Let the Games Begin A Fall Preview by Dr. Daniel      All right, people. Summer is winding down like a cheap watch. The kids are back in school. El Niño has just about had is last tantrum. In a couple of weeks, football noises and falling leaves will be the norm. And, I those of us who survived the Cinematic Summer should feel lucky to be around to see the colors change. I mean, after all, we lived through two separate attempts to destroy the Earth from space. We stomped Big Liz back to Tokyo. We saw D-Day so close we got sand in our boots. Vampires didn't get us, and Michael Myers didn't either. Cinderella and Mulan triumphed over toy warriors and Stepford teenagers. A girl named Mary and a man named Truman made more noise than they were supposed to, and the South Park guys went for the ultimate gross-out and stumbled a bit.    But, now, let's look forward to the final leg of the Oscar race. It's coming up on fall, and the colors in Hollywood turn just like they do everywhere else. No humongous special effects to blind us, no threats to the planet, no oversize boogers to stomp us. This is the time when quality usually overrules the quantity, but this fall it's a mad rush through the fourth quarter. Hollywood has some 144 new films on the slate. Grab your gold pans, and let's go down to the river and see if The Doctor can't help you find a few nuggets of treasure amidst the dirt and mud. Time To Celebrate    Okay, let's start with the biggies. There's a lot of hope riding on Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. This is pulling from difficult substances, bringing Toni Morrison's complex novel to the screen and it promises to be a three-hankie drama. Could be a major player come next February. Another worth watching will be Rounders, the Matt Damon/Edward Norton movie about the world of underground high-stakes poker. This is director John Dahl's bid to return to his Last Seduction glory, after the disappointing Ray Liotta vehicle Unforgettable. All that being said, my big need right now is for December to get here, so we film fanatics can finally see the return of director Terrance Malick to the screen, after some twenty years. He ventures into WWII with The Thin Red Line, based on the James Joyce novel. He built a marquee cast with names like Penn, Nolte, Clooney, Travolta, Cusack, and Pullman, all teaming up as a rifle company caught up in the battle for Guadalcanal. There is some fear that Private Ryan stole most of the thunder on this one, but I think it only primed the pump, and, if you know anything about Malick, you know he does not peddle trash. There could just be a duel for the nominations between the two platoons from Ryan and Line. Definite Contenders    Look out for Robin Williams doing the metaphysical mambo in What Dreams May Come. He's a family man who is killed in a car accident and goes to Heaven. His grief-stricken wife (Annabella Sciorra) kills herself and goes to hell. Williams ventures out to find her, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. as his guide. Sort of a Dante's Divine Comedy with more laughs, huh? But, after Good Will Hunting, Williams is a hot ticket. Enemy of the State, with Will Smith and Gene Hackman, is going to be something to see, too. Will Smith, teamed with The Napalm Brothers, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott, means action and explosions galore, and the Thanksgiving weekend opening won't hurt, either. Don't count Travolta out of the hunt, though. His A Civil Action will be a hard target to hit. John, playing a lawyer, fighting for the right side of justice.. how is this thing gonna do? This could be an "iffy" prospect, because of its ultra-serious story, but Travolta is almost golden at the ticket booth. It will be a fight worth watching... Also, don't count all the chickens in the war zone, because Brad Pitt is making a huge bid to regain his top dog status in the romantic drama Meet Joe Black. He plays the kinder, gentler Grim Reaper, who's trying to figure out why everyone is afraid of him. It will remind some of Nic Cage's angel come to Earth, but Pitt is going to lay on charm thicker than asphalt on the interstate. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are dong another teaming in the romantic comedy You've Got Mail. Combine those two with their Sleepless in Seattle director Nora Ephron, and this is a lock to draw something. For those of you who get off on metamorphosis, Queen Meryl has two irons in the fire for a statue, one with accent (Dancing at Lughnasa), and one without (One True Thing). Dancing is more of an "art-house" movie with Meryl playing an Irish schoolteacher. One True Thing, though, is a major heartpuller, with Meryl playing a dying mother and Renee Zellweger as her estranged daughter, who's coming home to stay with her. Violins, if you please.... A Few Diamonds Amongst the Coal?    