CHICAGO - WILL AUDIENCES STILL BE MAD OVER PERRY?

Analysts are puzzling over whether Tyler Perry's second movie, Madea's Family Reunion, will exceed the (surprise) $21.9-million opening of his first outing, last year's Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Lionsgate is cautiously opening the film on 2,194 screens, half again as many as Diary, has found bookings for Perry on numerous talk shows, and set up print interviews with him. However, it did not screen Reunion for the press, mindful perhaps of the nearly unanimous drubbing last year's film received. ("I've been reviewing movies for a long time, and I can't think of one that more dramatically shoots itself in the foot," wrote Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News called it "an absolute mess with no coherent tone, story or point of view." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post warned: "Stay clear of this mess.") Nevertheless, it opened at the top of the box office and turned Perry, who previously had been known mostly for his plays performed in black community theaters, into an overnight phenomenon. New Line is also playing it cautious with Running Scared with Paul Walker, opening it in only 1,611 theaters. It is not expected to earn more than $10 million. Finally, the Weinstein Co. is opening the computer-animated feature Doogal on 2,319 screens. The kiddie film is based on the classic British show The Magic Roundabout, which aired in Canada on the CBC in the 1970s. Assuming perhaps that Canadian critics may have had some familiarity with the show, the film's distributor, the Weinstein Company, screened it for them but not for U.S. critics. They need not have bothered. Bruce Kirkland in the Toronto Star sums up: "Not horrible, not insulting, just mediocre." Jason Anderson in the Toronto Globe and Mail describes some of the "tinkering" that went into the American version of the film -- it was released in Europe last year under the Roundabout title and with a different voice cast -- then concludes, "It's hard to imagine the film could be rendered any more aggravating or less funny." And Peter Howell in the Toronto Star concurs, writing, "In attempting to turn a tiny Anglo-Franco amusement into a full-blown Yankee extravaganza, The Weinstein Co. has managed to choke every last bit of charm out of the characters and their setting, no mean feat for a show this enchanting."

24/02/2006