The Column Without a Name!
December 30, 1998

Our contest to find a name for this column has officially ended! Due to our downright tardiness and the fact everyone's been hard to get a hold of due to the Christmas holidays, the winner and the new title for this column will be announced shortly but not today. Thank you to all who participated in the naming of my column, and stay tuned to this page for the announcement!

Wondering why there hasn't been a column in a while??? Read the news about myself piece at the end of this column.

A look back at 1998

The end of the year is closing in and it is now time to examine it in detail.

The Rising Talents

Adam Sandler: This comedian has established himself as the new king of comedy. Riding high on his Wedding Singer success, he was able to bank in big with The Waterboy. Expect him to have his first summer hit next year with Big Daddy.

Cameron Diaz: Good management brought her to where she is now. Few expected her to have a bigger hit then My Best Friend's Wedding. WRONG!  Playing the ultra sexy Mary brought her career to a new height, a Golden Globe nomination and a 10 million dollars paycheck. Oliver Stone's football movie should elevate her to the female A-list.

The Farrelly Brothers: After Kingpin, few expected them to rebound back to their Dumb and Dumber self. Now after their biggest hit ever, There's Something about Mary, the duo are the hottest thing on the Fox lot after George Lucas. Their next project, Phone Booth, has already sparked interest from Nicolas Cage and Will Smith.

Chris Tucker: Money Talks surprising 45 million box-office take was a sign of his arrival. Rush Hour brought him to the A-List placing him as Eddie Murphy's successor. His 00-Soul will be huge and he'll probably get 20 million before we even know it.

Gwyneth Paltrow: What a year...a raving performance in Sliding Doors, A Perfect Murder doing pretty well at the box-office and now a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Shakespeare in Love. All of this made us forget Hush. She'll become a household name pretty soon.

Paul Giamatti: Your probably wondering why he isn't listed in the Breakthrough performances? Well his breakthrough performances was in 1997's Private Parts as Pig Vomit. His supporting performances in Dr. Dolittle, The Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan brought him to the next level. He'll continue his rise with next year's Man on the Moon and Duets.
 

The Fading Talents

Bruce Willis: A disastrous year for Bruce. Not every one of his performances can be a John McClaine clone: Mercury Rising fell flat, and even with $200 million Armageddon under performed expectations, and -- oh yeah, he separated from Demi Moore and the Planet Hollywood stocks  continued to fall. But 1999 should see a new Bruce: from his bizarre car salesman in Breakfast of Champions to the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense to a dramatic/romantic role in the separation drama The Story of Us. Let's hope it resurrects his career or else there's just a fourth Die Hard waiting in the wings.

George Clooney: Okay okay, he did get his first good reviews for Out of Sight. But that movie's box office total was disastrous and doesn't validate Clooney's 10 million dollars salary. 1998 also marked his last year on the most popular TV program of the decade (ER). '99 doesn't look too good for him as he will leave ER in February and his first after post-ER project (Leatherheads) got destroyed a few weeks ago.

Michael Keaton: Disastrous performances in Desperate Measures and Jack Frost. His Out of Sight cameo was okay. He doesn't currently have projects for '99.

Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin: The duo was brought down to reality this summmer when their Godzilla dissapointed both audiences and critics and made a dissapointing 140 million at the box-office. The duo needs to make a film where Devlin doesn't write the screenplay. Look like it might happen: the duo has Dreamworks' Patriot (said to be The Saving Private Ryan of the American Revolution) and Sony's Bond movie in line. Let's hope they're not dumb enough to make Godzilla 2.

Breakthrough Performances

Matt Damon (Saving Private Ryan) and Ben Affleck (Armageddon) both banked on their breakthrough performance in Good Will Hunting this year. But it's with the supporting actors in both of their films that have given breakthrough performances in 1998:

Jeremy Davies and Giovanni Ribisi: Both gave intense performances in Saving Private Ryan. Expect both careers to heat up in the next year. Ribisi has The Mod Squad and Davies will enter The Million Dollar Hotel with Mel Gibson.

Michael Clarke Duncan: Stole the show from under Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck in Armageddon. Cameos as a bouncer in both Bulworth and A Night at The Roxbury.  1999 will mark his true arrival to Hollywood with his prominent role in The Green Mile.

