Mark Wahlberg's agent has been very busy over the past week or so, it seems.

The recently signed star of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes made an appearance this morning on the syndicated radio show "Mancow's Morning Madhouse" out of Chicago in support of this weekend's The Perfect Storm. While speaking with the show's host, Eric "Mancow" Muller, Wahlberg confirmed that he'd signed up for Apes and had also signed to again star with George Clooney in the remake of Ocean's 11.

The big news, however, was Wahlberg's announcement that he'd also signed on to take over a project that used to have Clooney attached to it – Universal's recently fast tracked Green Hornet. Just last week action star Jet Li signed a huge contract to play Kato in the film. Universal has been working on the potential super hero franchise for several years, with little success. With two names like Wahlberg & Li attached, the new owners of Universal hope to have that thing that has eluded the studio for quite some time – more than one franchisable property to go with The Mummy.

Thanks to our radio listening reader BigV for the heads up!

-- The KJB just hopes they keep that great old Green Hornet title music.

A Warner Bros. release. A Baltimore Spring Creek Pictures Production in association with Radiant Productions. A Wolfgang Petersen Film. Produced by Paula Weinstein, Wolfgang Petersen, Gail Katz; Executive produced by Barry Levinson, Duncan Henderson; Screenplay by William Wittliff; based on the book by Sebastian Junger; Directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
Opens June 30, 2000 4 1/2 Stars [Out of 5]

A desperate crew takes out on a perilous mission in their well-worn vessel and challenges the forces of nature in this towering movie. Refreshingly, this time the distant destination is not in outer space but, rather, in the murderous waters of our very own land, off Gloucester, Massachusetts whose chilly tentacles have claimed more than 10,000 fisherman's lives since the town's birth in the early 17th century.

Based on Sebastian Junger's best-selling chronicle The Perfect Storm, this movie charts the horrifying weather convergence when titanic storm fronts collided under just the "right conditions" to produce what meteorologists, ironically, call "the perfect storm." Namely, it's a storm that couldn't possibly be any worse: hitting from above, below and every side.

Director Wolfgang Petersen and the master special effects crew at Industrial Light & Magic have charted new technological discoveries in this crushing colossus. In stark movie terms, The Perfect Storm may be called a special-effects movie in so far it is the re-creation of a monumental disaster, but, best of all, it is a human saga of everyday people whose struggles to survive and put food on their modest tables involves risking of their lives, This is no mere E-ride or roller coaster construction of yet another summer-event, products tie-in, lowest-common-denominator, buttered-popcorn, corporate extravaganza.

The center of this Storm lands on the hardscrabble crew of the Andrea Gail who fish for swordfish out of Gloucester. Captained by Billy Tyne (George Clooney), a salty but struggling captain who's on a dry streak in terms of his catches, the crew includes: Bobby a young man sunk by divorce lawyer debts and a new girlfriend; Murph, a man nearly capsized trying to support his ex-wife and kid; Alfred , an immigrant Jamaican; Bugsy, a lonely local, and Sully, a temperamental bounder. Like men on a mission in a war movie or outer space trek, their personal desperation is their common ground.

Stripped of its cutting-edge movie effects and computer technology, The Perfect Storm is the classic story of man reaching beyond human boundaries in order to survive, a classic tale of hubris where Captain Billy and his crew defy the gods by going where no man is supposed to go. In Greek mythological terms, it's Daedalus defying Zeus by flying too close to the sun and, in this tale, this fishermen's hubris is not whether they will soar too close and crash and burn but, rather, will these boatmen sail too far and drown.

The essential yarn is as flinty and spare as a New England, autumn day: Each man must take to the sea one last time to bring in the haul that will insure his survival for the winter. Like a standard horror film, we hear early warnings: The local wisdom says the seas are too rough in October. With that refrain rusting in their ears, Captain Billy and his motley mates head out past the lighthouse into the beckoning and embracing waves.

With the ripples and colors of the waters, director Wolfgang Petersen clues us to the story horizon. Combining William Wittliff's subtle and sharp story constructions, reeled in around the men's lives and their desperation, we soon see that they are soon out of their depths. And, like a good horror film, Petersen lets us know that there is an indeed a big monster, yay, three monsters on the horizons, all-converging to a point where, alas, the tiny boat is headed.

As the boat approaches the forbidden Flemish Cap, the area where no sailor dares to go at the time of year, the fury of the sea gods is hellacious. Truly, the last 15 minutes of this movie is what everyone is going to be talking about, and for those of us who only deign to stick our toes in the ocean once in a kindly moon, it will probably take a while to even embark into an outdoor Jacuzzi.

It's a staggering, groundbreaking movie experience, including raging mountains of 100-foot waves. Industrial Light & Magic's crew of computer graphics artists, buoyed by cutting-edge developments in their team members' software design, has put us in the eye of a storm that no one has ever emerged from before. With the largest team of technical directors ever assembled for a non sci-fi film, The Perfect Storm should be the next Matrix at the Oscars, sweeping the technical awards with hands-down unanimity.

While it's certainly a credit to screenwriter William Wittliff and Petersen that the story never lulls or drifts, including story crosscuts to a Boston meteorologist charting the storm, there is a subplot that seems to come out of nowhere. Although it is exciting - a private yacht suffers similar torment in another part of the storm - it's somewhat superfluous. Overall,. The Perfect Storm is a stirring, seamless blend of storytelling and special effects: for once, the effects don't capsize the human dimension, a credit to both the scrappy performances and Petersen's helmsmanship.

As the crew's captain, Clooney is charismatic enough to lure men into deeper straits than they've ever sailed, and he's also hell-bent enough to, literally and figuratively, get into water over his head. With his three-day stubble and sparkling eyes, he's eminently credible as the kind of guy who convinces men to follow him.

