been the Jackie Chan action movie *Rush Hour*, the Wesley Snipes horror flick Blade and the gross-out comedy There's Something About Marv.
This fit with trends across the nation. Rush Hour already has grossed more
than $110 million, and Blade is inching toward a final gross of $70 million.
The real success story has been There's Something About Mary, Guinan said.
"Mary just amazingly hangs in there," he said. "It's been the sleeper hit of the season. It's starting to taper off now."
The movie, which stars Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller, has grossed more than $160 million across the nation.
Scott Bliss, manager of Liberty Hall Cinema, 642 Massachusetts St., reported less-than-satisfactory results for the season's slate of art movies. The edgy thriller *Pi* did so-so business, by A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, the new movie from the production team of Merchant Ivory (Howards End), tanked, Bliss said.
Bliss said part of the problem was that the movie just could not find its proper audience. Merchant Ivory typically is known for costume dramas set 100 years or more in the past, but Soldier's Daughter found the team mining new territory.
"It's tough," Bliss said. "Those guys have been around, and then they hit a pit with their last couple of movies. This new one just isn't a period piece — it's set in the '60s and '70s."
Bliss said he wasn't surprised by the movie's weak turnout. After more than a month in release, Soldier's Daughter has taken in less than $1.5 million across the nation. Compared with the double-digit grosses of art hits such as The Crying Game or The Full Monty, it has been a disappointment. Bliss said.
"We realized that it just wouldn't be playing with audiences," he said. "But then stuff like The Spanish Prisoner did really well elsewhere, but in Lawrence, it just did OK."
The big Hollywood studios also tend to release their more Oscar-worthy product in the fall. In the fall of 1997, audiences were treated to the acclaimed Boogie Nights and L.A. Confidential. But 1998 seems to be the exception, said John
Tibbetts, assistant professor of film.
Tibbetts said that Jonathan Demme's Beloved, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison and released by Disney, had failed to score with audiences for a specific reason.
"I think in that case, you've got a situation where the audience is smarter than the filmmakers," Tibbets said. "It was a very pretentious product. I think that younger viewers have caught on to the fact that this film has placed its message second and style first, and the audience has realized it."
Since opening on Oct. 16, Beloved has grossed less than $15 million. Tibbets said the movie's subject matter, about a runaway slave who murders her daughter, was out of place with the current mood among moviegoers.
"The youth crowd is always going to be looking for a fast service," Tibbets said. "They're looking for special effects and irreverence — always irreverence."
John Carpenter's Vampires a bloody romp with spunk
By Jeremy M. Doherty Kansas movie critic
Kansan movie critic
Few movies earn the right to be as much fun as John Carpenter's Vampires.
Bloody, vulgar and jammed with enough attitude to make Quentin Tarantino jealous. Vampires unfolds in a world of crude anti-heroes, merciless killers and sunscorched settings. When these bloodsuckers fry in the New Mexico sun, you practically can smell the fumes.
Make no mistake: This movie isn't for everyone. The absence of likable characters and a tone that shifts from barbaric to misogynistic — all women are either prostitutes or vampires — will send certain folks into a tizzy. And any movie in which the hero twice throttles Catholic priests is asking for trouble.
In short, critics will fault the movie for bad taste. I would argue that bad taste was director Carpenter's intent all along.
Inside, a female vampire soars out of a darkened corner and tackles one of Crow's men. While the two grapple, Crow simply
Take the first scene; Vampire-slayer Jack Crow (James Woods), a you-talk'in-to-me tough guy in leather and sunglasses, leads his team of hunters into an abandoned farm house in rural New Mexico.
VAMPIRES
Kansan rating: * **1**/2 out of * ******
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Rated R: for profanity, toasted vampires
and priest-kicking
raises a crossbow and whistles.
Open wide, baby," he says as an arrow plunges into the vampire's chest with a thunk. After the body has been nuked by sunlight, Crow nonchalantly strikes a match for his cigar off the charred skull.
As it turns out, Valek is after the Berziers Cross, a relic that may have the power to
Crow and his partner, Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), manage to escape along with Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a hooker who suffered a bite from Valek. Though not yet a vampire herself, Katrina shares a telepathic link with the undead, which requires Crow to keep her around as a means of monitoring Valek's movements.
Crow and his buddies later tear it up at a seedy motel with a gaggle of hookers and the local law enforcement. Their attempts at merriment are cut short when Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), a centuries-old vamp, pops up and begins decapitating prostitutes and slayers with his bare hands.
allow vampires to move about safely in the daylight.
Crow also senses a setup in the works. During the motel attack, Valek addressed him by name, and Crow suspects that the local cardinal (Maximillian Schell) may be in cahoots with vampires. As such, Crow has to content with the nagging presence of Father Guiteau (Tim Guinee), a young priest who secretly wants to impale a few bloodsuckers himself.
Action aside, Vampires strikes its best points during smaller moments. In one scene, Crow slices open Guiteau's hand, explaining how he killed his father-turned-vampire.
"So don't think I won't kill you," he snarls. Carpenter, who also directed the original Halloween and Escape from New York, wisely keeps the material free of pretensions. Unlike the recent Blade, Vampires actually has some stylish filmmaking and a sense of humor. The fighting sequences have a rhythm and purpose that Blade's sloppy action missed by a mile.
Unlike today's directors, Carpenter doesn't rely on razzle-dazzle to get the point across. He understands that computerized special effects never will replace an artist's personality or flair.
James Woods takes aim at an army of bloodsuckers in John Carpenter's Vampires. The horror flick also stars Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee and Thomas Ian Griffith. Contributed photo.
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