Keith David: Name the actor who's appeared in two of the three biggest hit of the year??? Well it's him. Either playing a by-the-book general in Armageddon or Mary's stepfather, David has been in Hollywood since 1982. Right now he's mostly known as the voice of Spawn in the animated series and Goliath in Gargolyes. Who knows what he's doing next?

Barry Pepper: Either as the crazed bible quoting sniper in Saving Private Ryan or the NSA villian in Enemy of The State, his performances rocked. He'll continue his success with next year's The Green Mile.

Catherine Zeta-Jones:With her hot and sexy performance in The Mask of Zorro, she's now the hottest thing in Hollywood. She will appear in Entrapment and The Haunting of Hill House next year. Zorro was the beginning of a long film career.
 

Surprises and Disappointments of 1998

Surprise: There's Something about Mary's success. Who could have predicted that?
Disappointment: Straight-forward comedies are dying, highlighed by the fact just one succeeded big at the box office (The Waterboy). All other were tagged as romantic comedies (Something About Mary) or fish-out-of-water action/comedy hybrids (Rush Hour).

Surprise: Two of my favorite movies of the year came out before August: Saving Private Ryan and The Truman Show.
Disappointment: The rest of the summer sucked (Godzilla, The Avengers, Deep Impact, etc...)

Surprise: Antz and The Rugrats Movie box office takes suprised a lot of people.
Disappointment: Warner's The Quest for Camelot fell flat on its face and Prince of Egypt has had a slow opening.

Do Your Part in The Prince of Egypt's War Effort

Prince of Egypt's box office hasn't been impressive so far. That's why YOU need to spread the good word for this film. Think about it: do you wanna see more animated films like Mulan or Hercules? Or do you wanna see the genre expanding in other directions? Bad box office results have almost closed Warner Animation and crippled Fox Animation. Dreamworks Animation department might end up taken a beating for this picture and start revising future plans for their animated division. So do you part, tell your friends, co-workers and family about how good Prince of Egypt is. Your probably wondering, 'Hey! What did you do to support POE?' Well, first of all I saw it with my two cousins and my uncle. I've also bought the Prince of Egypt sketchbook. I encourage everyone who has not much money but who likes animated films to buy this book, a nice 8 dollars investment. I've also told my sisters and mother to see it. Well they did, and they brought along 5 other people. So because of my effort 11 people were able to enjoy a good non-Disney animated film. So please dear readers please spread the word...

Now for a little about myself

Wondering why there hasn't been an update for a while? The last one was December 2nd, remember? From that day I was working like a madman till December 15th. Then I finally took 2 days off to get prepared for my road trip to Florida. I wrote a really nice column (a preview of the Golden Globes nominations) but there was one slight problem: Patrick flew off to L.A., so no update, and my column was wasted. I left Montreal on the 18th and all hell broke loose. We got a speeding ticket in the state of New York, got lost twice after that, then the fifth gear of the car broke the day after, making the trip move even slower. I've been in Ft. Lauderdale since Sunday, stuck here because of the day hell week came to a close: Wednesday. That night I was involved in a car accident. We hit a car and our car is a total lost. Thankfully both myself, my traveling companion and my cousin came out okay, as did the passengers of the other car. So now it looks like I'll be taking the bus home and staying here in Florida a little while longer. The accident has been a life changing experience for me. I've been playing a lot of Zelda 64, because my cousin hopes to finish the game before I leave. I've also bought a Martin Luther King Jr. biography (which i hope to read on my way back) and StarCraft's Brood War which will keep me busy for the next few months once I get back home. Starting January 4th, expect the return of my bi-weekly columns. The next issue will be a look at what's ahead in 1999. After that they're will be the unveiling of the new title and something we're working on called 'The CA Awards'.

I would also like to thank Gary Hudson for providing that humorous illustration of me you now see below!

Image by Gary Hudson
Copyright © 1998 Corona Productions

Jean-François Allaire is a 19 year old aspiring writer. Surfing the internet by night and stalking the streets of Montreal by day, he's always on the prowl for news from the set. J-F is a major contributor to Coming Attractions, always pushing himself to look for that story that needs to be told. If you work behind the scenes on a film production and you're just another name in the credits (or no credit given), and you feel that nobody cares, well guess again... Feel free to send him your funny, strange, and heart-warming set stories. Hell... he may even interview you!

Previous issues of Deadpool's column are also available.