The crew is a well-chosen lot, and although they're physically as well as emotionally a representative story group, they are full-fleshed, credible characters. They're rough and sympathetic and, again, much more embracing than the drips and dweebs who fly into outer space in the geek universe of sci-fi. As a hangdog lifer, John C. Reilly is particularly sympathetic, while William Fichtner is also perfectly cast as a chilly, loose cannon on this slippery deck.

Captain Petersen and his all-star technical team, including cinematographer John Seale, in particular, seem headed straight for Oscar nominations. Seale's rhythmic scopings, including shots as shattering as a blast of cold water, as well as distant shadings of soft and malevolent seascapes, lull and rock us with just the right emotional ebb-tides.

It's not just a towering visual experience, but The Perfect Storm is also swelled by composer James Horner's drenched, corrosive sounds. Another picky quibble: There is no identifiable leitmotif to the score, like the haunting refrain from Petersen's Das Boot when those U-boat sailors sensed the seas turning against them.

As a popcorn movie with a lot of boxoffice ballast to tow, The Perfect Storm is about as perfect as you can get on the summer, movie seas. 

The Perfect Storm is being whipped about with tempestuous reviews from some critics and buoyant ones from others. Virtually all of the reviews, however, praise the film's special effects. Debra Jo Immergut writes in the Wall Street Journal: "For an hour and a half, we're pretty convinced we're going into the drink. It's gripping, it's exhausting -- if you're prone to seasickness, it's almost an ordeal." But Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer also notes: "The problem with The Perfect Storm is that while its roiling collision of weather systems is pulled off with cinematic deftness, the actors who stand there getting lashed and splashed don't have anything terribly interesting to say." On the other hand, Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times takes this tack: The Perfect Storm has noticeable problems with characterization and dialogue. But once that awesome storm, one of the most terrifying ever put on film, gets cranked up, it's hard to remember what those difficulties were, let alone care too much about them." Lou Lumenick's review in the New York Post is positively awash with praise. "This is one perfectly terrifying movie, an instant classic," he writes in the opening of his review. He closes it with "The Perfect Storm is a see-worthy epic in the same league as Jaws and Titanic." Also blown away by the film is Rick Groen, the film critic for the Toronto Globe & Mail. "Finally, the first really good film of the summer," he writes. "The Perfect Storm may fall shy of perfection, but it gets a damn sight closer than any of the hot-weather rivals to date." However, the film takes a battering from Susan Wloszczyna in USA Today. "So much water. Such a dramatic washout," she writes. 

On Halloween 1991, something truly scary went bump in the night off the New England coast.

Three major storm centres converged off the Grand Banks, creating the worst storm this century.

The Perfect Storm chronicles the terrifying might of this weather system and how humans fought valiantly to survive its pounding waves.

It is a powerful, engrossing film that puts its audiences in the very eye of the storm -- and it proves a harrowing experience.

The event is seen through the eyes of the crew of a fishing boat called The Andrea Gail.

Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney) failed to bring in a suitable catch, so he rounded up his crew and headed back out to try one more time before winter settled in.

He sailed past the Grand Banks to the Flemish Cap, where the catch exceeded even his expectations.

Tyne and his crew knew a storm was brewing and that they should wait it out, but their refrigeration system shut down.

Only by trying to outrun the storm could they hope to reap the benefits of their toil.

Whether their decision was courageous or foolhardy is left up to the audience.

The Andrea Gail was not alone in the storm that night. There was a holiday boat with three people aboard and several large tankers. The rescue mission for the holiday boat is incredibly intense as a helicopter crew risks their lives to save the stranded trio.

The computer-generated effects are terrifyingly realistic.

The Perfect Storm is more than special effects and awesome waves.

Director Wolfgang Petersen and screenwriter Bill Wittliff have been careful to create characters the audience can obsess over once they become trapped at sea.

There is an arrogance to Clooney's captain, but it's clear he is thinking as much about his crew's financial welfare as his own when he sets out on the dangerous mission.

Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane provide the film with a touching love story. The waves only intensify their longing for each other.

John C. Reilly turns Murph, the boat's second mate, into a big bear of a man with a heart as large as the chest that holds it.

As the socially inept Bugsy, John Hawkes provides much of the film's comic relief.

The film wisely does not plunge the crew or the audience into the storm too quickly.

It's always somewhere in the distance waiting to wreak havoc, but there are plenty of taut adventures before it does.

As one point, a foreboding wave tosses a shark onto the deck of the boat and a careless move causes a fisherman to be pulled overboard with the bait rope.

These are teaser traumas that only hint at what's in store once the storm arrives.

The Perfect Storm is a great action film that didn't need James Horner's melodramatic score to get the audience swept up into the adventure of a lifetime. 

Cinematically speaking, The Perfect Storm is an arranged marriage. It's a romance-cum-disaster movie in the vein of Titanic, coupled with the bad-weather spectacle of Twister.

Twister was a huge surprise hit (a surprise because it essentially sucked), and Titanic was the ultimate number one blockbuster of all time. It stands to reason that The Perfect Storm will thus be a designated guaranteed monster smash hit.

And so it could be ... except that it suffers inadequacies as formidable as 30-metre waves.

Problem No. 1 is that it's based on a true story but, unlike Titanic, it doesn't have the buffer of fictional characters in the foreground.

Among the Hollywood stars playing real people are George Clooney as fishing boat captain Billy Tyne and Mark Wahlberg as his underling Bobby Shatford.

Tyne is suffering an unlucky streak and hasn't been bringing in enough fish to pay the rent. So, he and a few crewmembers decide to brave the volatile seas off New England in October for one last trip.

It's a decision heavy with consequence. Bobby's girlfriend Christina (Diane Lane) fears for his safety. Billy's girlfriend and fellow captain Linda (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is likewise concerned. Good reason.

Unable to make a catch off the Grand Banks, Billy steers his vessel, the Andrea Gail, farther out to the Flemish Cap. The fish are there. But between the boat and home boils three separate storm systems, which will unite to form what my press kit assures me is the greatest, fiercest storm in modern history.

