No easy ending for 'The Sopranos'
NEW YORK - Tony Soprano carries on.
The much-awaited conclusion of HBO's "The Sopranos" arrived Sunday night in a frenzy of audience speculation. Would New Jersey mob boss Soprano live or be killed? Would his family die before his eyes? Would he go to jail? Be forced to enter witness protection? Would Brooklyn boss Phil Leotardo, who had ordered a hit on Tony, prevail?
In the end, the only ending that mattered was the one masterminded by "Sopranos" creator David Chase. And playing against viewer expectations, as always, Chase refused to stage a mass extermination, put the characters through any changes, or provide his viewers with comfortable closure. Or catharsis. After all, he declined to pass moral judgment on Tony — he reminded viewers all season what a thug Tony is, then gave him a pass.
But Chase was true to himself, and that's what made "The Sopranos" brilliant on Sunday night, and the 85 episodes that went before. The product of an artist with a bleak but illuminating vision, "The Sopranos" has always existed on its own terms. And it was seldom tidy.
The only neat development in the finale was that Leotardo was crushed. Otherwise it was perversely non-earthshaking — just one last visit with the characters we have followed so devoutly since 1999.
Here was the funeral for Bobby Bacala, Tony's soldier and brother-in-law, who was shot dead on Leotardo's orders last week. Here was Tony (series star James Gandolfini) paying a hospital visit to his gravely injured consigliere, Silvio Dante, also targeted by Leotardo.
Tony's ne'er-do-well son A.J. ( Robert Iler) continued to wail about the misery in the world, and voiced a fleeting urge to join the Army and go fight in Afghanistan (Tony persuaded him to get involved in filmmaking, instead). Daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) harped on her plans to be a lawyer.
Tony visits his senile Uncle Junior ( Dominic Chianese) at the nursing home. "You and my dad, you two ran North Jersey," Tony prompts him.
"We did?" said Uncle Junior with no sign of recognition. "That's nice."
Despite suspicions to the contrary, neither Paulie Walnuts nor Patsy Parisi sold out Tony. And neither was whacked. Dr. Melfi, who kicked Tony out of therapy last week, made no last-minute appearance.
Sure, headaches lie ahead for Tony. The Feds are still after him. And Meadow's fiance, Patsy Jr., is a lawyer who may well be pursuing cases that intrude on Tony's business interests.
So what else is new?
The finale displayed the characters continuing, for better and worse, unaffected by the fact that the series is done. The implication was, they will go on as usual. We just won't be able to watch.
Of course, Leotardo (Frank Vincent) hit a dead end after Tony located him with the help of his favorite federal agent. The execution was a quick but classic "Sopranos" scene: Pulling up at a gas station with his wife, Leotardo made a grand show of telling his two young grandchildren in the back seat to "wave bye-bye" as he emerged from his SUV. The next moment he was on the pavement, shot in the head.
Then you heard the car roll over his head. Carunnnchh! Quick, clinical, even comical, this was the only violence during the hour.
Not that Chase (who wrote and directed this episode) didn't tease viewers with the threat of death in almost every scene.
This was never more true than in the final sequence. On the surface, it was nothing more momentous than Tony, his wife, Carmela ( Edie Falco), Meadow and A.J. meeting for dinner at a cozy family restaurant.
When he arrived, Tony dropped a coin in the jukebox and played the classic Journey power ballad "Don't Stop Believing." Meanwhile, every moment seemed to foreshadow disaster: Suspicious-looking people coming in the door or seated at a table nearby. Meadow on the street having trouble parallel parking her car, the tires squealing against the curb. With every passing second, the audience was primed for tragedy. It was a scene both warm and fuzzy yet full of dread, setting every viewer's heart racing for no clear reason.
But nothing would happen. It was just a family gathering for dinner at a restaurant.
Then, with a jingle of the bell on the front door, Tony looked up, apparently seeing Meadow make her delayed entrance. Or could he have seen something awful — something he certainly deserved — about to come down?
Probably not. Almost certainly a false alarm. But we'll never know. With that, "The Sopranos" cut to black, leaving us enriched after eight years. And flustered. And fated to always wonder what happened next.
SUPERHERO SMACKDOWN
Here's nothing comic-book fans like better than a knockdown, drag-out fight. But the most interesting superhero battle these days isn't playing out on four-color pages, it's taking place on movie screens, between two old foes who have battled and sniped at each other for going on half a century.
I
t's Marvel versus DC, and for the uninitiated (or the less geeky), the two publishers dominate the comic-book market and own every hero popular enough to show up on a bedding set. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman (think the old "Super Friends" TV series) are all the property of DC, while Spider-Man, X-Men and Captain America are Marvel's babies.
