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15 years ago - October 20, 2000

Bedazzled
This remake of the 1967 comedy stars Brendan Fraser as an average guy who sells his soul to become more popular. Elizabeth Hurley plays Satan who delivers on his wish but with disastrous drawbacks. Harold Ramis directs, his next project after the big success of Analyze That. Fraser had had the biggest hit of his career date in 1999 with The Mummy. Critics weren’t too impressed with this movie but audiences went to see it anyway. Bedazzled opened at #2 behind Meet the Parents in its third week, with $13.1 million on 2,528 screens. It went on to earn $37 million in the U.S.

Play It Forward
Haley Joel Osment stars as a boy who begins a goodwill movement as a class project that becomes a wider phenomenon. Kevin Spacey and Helent Hunt costar. The movie is based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This was Osment’s next release after the huge success of The Sixth Sense in 1998, and Spacey had Best Actor at the Oscars earlier in the year for American Beauty. Critics praised the acting but saw the movie as trying too hard. Pay It Forward opened at #4 behind Remember the Titans with $9.6 million on 2,130 screens. It went on to earn $33.5 million in the U.S.

The Legend of Drunken Master
I’ve sought out a lot of martial arts movies over the years and I’ve seen all but the most recent of Jackie Chan’s films. Movies in this genre have strengths that vary from choreography to cinematography to stunts to character to story, so it’s hard to say that one is better than all the rest. But I can say that not only is this my favorite Jackie Chan movie, it’s the most entertaining kung fu movie I’ve ever seen. Chan was initially billed as the next Bruce Lee in his early career in the 1970s but obviously lacked the same punch, so instead he incorporated comedy into his style. In 1978 he starred as 1800s Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung in Drunken Master. The movie made him a star and he soon started making contemporary martial arts action films, often starring as a cop, throughout the '80s and '90s. He’d had the biggest hit of his career two years earlier, costarring in Rush Hour with Chris Tucker in 1998. The timeline here is a bit screwy (perhaps apropos): This movie was actually filmed and released six years earlier in Asia, as Drunken Master II in 1994. It was later renamed The Legend of Drunken Master for its U.S. release in 2000. Chan was 39 during filming and may not be as fast as in his youth, but his movements are more fluid and and the final fight choreography is fantastic. Critics were impressed but U.S. audiences did not flock to this movie as they did for Rush Hour (and Rush Hour II the following year). The Legend of Drunken Master opened at #5 with $3.8 million on 1,342 screens and eventually earned $11.5 million in the U.S.

The Yards
Mark Wahlberg stars in this crime drama with Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, and James Caan. Very few people saw this in theaters - produced for $24 million, The Yards was released on eight screens this weekend and only expanded to a maximum of 146 screens during its run, taking in less than $900,000 in the U.S. Ouch.

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