The Perfect Storm's centrepiece -- and the reason why audiences will pay good money to see it -- is the climactic scenes showing the Andrea Gail being tossed around the ocean like a bath toy sharing the tub with a hyperactive three-year-old.

These are mostly impressive scenes, a combination of impressive digital effects and actual footage of offscreen grips aiming water cannons at actors.

Yet, with all the money on the screen, the seams of digital animation technology still show, particularly in a scene in which Tyne has to cut a deadly flying anchor loose from the ship. Clooney -- or his digital stand-in -- looks rather less authentic than Faye Wray in the grip of King Kong.

One can't accuse director Wolfgang Petersen (an expert in creating high-seas tension from his work on Das Boot) of ignoring the painstaking character development of Sebastian Junger's bestselling book, upon which the movie is based. Petersen demonstrates enough respect for the material that he doesn't cut immediately to the storm after a few expository scenes. He makes an attempt to let the audience get to know the men in peril.

But we can't bite. Wahlberg and his Boogie Nights buddy John C. Reilly may be able to pull off the working class hero thing as Andrea Gail's crewmen. George Clooney cannot. A scene in which Clooney describes the joys of being a fishing boat captain to Mastrantonio is a particularly false moment -- it sounds like an actor doing a dramatic reading of Hemingway and not the conversation between two intimate friends.

Petersen, a technically skilled director, frequently overestimates just how much melodrama an audience can take. License could be given for the cornball dialogue and overwrought dramatics in, say, Titanic because the hero and heroine were inventions of the filmmaker.

But in a movie about a real disaster befalling real people, a more realistic approach to the characters would have been appreciated. For all The Perfect Storm professes to be a tribute to the brave men and women fishing the seas, it feels a lot more like the product of Hollywood producers sailing in the waters of the Titanic, ruthlessly trawling for audiences. 

On Halloween in 1991, three furious weather fronts met over the Atlantic Ocean. United, they formed what seafaring locals would come to call "The Halloween Storm". To the U.S. National Weather Bureau and Environment Canada, this "perfect storm" would be the most powerful and volatile tempest in modern history. A major low front over Nova Scotia encountered a dissipating Hurricane Grace and another low pressure system creating a storm that lasted for four straight days causing widespread destruction along the east coast of North America from Florida all the way to Newfoundland.

Beaches were pummeled. Docks and wharves, leveled. Seaside towns felt the storm's sting. Roads flooded. Homes and business were battered. Unaware of what was happening around them, the crew of the Andrea Gail - a New England swordfishing boat - found themselves in the storm's clutches battling waves over one hundred feet high.

A Perfect Storm, is their heroic story.

The film is based on the best-selling 1998 book by Sebastian Junger, a freelance journalist who recreated the courageous struggle of the Andrea Gail and introduced many to the fascinating lifestyle lead by the seafaring folk of Gloucester, Massachusetts, who rely on the fishing industry for their livelihood.

Bill Whittliff's screenplay centers on the captain of the Andrea Gail, Billy Tyne (George Clooney), and the crewman he's closest to, Bobby Shatford (Mark Wahlberg). Though he is still inexperienced, Tyne sees Shatford as a natural so he takes on the role of his mentor. Tyne, himself, has had a run of very bad luck lately returning from his expeditions with barely enough catch to pay his men. The bossman ain't smiling.

Unintentionally putting the boots to Tyne's ego is rival captain Linda Greenlaw (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Compared to her plentiful hauls, Tyne's are an embarrassment. Determined to beat her or die trying, Tyne assembles a crew for one final trip of the season. Against the wishes of his girlfriend (Diane Lane), Shatford signs on for what he promises will be his last fishing expedition. Shatford seizes the opportunity to make enough to pay off that nagging divorce lawyer that's hounding him and maybe still have some dough left over for their new life together.

Rounding out the crew are colourful characters in Dale "Murph" Murphy (John C. Reilly), Alfred Pierre (Allen Payne), Bugsy (John Hawkes) and Sully (William Fichtner).

Obsessed with redeeming himself, Tyne convinces his men to sail beyond their regular fishing territory to the fabled Felmish Cap, where he believes there's enough swordfish to offset his poor performance all season. The National Weather Bureau issues a warning about the perilous disturbance that's forming. The fishermen don't realize the danger they are in until The Halloween Storm is bearing down upon them with all of its lethal force.

Three Kings cohorts George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg work their magic again in The Perfect Storm. The Clooney-playing-big brother-to-Wahlberg device comes off as genuine and as well it should. The two are pals off the camera and the mutual admiration shows through solidifying their chemistry together. We're pulling for these guys to get home safe and their familiar kinship has everything to do with that.

Once perceived as a boob tube pretty boy, Clooney continues his wise choice of feature film roles which have established him as a credible leading man. Maybe he could share some of his wisdom with one David Caruso, the cast of Saturday Night Live or his castmate, Diane Lane. Lane is so inconsistent as Wahlberg's love interest that her overacting spoils key moments. Maybe it was the sappy dialogue. Maybe Lane is too strong an individual to play such a vulnerable person. Whatever the case, she's the movie's weak link.

Director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Airforce One) has remained true to Junger's descriptions in his book by shooting the film in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and giving us a peek into the rich personalities and ambiance of the renown fishing port and home to the Andrea Gail. With its stately lighthouse, wind-whipped shores and picturesque coastline distinctively captured by Academy Award-winning cinematographer John Seale (The English Patient), it would be no surprise if Gloucester's tourism industry experiences an unexpected boom.

Everything that transpires in The Perfect Storm rides on the depiction of the storm itself. Afterall, it's the real star of the picture. Petersen understood that no diminutive air jets in a wave pool buffeting small-scale models to and fro were going to get the job done. He had to impress upon us how truly humbling this storm was. Stefen Fangmeier's team at Industrial Light And Magic and marine coordinator Doug Merrifield and his squad did just that. The sights and sounds of The Halloween Storm are staggering. It is fearsome. It is awesome. It's as scary as hell.

