HOLLYWOOD - Going to the movies may not be high on the list of priorities this weekend as a shocked nation continues to contemplate Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.That the weekend's only two new releases are relatively low-profile films won't help the box office. Americans eager for a distraction from the week's events probably won't turn to Hardball and The Glass House, even in the absence of MLB, MLS, NFL and college football games. Instead, we'll probably see some lighthearted summer holdovers resurrected.
Hardball headlines Keanu Reeves as a gambler who agrees to coach an urban youth baseball team to help pay off his debts. Diane Lane, who also appears in The Glass House co-stars. Paramount seems to be positioning the inspirational drama as this year's Remember the Titans, going so far as to court the family audience by trimming some foul language to secure a PG-13 rating. Given the current climate, and the recent controversy surrounding the 2001 Little League World Series, Hardball is another potential strikeout for Reeves.
His post-Matrix outings have floundered. His last sports-themed yarn, The Replacements, settled for an unexceptional $44.3 million in August 2000. The Watcher, with an unconvincing Reeves as a serial killer, held the No. 1 spot for two very quiet weekends in September last year but earned a mere $28.9 million. He also played an abusive husband in The Gift, which made only $12 million following a limited run in January. Ill-suited lovers Reeves and Charlize Theron generated only $25.1 million in February's Sweet November.
Lane's second film is the teen-targeted chiller The Glass House, with Leelee Sobieski as a young girl who suspects that her legal guardians may harbor murderous intentions. The Glass House is one of two oft-delayed Sobieski thrillers to be released in the coming weeks, the other being Joy Ride with Paul Walker and Steve Zahn. The films look set to do no better than Sobieski's Here On Earth, which made a less-than-heavenly $10.4 million last year, but they could unintentionally establish her as the Jamie Lee Curtis for the 21st century.