Basically, the two companies would like to melt each other with heat vision.
"When either one of them talks about the other, no matter who it is in the company, there's tension and rivalry," says Gerry Gladstone, co-owner of Midtown Comics. "There is a rivalry almost to a childish point. It's been there since Day 1."
This battle's got everything that make comics worth reading: slugfests, superpowers (if you count making the Z-list "Ghost Rider" into a hit a superpower) and above all, high stakes. While the top-selling comic book only moves around 100,000 copies, a blockbuster movie can pull in a billion bucks.
And currently in this epic throwdown, Marvel is winning. Mightily. It's like Hulk beating up on Krypto the Wonder Dog.
This year alone, Marvel has released "Ghost Rider" (which pulled in a surprising $115 million) and "Spider-Man 3," (which broke records, or something). On Friday, Marvel's next movie, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," arrives, along with likely millions in box office revenue and priceless mainstream exposure for its marquee superteam.
And that's just 2007. Next summer, "Iron Man" - starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard - hits screens, along with "The Incredible Hulk," a reboot of the you-wouldn't-like-me-when-I'm-angry franchise, featuring Ed Norton as Bruce Banner.
Meanwhile DC (and Warner Bros., which, like DC, is owned by TimeWarner) hasn't come close to matching Marvel's output or success in the 21st century.
"Batman Begins" was masterfully done, but "Superman Returns" mostly fizzled with critics and audiences.
Then there was Halle Berry's "Catwoman." Moment of silence, please.
And with the exception of sequels for Supes and Bats (including next summer's much anticipated "The Dark Knight"), no other DC superheroes are guaranteed to hit the screen anytime soon. (Warner Bros. didn't make its executives available for comment.)
Perhaps trying to catch up, DC has optioned a slew of its properties recently, including an X-Men-like team of misfits called "The Doom Patrol," and "Teen Titans," a group of young superheroes that's already spawned a popular cartoon. Nervous fanboys, however, have pointed out that in both cases Akiva Goldsman - the man who wrote 1997's franchise-killing "Batman & Robin" - is attached to produce.
Another cinematic try at an A-list DC hero, Wonder Woman, recently collapsed after writer-director Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") had differences with the studio regarding the film's direction. On comic-book fan site newsarama.com, Whedon called his 18 months of work a "huge waste of time."
A fan-made video called "Hi, I'm a Marvel ... and I'm a DC" posted on Youtube nicely sums up the state of the rivalry. In a parody of those Mac commercials, a Spider-Man toy needles a Superman toy about Marvel's movie dominance.
"We've got plenty of projects lined up," Superman says confidently.
"Like Wonder Woman?" Spidey asks.
"You may see that one eventually," Superman stammers.
"Flash?" Spidey asks.
"Sometime possibly soon in the next few years," Supes says. "And we just asked a few writers to think about the possibility of maybe what it might take to theoretically make a Justice League movie in the next 10 years or possibly more, perhaps."
But while DC/Warner Bros. may not have yet found the winning formula for consistently churning out superhero blockbusters, it has nicely managed to leverage its nonhero properties. "V for Vendetta," "Constantine" and "A History of Violence" were all based on its comics. The company has more movies based on similarly spandex-free fare in the works, including "Y: The Last Man," the wonderfully inventive saga of the lone survivor of a plague that kills every male on Earth.
"There's certainly a diversity among what we publish," says DC president Paul Levitz, who incidentally refused to characterize DC's relationship with Marvel as a "rivalry."
But for DC, the billion-dollar question remains: How in the world can Marvel produce a hit with a third-tier character in a critically reviled movie like "Ghost Rider," while a film starring the most well-known hero in the universe, Superman, can't even make back its budget domestically?
The answer may lie in the nature of each company's heroes. When Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created many of Marvel's iconic heroes in the 1960s, their innovation was to give their characters great humanity along with great power.
"They took superheroes and made them more realistic," says Midtown Comics' Gladstone. "They gave their characters real traits, had them living in real cities - most in New York City. They had tremendous flaws and problems that you and I would face every day: getting to work on time, having a cold or flu, having a sick aunt."
"I do believe that what moviegoing audiences respond to is what the comic-book audience and the Marvel audience has responded to for decades. And that's relatable characters," says Kevin Feige, executive producer of "Fantastic Four" and most of the other Marvel movies. "There's a reason these characters have endured for 20, 30, 40 years. There are emotional elements that people connect with. The Marvel characters are infinitely more than their exterior design. They have an emotional core."