Before they ship out, Petersen has us spending lots of time with the crew as they party-hardy, confront their estranged wives, play with their children and discuss their trials and tribulations. The connection is there. We care about these big, hook-swinging, thoughtful, daring lugs who despite their differences, must work as a team. They have no choice. Their jobs and even their lives depend on it.

We admire the everyday heroes in The Perfect Storm. They are good, hard-working men. We invest ourselves emotionally and Petersen shrewdly cashes in on that when the going gets tough. The war of survival they waged honours how mighty the human spirit can be when faced with insurmountable odds. Us landlubbers, leave with not only a greater appreciation for what they went through but also a better understanding of what it's like to call the sea and oceans your home.

The Powell Factor

The kicking storm x one fishing hook through the hand x one Coast Guard rescue x Clooney for saying: "The next time I fish the Grand Banks, they won't be so grand any more." x swordfish get hooked but good - Diane Lane + Chris McDonald for saying: "It would be a disaster of the greatest proportions. It would be the perfect storm." - some over-the-top moments = a fitting tribute.

The Perfect Storm -- a big, bloated, Hollywood extravaganza -- is so far from ranking as a perfect movie that a tsunami couldn't sweep it into the history books as a classic.

Despite a quality cast led by quipster George Clooney and brooding Mark Wahlberg, the characters are lame, their dialogue howlingly banal and the waterfront romances cliched.

But don't panic. Thanks to computer imaging, miniatures and an ocean of testosterone, Wolfgang Petersen's movie whips up one perfect hell of a storm to toss around Clooney's swordfish boat. That would be the Andrea Gail of Gloucester, Mass., which bobs about at the movie's epicentre.

So leave your brain flopping at the wharf and go fishin' because this thriller's an adrenalin rush. The Perfect Storm seems headed to a huge box-office success.

Adapted from Sebastian Junger's book by Bill Wittliff, a specialist in macho-men scripts, The Perfect Storm is based on actual events which took place in the waters off New England and Newfoundland in October of 1991.

The real names of the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail are used, led by Clooney's Cpt. Billy Tyne, and no composite characters are invented. The Halloween storm depicted here really was "the storm of the century."

As played out in the Petersen movie, however, any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental. The Perfect Storm sounds so trumped up, that it's impossible to believe anything you see or hear, especially at the climax.

It really hurts the film that the intro is so awful. We meet the key players as they come home from a lousy outing. One by one, we discover each man's melodramatic story. Not for a second do we give a toss about any one of them. Cold fish all.

In any case, because he is tortured by failure, Cpt. Tyne takes the Andrea Gail out once again, despite the uncertain weather patterns on the Grand Banks in late October.

Sure enough, they run into problems. So do men from the U.S. Coast Guard, uniformly depicted as extraordinarily selfless heroes in this movie (The Perfect Storm is almost a perfect recruiting film). Petersen cuts back and forth between the Andrea Gail and the Coast Guard crews. Eventually, their stories cross in the middle of hell on the high seas.

At the same time, the film includes gag-me scenes back in the fishermen's favourite bar in Gloucester. Women-folk (led by Diane Lane and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), kids, old men and the Andrea Gail's mean-spirited owner (Michael Ironside) hash out their anxieties together over beer.

Meanwhile, Petersen lays on 'big drama' music composed by James Horner. If any member of the audience is stupid enough not to 'get' what's going on as the storm threatens to swamp our heroes, Horner is there with the music cues.

In the end, it's hard to believe that The Perfect Storm was made by the same director who once did the stunning submarine-themed war film Das Boot. Petersen, despite access to a special effects budget that let him create the storm, seems to have lost touch with the human element that made his sub film so subtle, so powerful. Das Fishing Boot is Hollywood hokum.

In the July Issue of GQ, Peter Richmond accurately captured the little boy behind the sometimes tough facade of Mark Wahlberg. This is an excellent, broody profile of one of the more intriguing young actors on the scene today.

Wahlberg's co-star in "the Perfect Storm," Diane Lane, also defines Mark's appeal when she discusses hhis "duality" - sweet, sensitive, articulate, yearning on one side, an angry foul-mouthed street kid on the other.

Fourth focus: Depending on your point of view, by July Fourth the summer is either half over or half the summer is still ahead of us.

Either way, Hollywood must get the most out of the remaining summer weeks or there's no chance of even coming close to last year's record setting summer. Since most summers bring sleeper surprises, there certainly could be another "Sixth Sense" or "Blair Witch Project" coming our way in July or August. But for now, all eyes will be watching this weekend's grosses as they lead up to July Fourth itself, next Tuesday. Understandably, there are high hopes for Columbia and Centropolis Entertainment's R rated "The Patriot," which arrived Wednesday at 3,061 theaters, Warner Bros.' PG-13 rated "The Perfect Storm," opening today at 3,407 theaters and Universal's PG rated "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle," kicking off today at about 2,500 theaters.

In its first skirmishes with moviegoers Wednesday, "Patriot" grossed an estimated $5 million, averaging $1,633 per theater. It may not have broken records for a Wednesday launch, but it's still encouraging in view of its R rating, long-running time (about 2 hours 40 minutes) and the fact that it's a period piece drama and an original rather than a youth appeal action adventure sequel. Its R rating, of course, restricts its audience to those 17 and older. It's typically younger teens who are available to rush to see mid-week openings. Because adults are working midweek, it won't be until the weekend that most of them have the time to see a movie.

"I think it's a very good start," Sony Pictures Releasing president Jeff Blake told me Thursday morning. "It was just about double anything else in the market last night. 'Chicken Run' and 'Me, Myself & Irene' did about $2.5 million (apiece). We did about a third of the business there was to be had last night, so we think it's a good start of great things to come."