Is there any point in even assuming that I Still Know What You Did Last Summer will not rake in money like a carnival crane game? The only thing that might hurt this cash cow is the absence of Kevin Williamson. Word is that they will try to beef up the carnage to make up for Kevin's absence. The remake of Psycho, starring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, is a horrible idea, according to movie fans everywhere. But director Gus Van Sant made Good Will Hunting soar, and, supposedly, this is a shot-by-shot remake of the Hitchcock original. Question for Gus: why make it in color, then? Let's not forget about the remake of Mighty Joe Young, the big-time player that Disney yanked out of the summer slaughterhouse, presumably so it wouldn't be buried in the shuffle after one weekend. Might've been a wise decision, seeing how the summer turned out, and, now, catching the holiday crowds, it could sneak up and score big. There's another Star Trek movie coming, subtitled Insurrection. The behind-the-scenes pedigree is good -- same crew as the last one -- so it should be decent, if you're a fan. Keep an eye on a movie called Simon Birch, too. This is the movie version of John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, but Irving nixed the filmmakers use of the main character's name. So, all the names are changed, and the story is altered a bit, and we get Simon Birch. This is the first card played this fall, and it has a big TV campaign going for it, and there will be publicity galore concerning one of the stars, little Ian Smith, who suffers from dwarfism due to a disease called Morquio's syndrome. You never know with Irving's books, though. Sometimes his quirky stories work on film (The World According to Garp), and sometimes they stink on ice (The Hotel New Hampshire). Waiting for the Jury to Decide    Apt Pupil, based on the very creepy novella by Stephen King, has been through development hell for almost eleven years now. But The Usual Suspects director Bryan Singer completed it. Question is, will it be too creepy for an audience? Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play sisters and witches in Practical Magic. These two together could be too good to be true, but director Griffin Dunne made magic with last summer's Addicted to Love. I have a lot of faith in DeNiro's ability as an actor, but his latest, Ronin, has John Frankenheimer at the helm. Dr. Frankenheimer's last monster was the Brando-Bizarro remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Who knows how this thing could turn out? Fourteen years ago, Hurlyburly was all the rage on Broadway, telling the tale of a coke-addled early-'80s Hollywood. Will this story still be worth telling in 1998? Well, with Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey on the top billing, it'll definitely be worth a look. I'm offering a huge prayer for John Carpenter's Vampires. I want him to be at the top of his game here, and scare me to death. James Woods heading the cast doesn't hurt, and, it's been a while since John flexed his horror muscles. Here's hoping he blows the lid off the place. Also gotta wonder about A Simple Plan. I love Sam Raimi's movies, and he's got a good cast with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, but one has to wonder when the project has been through four directors before it got to Sam, and even he turned it down once. And let's not forget the latest Adam Sandler piece, The Waterboy. After scoring big with The Wedding Singer, Adam's back to making faces and using funny voices again as a moron who can play football meaner than anyone else. Might be a step back on the evolutionary scale for him, but it'll probably score big at the window. Same threat, different bet for Eddie Murphy. He's playing a mysterious shaman who sells for a home-shopping network in Holy Man. Definite dice roll for the two SNL alums. Fool's Gold?    