But Marvel hasn't always been on top. DC ruled the '70s and '80s with its initial Batman and Superman franchises, while for years Marvel years failed miserably to capitalize on its characters. The company was sometimes in financial straits (Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996), which led to a Hollywood fire sale on many of its properties. These ill-conceived deals spawned dreck like a 1989 Punisher movie starring Dolph Lundgren, David Hasselhoff as superspy Nick Fury and most legendarily of all, a 1994 Fantastic Four movie directed by schlockmeister Roger Corman. It was never released.
Not to mention a certain Howard the Duck, who laid a lead egg for Marvel in 1986 - one of that decade's biggest box-office debacles.
Although the quality of its movies has improved, Marvel still hasn't gotten out from under those bad deals. Years ago, the company licensed characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men to Sony and Fox, respectively, and those studios are reaping most of the rewards. According to Fortune, Fox grossed a combined $2 billion on the three X-Men movies. Marvel's take: just $26 million.
Marvel, however, recently formed its own studio, which will produce (and keep the profits from) "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk" and the loads of other films the studio has planned. Among their contenders are: "Ant Man," directed by Edgar Wright, the man behind "Hot Fuzz "Thor "Captain America," which will be set partly during World War II and partly in the present day; and, ultimately, "The Avengers," which will unite all these characters into a superteam.
"We definitely have the stories to keep these film franchises going for a long time," says Feige, who also guaranteed an "X-Men 4." "What shapes they take and what players are involved will always shift every three to four movies."
In other words, Spider-Man will be back, even if Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst aren't. And that'll probably be OK with fans - as long as no one hires George Clooney and gives the spider-suit nipples.
Pinsent, O'Hara among new stars on Canada's Walk of Fame
The stars came out in Toronto on Saturday — Catherine O'Hara, Gordon Pinsent and Jill Hennessy among them — to have their names immortalized on Canada's Walk of Fame in a glamorous annual event meant to celebrate the country's biggest cultural success stories.
"I promised myself I wouldn't start crying," Hennessy, dressed in a gold-coloured gown and accompanied by her twin, Jacqueline, said on the red carpet as fans shouted for her autograph.
"This is so meaningful because this country's given me so much. I am lucky to have been born here … I love the generosity and the humility and the talent of everybody here, and I wouldn't be where I am today without this country."
Seven stars were inducted into the Walk of Fame this year: Hennessy, O'Hara, Pinsent, rock band Nickelback, Maple Leaf goaltending legend Johnny Bower, Rick (Man in Motion) Hansen and CTV news anchor Lloyd Robertson, the first journalist to join the ranks. Hollywood film mogul Ivan Reitman, who was inducted in 2001, was also there to join the celebrations.
All were on hand on a brilliantly sunny afternoon in downtown Toronto to walk the red carpet and be honoured at a televised gala hosted by one of O'Hara's longtime pals, fellow SCTV alum Eugene Levy. The show airs on CTV on Sunday night.
"It's out of this world — his name's going to be permanently engraved in two cities," Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, said on the red carpet, referring to his father's star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
When Jason Reitman, director of last year's critically acclaimed Thank You For Smoking, was told he might one day join his father on Canada's Walk of Fame, he replied: "Doubtful. But you know, my last name's down there and that's enough for generations."
The celebrities themselves were just as star-struck in the presence of their fellow inductees as the fans who were cheering them from the sidelines outside the Hummingbird Centre.
"Catherine O'Hara is someone who I've always admired. I actually went to study at Second City in Toronto partially because of her," said Hennessy, the star of Law and Order and Crossing Jordan.
"And Gordon Pinsent is, I think, one of the best working actors today, and he should be much more acknowledged on an international scale. I think he will be and I think he's going to be nominated this year for Away from Her — I have had a premonition."
Pinsent, who was handed a white rose by a fan, returned the compliment to Hennessy, saying he "loved" the actress.
"I always thought that Jill was another kind of ambition of mine, but she's got her man with her," he quipped.
Leafs' legend Bower honoured
But all of the male inductees, including Pinsent, said they were most excited to hob-nob with Bower, who helped lead the Maple Leafs to three Stanley Cup victories in the 1960s.
"Johnny Bower — he played when we had Leafs, real Leafs," Pinsent said wistfully. "Johnny was a crucial part of it all."
Reitman recalled fondly taking in those winning Leafs.
"I remember watching the Maple Leafs with my father through the '60s when he was the great goalie," Reitman said.
Hansen agreed that meeting Bower, frail at 82, was a kick.
"On an emotional level as a kid growing up, you can't help but feel close to Johnny Bower. The Leafs and the [Boston] Bruins were my team and Johnny — he was there through all those Stanley Cup years when all of us looked at Canadian hockey in a really special way. He's a class guy, he really is."