Comparisons can be made that show bigger Wednesday summer openings like "Wild Wild West" with $7.1 million or "Armageddon" with $9.7 million, but such comparisons can be misleading. "You've got to deal in the market you're in, too," Blake pointed out. "It depends how close the holiday is. There's all sorts of factors. Sometimes you end up comparing apples to oranges. The way I look at it is, 'What's the business to be had?' We got a third of it and twice what anybody else got. Certainly, if that proportion stays the same each day, we're going to be in awfully good shape as the market expands."

The dynamics of the July Fourth weekend boxoffice involve not only the films in the marketplace, but also the day of the week on which the Fourth falls and what the weather happens to be that day. The more picnics that get rained out in the original 13 Colonies, the happier Hollywood will be. With July Fourth falling on a Tuesday this year, business in general should benefit from not having to compete with the distractions of the holiday on a weekend day.

"I guess you could say 'Armageddon' had a great Wednesday, but a rotten Saturday," Blake laughed, referring to that film's opening in 1998 when July Fourth fell on a Saturday. Clearly, the holiday cut deeply into the film's Saturday business. Although the Buena Vista release did $36.1 million over the weekend and had a five-day cume of $54.2 million, insiders speculated at the time that it had opened soft and would be in trouble. Of course, that didn't turn out to be the case. "Armageddon" went on to gross $201.6 million in domestic theaters and $352.2 million internationally for a worldwide cume of $553.8 million.

Where "Patriot" is marching is tough to predict based only on Wednesday's ticket sales. "Sometimes you see a pattern and other times you need to get to the (computer) each night to see what actually happened," Blake said. "I'm anxious to get there each night because I think it's all going to be good. As far as how it's going to play out over the course of these seven days, I think it's going to be a surprise each day. Are we going to drop (on Thursday) as would usually be the case? I'm not so sure, as we get closer to the holiday weekend. How good is Friday going to be once 'Perfect Storm' opens? Does it electrify the whole market that you've got two pictures like this in the market? I hope so.

"Normally, you would say, 'Okay, R rated may not go up so much Saturday,' but maybe not. Maybe this one has a lot of adult appeal, as well, and will go up a lot on Saturday. Certainly, Sunday should be great. Monday should be great because it's a semi-holiday. But how much of a holiday is it, really? Any time you use the word 'semi' it's not a 100% holiday. July Fourth normally is a down day, but for this movie (with its story revolving around the American Revolution) maybe it won't be. "

Going into the weekend, insiders said "Patriot" was a star-spangled first choice with an overall 26% first choice tracking score. "Storm" was a 21% first choice. That's an even more impressive number when you remember that "Patriot" has the advantage in tracking research of having a superstar in Mel Gibson, whose movies people typically say they intend to see. "Rocky & Bullwinkle," which combines live action (Rene Russo, Jason Alexander and Robert De Niro) with computer animation, was a 20% first choice in tracking with parents who were planning to take their children to see a movie this weekend.

Besides the three new arrivals, there should be top five business for two holdovers -- 20th Century Fox's R rated Jim Carrey comedy "Me, Myself & Irene," which opened in first place last weekend to $24.2 million, and DreamWorks' G rated animated feature "Chicken Run," which opened a strong second last weekend to $17.5 million. Encouraged by that opening, DreamWorks is beefing up "Chicken's" run this weekend by adding nearly 350 more theaters.

With this potential strength in the marketplace and with the holiday, itself, nicely positioned on Tuesday, Hollywood has a good chance at establishing a new record for a July Fourth weekend.

The present record was set last year when July Fourth fell on a Sunday and 18 key films -- those grossing at least $500,000 for the four days -- took in $160.4 million. Leading the pack was Warner Bros.' kick off of "Wild Wild West" with $36.4 million and a six-day cume of $49.7 million. It was followed by Sony's "Big Daddy" ($26.8 million), Buena Vista's "Tarzan" ($19.3 million), Paramount's opening of its R rated animated feature "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" ($14.8 million and a six day cume of $23.1 million) and Paramount's "The General's Daughter" ($14.2 million).

As important as July Fourth weekend will be to Hollywood, there's a lot more summer yet to come. "I don't think the summer's half over," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco told me. "The summer, to me, doesn't begin until kids are out of school and you get big weekday numbers. We're first starting to get big weekday numbers. You don't have that in May because most kids are in school and most parents aren't vacationing in May. To me, the summer's not half over until mid-July. I always break the summer down into June, July and August. May is great because we can release high-profile films. We all say summer begins in May, but technically it doesn't because you don't get those great mid-week figures. You can't generate (a $5 million opening like 'Patriot's") in the middle of May on a Wednesday, but you can at this time."

Looking ahead, Rocco said, she's "very optimistic. I think the jury is still out, but I am optimistic. I think there will be a lot of surprises."

No one can say for sure what those surprises will be, but quite a few possibilities come to mind looking at release schedules for the balance of the summer. Dimension Films' "Scary Movie" teen horror comedy spoof, opening July 7, is a possible sleeper. Fox has a big potential sci-fi action adventure in "The X-Men," opening July 14, with a potentially big new star in Hugh Jackman. DreamWorks' supernatural thriller "What Lies Beneath," directed by Robert Zemeckis and opening July 21, teams up two high profile stars in Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Universal and Imagine Entertainment's Eddie Murphy sequel "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps," opening July 28, is one to keep an eye on. Buena Vista's teen appeal romantic comedy "Coyote Ugly" from producer Jerry Bruckheimer is a possible sleeper, opening Aug. 4. Warner Bros.' sci-fi action adventure "Space Cowboys," directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones and James Garner, lands in theaters Aug. 4, a slot that Warners has done well with over the years with films like "The Fugitive" and "Unforgiven." Fox's comedy "Bedazzled," directed by Harold Ramis and starring Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley," opens Aug. 11 and is said to be very funny.

Paramount's supernatural thriller "Bless the Child," directed by Charles Russell ("The Mask") and produced by Mace Neufeld ("The Omen"), stars starring Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits and opens Aug. 11. Could it be this summer's "Sixth Sense?" Warners' football theme comedy "The Replacements," directed by Howard Deutch and starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman, opens Aug. 11 and is already generating a strong buzz. And there's also word that New Line's Jennifer Lopez sci-fi thriller "The Cell," opening Aug. 18, is very scary.

