Short Cuts

This summer has been an odd one for moviegoing. Few new movies were scheduled to open during the early part of the season. Distributors ceded the eight weeks between mid-May and mid-July to Twentieth Century Fox and the feared spectre known as The Phantom Menace. Many of them kept certain dates loose so that they were free to move titles around the calendar, which, of course, set off domino reactions as other studios shifted their titles in tandem. Now it's July 16, the date earmarked for the opening of several high-profile movies: the posthumous release of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, the indie buzz sensation The Blair Witch Project, the croc-shock creature feature Lake Placid, and the interplanetary adventures of Muppets From Space. Expect the rest of the summer to look just as packed. Of course, there's been all the public breast-beating over the issue of smutty, violent movies and their effects on the teen psyche. NATO, the theatre owners' association, announced that they were going to institute ID checks that would clamp down on teen admission to R-rated movies. But how do we then explain last weekend's #1 gross for the R-rated, teen-targeted picture American Pie? Moreover, it's also curious that newly opened Wild Wild West slid 40% during the same weekend while the G-rated Tarzan and the PG-13 Big Daddy each slipped only 19 percentage points. Think any little rascals have been buying tickets for the "kid" movies and then sneaking a slice of Pie after the lights go down? Nah, everyone would have to have their eyes wide shut ... speaking of which, Kubrick's movie also had a little ratings problem of its own to work out this week. Seems that 65 seconds of the orgy sequence of Eyes Wide Shut had to be digitally adjusted in order to receive an R rating instead of the taboo NC-17. Kubrick was contractually obligated to bring the movie in as an R, so theoretically he would have been in agreement with the digital invention of figures who have been inserted midway in Tom Cruise's line of sight, blocking out the thrusting actions of the orgiasts and leaving the viewer to see only their heads and feet bobbing. In addition to providing great insight into the peccadillos of the MPAA's standards, the action seems unduly warranted in a picture that is so clearly adult in its thinking and content. It would be hard to argue that anyone 17 or younger should see the movie. At a junket screening during which the edited and unedited sequences were shown to critics, Roger Ebert chided the film's producers for the "travesty" of what he terms the "Austin Powers version," in which silly objects are inserted strategically over naughty body parts. Here in Austin, The Blair Witch Project opens its exclusive Austin run on three screens of the Dobie Theatre. If everything goes as hoped, the film should produce some healthy box-office figures. Those numbers will get an added boost from the ticket-price increase that also goes into effect at Landmark's Dobie this week. Standard ticket prices will rise to $6.50, although special packages of five tickets for $20 (good for all shows, except after 6pm on weekends) will be available. The explanation is that this will make the theatre competitive with other venues in this market, because even though the Dobie is pulling in good attendance numbers, their total grosses fall below those of higher-priced theatres like the Arbor. However, we have to ask why the Dobie, which has pledged to follow the independent booking policies of its predecessor, is so focused on remaining competitive with theatres showing identical bookings on the other end of town.