Yoko Ono tells of last night with Lennon
LONDON (AP) — John Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment after deciding he wanted to return home to see his son rather than go out for dinner, Yoko Ono said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
"We were returning from the studio, and I said: 'Should we go and have dinner before we go home?' and John was saying, 'No, lets go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.' And it was like he wasn't sure if we would get home before he (Sean) went to sleep and he was concerned about that."
Ono, 74, the wife of the late Beatle, made the comment on "Desert Island Discs," the British Broadcasting Corp. radio program that interviews famous people and plays their favorite songs.
She said Lennon uttered no dying words when he was shot and killed by deranged fan Mark Chapman outside their Dakota apartment building in Manhattan on Dec. 8, 1980.
Ono also said that when she became pregnant with Sean shortly after the couple reunited in 1975 following a two-year separation, she let Lennon decide whether she should have the baby or abort it.
"I thought that I should let John decide whether to keep it or not. We'd just got back together and I became pregnant very soon, and I didn't know if it was the right moment to have a child. I just didn't want to burden him with something he didn't want," Ono said.
The songs Ono played on Sunday's show included Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" (about Sean); "Liverpool Lou," which was written by Scaffold, a Liverpool group that included Paul McCartney's brother, and "Magic," a song composed by Sean.
'Ocean's Thirteen' banks $37.1 million
LOS ANGELES - Audiences anted up for the Warner Bros. caper "Ocean's Thirteen," the third of George Clooney and Brad Pitt's casino-heist romps, which debuted as the top flick with $37.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, sank to second-place with $21.3 million, raising its domestic total to $253.6 million.
Sony's "Surf's Up," an animated adventure about surfing penguins featuring the voices of Shia LaBeouf and Jeff Bridges, debuted in fourth-place with $18 million. That was less than half the $41.5 million opening weekend of last fall's animated-penguin hit "Happy Feet."
"Surf's Up" earned good reviews, but audiences may have viewed it as a retread of "Happy Feet," which finished with nearly $200 million domestically and won the Academy Award for best animated feature.
Lionsgate's gory horror sequel "Hostel: Part II," about rich people who pay to kill victims in grisly ways, opened at No. 6 with $8.75 million, less than half the $19.6 million debut of last year's "Hostel."
The newcomers fell well short of the $60.1 million opening of the animated hit "Cars" over the same weekend last year. After a big summer start, Hollywood revenues dipped for the second-straight weekend, with the top-12 movies taking in $133.6 million, down 9 percent from the same weekend last year.
The three blockbusters that debuted in May — "Pirates of the Caribbean," DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third" and Sony's "Spider-Man 3" — all have trailed off with big drops in revenue after huge first weekends.
Collectively, the three movies will combine for about $1 billion in domestic receipts. But all three will finish well below the $400-million-plus haul each of their most-successful predecessors took in.
The latest installments on all three franchises earned mixed reviews, and they arrived amid arguably the most-competitive summer ever for Hollywood, with huge sequels and other big films arriving every weekend.
With "Spider-Man 3" edging toward $900 million worldwide and "At World's End" nearing $750 million, overseas revenues have far exceeded domestic receipts for both franchises. "Shrek the Third" is rolling out overseas gradually.
"It's really become an opening-weekend business, but with all the competition, in the long haul, they just don't have the legs that their predecessors did," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "Studios really have to rely on those worldwide grosses to make up the difference in the long run."
An exception is Universal's comedy "Knocked Up," which held up strongly in its second weekend with $20 million, coming in at No. 3 and raising its domestic total to $66.2 million. Critical praise and audience word of mouth sustained the film, which stars Katherine Heigl as a career woman who becomes pregnant from a one-night stand with a slacker (Seth Rogen).
"Ocean's Thirteen" reunites director Steven Soderbergh with Clooney, Pitt, Matt Damon and other cast members as the gang of thieves targets a casino owner ( Al Pacino) who double-crossed one of their own.
The sequel debuted slightly behind the opening weekends of 2001's "Ocean's Eleven" ($38.1 million) and 2004's "Ocean's Twelve" ($39.2 million).
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Ocean's Thirteen," $37.1 million.
2. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," $21.3 million.
3. "Knocked Up," $20 million.
4. "Surf's Up," $18 million.
5. "Shrek the Third," $15.75 million.
6. "Hostel: Part II," $8.75 million.
7. "Mr. Brooks," $5 million.
8. "Spider-Man 3," $4.4 million.
9. "Waitress," $1.65 million.
10. "Disturbia," $550,000.