Depending on how audiences respond to these and other films now on deck, will determine where the summer of 2000 winds up in Hollywood's history books. Competing with last summer and its powerhouse of hits -- including blockbusters like "Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace," "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" and "The Sixth Sense" -- certainly isn't easy, but at this point it's still too early to concede defeat. As they say, it's not over 'till it's over.

Looking back at July Fourth weekend

Looking back over the last decade, it's clear that July Fourth boxoffice fireworks have become increasingly spectacular. Last year (see above for details) the marketplace for key films added up to a record setting weekend total of $160.4 million. In 1998, when July Fourth was on a Saturday, 17 key films grossed $103.7 million. Buena Vista's "Armageddon" opening was number one ($36.1 million and a five-day cume of $54.2 million). On its heels were Fox's "Dr. Dolittle" ($19.7 million), Buena Vista's "Mulan" ($11.5 million), Universal's "Out of Sight" ($6.6 million) and Fox's "The X-Files" ($6.3 million).

In 1997 July Fourth was on a Friday. There were 14 key films with a combined gross of $116.8 million. Sony's "Men in Black" opening topped the chart with $51.1 million and a six-day cume of $84.1 million. It was followed by Paramount's "Face/Off" ($16.1 million), Buena Vista's "Hercules" ($12.2 million), Sony's "My Best Friend's Wedding" ($10.8 million) and Warners' "Batman and Robin" ($8.0 million).

July Fourth fell on a Thursday in 1996. A dozen key films took in $121 million for the three-day weekend. Fox's "Independence Day" opening dominated with $50.2 million and a six-day cume of $96.1 million. On its heels were Universal's "The Nutty Professor" ($17.5 million), Buena Vista's opening of "Phenomenon" ($16.2 million and a five-day cume of $24.5 million), Buena Vista's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" ($8.9 million) and Warners' "Eraser" ($8.8 million).

In 1995 July Fourth was on a Tuesday, as it is this year. There were 14 key films with a combined gross of $102.8 million. Universal's "Apollo 13" launch topped the chart with $25.4 million, followed by Buena Vista's "Pocahontas" ($16 million), Warners' "Batman Forever" ($15.3 million), Fox's opening of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" ($13.1 million) and Buena Vista's opening of "Judge Dredd" ($12.3 million).

1994 saw July Fourth fall on a Monday. There were 19 key films with a combined gross of $110.1 million. Buena Vista's "The Lion King" placed first with $34.2 million, followed by Universal's opening of "The Shadow" ($11.7 million), Fox's "Speed" ($11.2 million), MGM's "Blown Away" opening ($10.4 million) and Buena Vista's "I Love Trouble" launch ($7.8 million for four days and a six-day cume of $10 million).

In 1993 July Fourth was on a Sunday. Seventeen key films took in a total of $124.3 million. Paramount's opening of "The Firm" was No. 1 with $32.5 million and a six-day cume of $45.6 million. It was followed by Universal's "Jurassic Park" ($25.3 million), Sony's "Sleepless in Seattle" ($16.1 million), Warners' "Dennis the Menace" ($10.1 million) and Buena Vista's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" ($9 million).

1992's July Fourth fell on a Saturday. Fourteen key films combined to gross $72.7 million. Warners' "Batman Returns" topped the chart with $13.8 million, followed by Sony's opening of "A League of Their Own" ($13.7 million and a five-day cume of $19.1 million), Paramount's "Boomerang" launch ($13.6 million and a five-day cume of $19.6 million), Buena Vista's "Sister Act" ($6.8 million) and Fox's "Unlawful Entry" ($6.5 million).

July Fourth was on a Thursday in 1991. There were 14 key films whose total gross was $88 million. TriStar's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" opened in first place with $31.8 million and a six-day cume of $52.3 million. It was followed by Paramount's "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" ($11.6 million), Warners' "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" ($10.3 million), Columbia's "City Slickers" ($8.2 million) and Universal's "Problem Child" opening ($5.4 million and a five-day cume of $7.6 million).

In 1990 July Fourth fell on a Wednesday. Fourteen key films grossed a total of $66 million with Paramount's "Days of Thunder" opening in first place ($15.5 million and a five-day cume of $21.5 million). Also in the top five were Buena Vista's "Dick Tracy" ($10.1 million), Orion's "Robocop 2" ($6.4 million), TriStar's "Total Recall" ($6 million) and Paramount's "Another 48 HRS" ($5.4 million).

GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- Is Mark Wahlberg the most underrated actor in America?

Sure, it's taken him only six years to make the transition from novelty rapper and underwear-model to the star of movies such as "Boogie Nights," "Three Kings" and the new "Perfect Storm," which opens today in area theaters.

But on occasion, the Artist Formerly Known As Marky Mark doesn't get the respect he deserves, even from his fellow actors. On the set of the upcoming "The Yards," for instance, Wahlberg had an interesting encounter with co-star Faye Dunaway.

"The one time Faye deigned to talk to me, she said, 'My son is going to do what you do.' So I'm thinking he's going to become an actor," relates Wahlberg. "And then she says, 'What goes on in that modeling world of yours? Are there drugs at photo shoots?'"

Wahlberg laughs at the memory of being dissed by the diva Dunaway. But he's not out to rock the boat. He understands where his critics are coming from.

"I remember when I started out, people didn't shun the idea of me being an actor -- they laughed out loud," he says during an interview at the location where eight months earlier he filmed parts of "The Perfect Storm." "That was OK. I used that. I didn't set out to prove them wrong. I just set out to prove myself right."

With the exception of Dunaway, Wahlberg is popular amongst his co-stars.

After working with Wahlberg in "Three Kings," George Clooney cast the actor in two movies he's producing -- the heavy metal musical "Metal God" and "Ocean's Eleven," a remake of the Rat Pack caper comedy.