There are some absolute problems out there, too. American History X, a story about skinheads and reformation, already has its director taking his name off the film. Todd Solondz, the director of the wonderful Welcome to the Dollhouse, has chosen as his first studio project Happiness, a story revolving around pedophilia...!? It may have wowed them at Cannes, but it'll be an improbable sell in Peoria. Orgazmo, directed by and starring South Park's Trey Parker, is the heartwarming tale of a young Mormon boy who's making porno movies under the name Captain Orgazmo. Wanna guess how well this is gonna go over in TV ads? And, may I be the first to say that I need another Babe movie like I need a nail driven through my chin. This one's called Babe: Pig in the City. Hoorah... I don't know what to think about Pleasantville, where two teenagers are zapped into a 1958 black-and-white sitcom. This could be a great concept, and play off The Truman Show buzz nicely. It could also be as rotten as Stay Tuned. Ever heard of Stay Tuned? My point exactly. I am still anxious to see how they are going to market John Waters' new movie. My underground hero has titled his new feature Pecker. Let your mind wander over the possibilities for that. The Hatfields and McCoys    That's right, friends of neighbors. They're at it again. Disney and Dreamworks are gonna fuss and fight all through the fall, and straight on to Christmas it seems. They each have a feature done completely in computer animation, and, strangely enough, they're both concerning ants. (Wonder if Katzenberg is still angry about not getting that promotion...?) Dreamworks fires the first shot with Antz, featuring voice talent like Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sly Stallone, and Anne Bancroft. Woody voices a drone ant that wants to marry the Queen's daughter (Stone). Disney chimes in a month later with A Bug's Life, with voices by Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, David Hyde Pierce, and Dave Foley. Grasshoppers are threatening Foley's anthill, so he hires an unemployed flea circus as hired guns to fight the hoppers. Dreamworks is real fired up that they're releasing their movie first, but if Armageddon is any sort of clue, first may not be best. Once upon a time there was a thing called Deep Impact? And, in the toon wars, Dreamworks is offering up Prince of Egypt, the animated story of Moses, featuring voices by Val Kilmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Stewart, and Sandra Bullock. Dreamworks hired Stephen Schwartz away from Disney and set him to put the Old Testament to music. This is s'posed to be a more "adult" animated experience, but I do have questions. One: why hire the composer responsible for two of the weaker musical efforts in recent Disney history? Schwartz composed for Pocahontas and Hunchback. Heard anybody humming God Help the Outcasts lately? Nope. Two: THE STORY OF MOSES?! ANIMATED?!?! WITH MUSICAL NUMBERS?!?!?! Rumor is that Disney will smart bomb this one like they did Fox's Anastasia, dropping Beauty and the Beast into the Christmas market. All bets are off. Hidden Treasures     Make sure you get the chance to see Touch of Evil, The Big Chill, and The Wizard of Oz during their limited re-releases. Wizard got the GWTW treatment, all re-recorded and gussied up. Orson Welles' lost gem, Touch of Evil, is fully restored, thanks to the discovery of a long-lost intact print. Go see The Big Chill because it's a cool movie, and it has a cooler soundtrack. The only time you'll see Kevin Kline be good onscreen without facial hair. (It's just a theory, mind you, but think it through... it's an interesting comparison.) You might want to think twice about seeing the reissue of Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. They've added another hour to it, pushing the running time to nearly four hours or something. Get the small drink.     There are plenty more out there for action fans too. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker team up for Rush Hour, a buddy-cop movie. There's a big-time IMAX release called T-Rex: Back To the Cretaceous that capitalizes on Jurassic Park CGI effects. Six strangers are locked into a booby-trapped maze in Cube, which could be a sneak-up thriller. Kurt Russell dons the togs of another futuristic tough guy that doesn't talk much in Soldier. New York City is put under martial law after terrorists threaten the city, and Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington are right in the middle of it in The Siege. And for us medical school grads, Val Kilmer plays a blind man who has his sight restored in At First Sight, while Robin Williams offers a biopic called Patch Adams, about a doctor and his belief in the healing power of humor.    Folks, I know I'm putting a lot on your plates here, but, with 12 dozen movies to sort through, we're all gonna be a tad lost more than once, and we're gonna need all the survival tips we can get. I'm just trying to suggest some of the best jewels in the vault for you to take with you. Get "reel" soon, Doc

Text Menu