Clooney also talked "Perfect Storm" director Wolfgang Peterson ("Das Boot") into looking at dailies from "Three Kings." No sooner did Petersen see the footage than he wanted Wahlberg on board "The Perfect Storm."

Sebastian Junger, who wrote the non-fiction best-seller on which the movie is based, can't think of another actor who could have done a better job portraying Bobby Shatford, a fisherman on the brink of starting a new life with his devoted girlfriend (Diane Lane).

"Mark Wahlberg is a plausible fisherman and that means everything to me," says Junger. "When he was in Gloucester, he blended in with the locals. I liked George as the captain, but he's too good looking to be plausible as anything but an actor. But Mark was absolutely authentic."

Lane is another Wahlberg fan. "As soon as I met Mark, I was impressed by his freedom and honesty," enthuses the actress. "On the set, I heard from the other actors about how they were all getting ill from being tossed about the decks of ships. All I had to do was make out with Mark. Nice work if you can get it."

If Wahlberg has a signature, it's bringing a shot of soulfulness to characters who might otherwise seem like junkyard dogs. In "Basketball Diaries," he humanized a drug-addicted drop-out. In "Traveler," he brought an aura of innocence to a small-time grifter. And in "Boogie Nights," he made audiences believe that a pill-popping porn god was, underneath it all, a misguided kid.

Wahlberg works similar magic in "The Perfect Storm," which unreels the true-life tale of a boat full of down-on-their-luck Gloucester fishermen who go up against a freak storm and lose their lives. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Karen Allen and Cherry Jones co-star in the movie.

While Wahlberg has always been a hard worker, "The Perfect Storm" brought out the method actor in him. He's a native of Dorcester, which is a mere 40 miles from Gloucester, but the actor decided to spend time in the small fishing village in order to absorb the atmosphere.

He arrived in town nearly three months before filming commenced. He moved into Bobby's old room above the Crow's Nest, a dive bar where the town's fishermen converge. He spent hours talking to Bobby's mother, brother and girlfriend.

"I wanted to reach out to Bobby's mom, in particular," says Wahlberg of Ethel Shatford, who is now deceased. "The movie touches very sensitive issues. This tragedy happened less than a decade ago. Bobby's family opened up to me and wanted to share as much as they could. I never met Bobby and I said I wouldn't do an imitation. I just wanted to be a real guy from this town."

Petersen was shocked at the degree of Wahlberg's dedication. "Mark wanted so much to be a fisherman that he slept at the Crow's Nest in an awful, tiny room," recalls the filmmaker. "He was drinking a lot with the boys in the bar. He was smoking three packs of cigarettes a day and not taking good care of himself."

At one point during production, Wahlberg developed an ear infection after a protective ear piece got blasted into his ear drum. Among the cast and crew, he was also seasick the most, sometimes throwing up as many 40 times a day.

Of his 113 shooting days, Wahlberg estimates he was wet for at least 85 of them. "All the dry stuff took half an hour to shoot and then it was about being in the tank," he recalls of the movie, which was shot in Gloucester and on a Warner Bros. soundstage where a 20-foot-deep tank was constructed.

"I didn't mind being wet except the water was freezing cold and it was shot at you by these water cannons," says Wahlberg. "So you had 3,000 pounds of pressure blasting 30,000 gallons of water on your head."

There was nothing Wahlberg could do to prepare for the scene in which a mechanical shark chomps on his leg. Problems arose when the actor noticed that the animatronic beast with the razor-blade sharp teeth was being operated by a special-effects guy on another boat.

"I put my leg in the shark's mouth and Wolfgang was going, 'Put your foot in a little more.' So I get it in and then they power up the mouth and it closes about a half-inch more. I was screaming to them on the other boat, and Wolfgang says, 'Great, great! My God, Mark is so believable!' I said, 'Wolfgang, the thing almost ripped my leg in half.'"

By the end of shooting, the movie had taken its toll on Wahlberg. "There's a moment in the movie when I started to cry and Wolfgang said, 'Is that a choice you made as an actor?' I said, 'No I'm really crying.' I was just so drained. It just happened."

Despite the blood, sweat and tears, Wahlberg believes all the effort was worthwhile. In many ways, the role of Bobby Shatford hit closest to home with him. "I identified with Bobby so much," he says. "In Gloucester, 90 percent of the kids grow up and jump on a fishing boat. It's not like they have many options.

"It's the same thing in my neighborhood, although I'd rather fish than sell drugs. I had a rough upbringing. I'd be working with my hands if I didn't do this. My dad, who's a teamster and a truck driver, loved the movie because it's about guys like him. It's about working men."

Wahlberg fancied himself a rebel when he was growing up as one of eight siblings in a blue-collar household in Dorcester. "My whole thing in being a tough guy was to survive my hood," he now says. "Once I did that, I could breathe easy."

He almost didn't make it out. In 1985, at the age of 15, he was sentenced to 45 days in jail for assault after an argument broke out in a bar. It was a turning point for Wahlberg. In prison, he began lifting weights. When he was released, he started hanging out in the gym instead of on the streets.

With the help of his brother Donnie, then a member of the teen-group New Kids On The Block, Wahlberg recorded a platinum album with his rap group, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. A stint as a Calvin Klein underwear model followed.

Acting was a natural next step for Wahlberg. "Man, I'd been bull-----ing my way through life anyway, so it made sense to take up acting. I cleared all my warrants and then I went off to Hollywood."

Wahlberg got his first big break in "Renaissance Man" (1994). Roles in "The Basketball Diaries" (1995), "Fear" (1996) and "Boogie Nights" (1997) followed.

The down side of success is the attention the actor receives from the tabloids. At the moment, he's been called the guy who broke up Winona Ryder and Matt Damon. "I have no idea where they get this stuff," he says. "I've met Matt and he's a nice guy. I've met Winona and we talked about doing a movie together. That's it."

An even more persistent rumor is the one about Wahlberg and his "Metal God" co-star Jennifer Aniston having an affair behind the back of her boyfriend, Brad Pitt.

"Even my mother heard that one," whoops Wahlberg. "She calls me up and says, 'I read in the paper you stole Brad Pitt's girlfriend. Why did you do that?' But nothing happened between me and Jennifer. Besides, I have my own girlfriend, I don't need to steal anybody's else's."

With three movies in various stages of production, Wahlberg is a busy man.

After "Metal God," "Ocean's Eleven" with Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Bill Murray, and "The Yards" with Dunaway and Charlize Theron, the actor will probably do a remake of "Planet of the Apes," which Tim Burton is directing.

"People tell me I'm very Simian, but Tim wants me to play the Charlton Heston role," says Wahlberg, sounding amazed at his good fortune.

"Looking back, it seems impossible to gain the amount of respect I have, but I guess I knew that going in. I never took in more than I could handle and I focused on the work. Looking back it's, like, 'How the hell did I do that?' I didn't try to conquer the world in a day and the people who have sometimes fall short of their goals."

Wahlberg laughs.

"But I don't want to mention any Madonna names."

Amy Longsdorf is a free-lance writer.

"The Perfect Storm" didn't get its name by being nice. Rather, as Sebastian Junger's book explained, this was "a storm that could not possibly have been worse," a marine event with 120-mph winds, rain so intense it drowned birds in mid-flight and waves of a size "few people on Earth have ever seen." When meteorologists began calling this the storm of the century, no one thought to argue.

Taken from Junger's enormously popular book (3.5 million copies in print) about the October 1991 Atlantic juggernaut and the people with the dreadful luck to be at sea when it struck, "The Perfect Storm," like its namesake, overwhelms the obstacles in its path.

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring George Clooney as the captain of the swordfish boat Andrea Gail out of Gloucester, Mass., "The Perfect Storm" has noticeable problems with characterization and dialogue. But once that awesome storm, one of the most terrifying ever put on film, gets cranked up, it's hard to remember what those difficulties were, let alone care too much about them.

Elaborate watery disasters have been shot as far back as 1929's "Noah's Ark," which created a flood so realistic it reportedly cost the lives of several extras. But the ferocious storm sequences here are even more unnerving thanks to modern movie technology and a director who knows how to use it.

Even if you didn't know weather this threatening was on its way, the pre-maelstrom segments of "The Perfect Storm" would play like marking time, which is what they are. Written by Bill Wittliff ("Legends of the Fall," the "Lonesome Dove" miniseries), "Storm" has no choice but to depart in places from Junger's gripping book, not always with the best results.

Great chunks of the printed work, for instance, are filled with fascinating but unfilmable scientific information and storm lore. Junger also only lightly characterizes the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, and he doesn't speculate overly much on what happens to them aboard ship.

But since the film is increasingly concerned with these men's fates, screen time is spent on an understandable but largely inept attempt to create back stories that will provide them with reasons to go out to sea and us with reasons to care if they come back or not.

For the Andrea Gail's Capt. Billy Tyne (Clooney), who apparently went out to fish on that trip because fishing is what he did, the film clumsily concocts an added incentive in the form of a challenge to his manhood by the ship's owner, who needles Billy for his lack of productivity until the captain snaps, "I'm gonna bring you more fish than you ever dreamed of."

As for the Andrea Gail's crew, all of whom need the money an extra trip to the Grand Banks fishing grounds would provide, they are given the equivalent of cuddly stuffed animals back home. New guy Bobby Shatford (a convincing Mark Wahlberg, who grew up scant miles from Gloucester) has an intense relationship with Christina Cotter (Diane Lane, effective as always). The divorced Murph (John C. Reilly) has a small son he's devoted to. Alfred Pierre (Allen Payne) has an inexhaustible string of girlfriends. Even the loveless Bugsy (John Hawkes) contrives to meet a woman just before the ship departs.

"The Perfect Storm" also provides numerous "is this trip necessary?" premonitions from everyone from Linda Greenlaw (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a friendly rival captain, to Bobby's mother, who says, "The Grand Banks are no joke in October" with a straight face. And as rushed as the men are to get out to sea, there's still time for a completely silly "You're a god---- sword-boat captain, is there anything better in the world?" elegy to his profession by Capt. Billy. Aye, aye to that, sir.

These flimsy constructs turn out to be more irritating than necessary. We'd care about Saddam Hussein in the grip of this storm of storms, a meeting of three independent weather systems that causes an amazed TV meteorologist to say, in tones usually reserved for horror and science-fiction films, "Oh my God, it's happening."

Once the maelstrom hits, "The Perfect Storm" smartly goes back and forth between the Andrea Gail and Capt. Billy, acting more and more like a defiant Ahab the stronger the storm gets, and the smaller Satori, a sloop embarked on what it innocently thought would be a pleasure cruise to Bermuda.

The Satori's story is especially potent because it involves a Coast Guard rescue ship and the awesome Air National Guard rescue jumpers, remarkable individuals who voluntarily leap out of cozy helicopters into roiling pitch-black seas to save lives. Their exploits are the most nerve-racking "The Perfect Storm" provides and probably deserve a film of their own.

The storm of the title is as awesome as it is, with destructive torrents of water and waves that look as big as the Chrysler Building, because of director Petersen's great gift (remember "Das Boot") for physical verisimilitude, not to mention the interaction of men in confined spaces.

Also, the film benefits from the way it combines traditional and modern special effects. Most of the filming was done on the largest sound-stage tank in the world, 100 feet by 95 feet and 22 feet deep, with a full-sized ship attached to motion-inducing gimbals. Then the genies at ILM, led by visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier, added whatever computer-generated imagery was necessary to make things seem super-real. So real, in fact, that survivors of the film may conclude that leaving the house in a heavy drizzle is way too much of a risk.

MPAA rating: PG-13, for language and scenes of peril. Times guidelines: The fatal storms are unrelieved in their terrifying intensity.