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15 years ago - April 27, 2001

Driven
Driven is a race car drama from Cliffhanger director Renny Harlin. Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay (remember, he earned an Oscar nomination for Rocky) and stars as a former champion driver who comes out of retirement to team with a younger driver, played by Kip Pardue. Burt Reynolds plays the racing team owner, and Estella Warren plays Pardue’s love interest. The trailer teased a sequence were race cars drive through downtown traffic, some big crashes, and may have tried to remind audiences of Days of Thunder. But reviews were awful and the film bombed at the box office. It even earned Razzie Award nominations for Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Reynolds, Stallone, and Warren. At least it did better than Get Carter. Driven opened at #1 with $12.1 million from 2,905 theaters and went on to earn $32.7 million in the U.S. against a budget nearly triple that amount.

Town & Country
This romantic comedy stars Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton as one couple and Goldie Hawn and Garry Shandling as another, with an ensemble of supporting characters. Delayed for years, the final release was met with lousy reviews and turned out to be an enormous box office bomb. After costing a ridiculous sum of $90 million, Town & Country opened at #7 with $3 million and only managed $6.7 million in the U.S. for a total of $10.3 million worldwide. The scorn for this flop may be the reason it’s been the last time we’ve seen Beatty in a film to date.

The Forsaken
This vampire hunters vs. vampires with a plot similar to The Highlander stars Kerr Smith, Brendan Fehr, and Johnathon Schaech. Reviews were even worse than for Town & Country, and The Forsaken opened at #8 with $3 million (actually a stronger per-site average than Town & Country due to fewer theaters). It quickly shed theaters and ended up with $7.2 million.

One Night at McCool’s
A scarlet-haired Liv Tyler stars at the center of a romantic and crime comedy, with Matt Dillon, Paul Reiser, and John Goodman. Reviews were weak, as was the audience interest: McCool’s opened at #11 with $2.5 million, only earning a financially disappointing $6.2 million overall.

Also opening in limited release this weekend: Director James Ivory’s drama The Golden Bowl starring Kate Beckinsale and Uma Thurman.

20 years ago - April 26, 1996

The Quest
Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in and directs for the first time for this Bloodsport-esque martial arts adventure that takes place in 1920s New York, Southeast Asia, and Tibet. Roger Moore plays a swindling businessman. Among the highlights for this film were the variety of martial arts disciplines portrayed by the tournament contestants, and the cinematography. Van Damme won this weekend, but this was part of a decline for Van Damme’s box office after his 1992-1994 peak. The Quest opened at #1 with $7.0 million from 2,092 theaters and eventually took in a domestic gross of $21.6 million.

The Truth About Cats & Dogs
This romantic comedy stars Janeane Garofalo and Uma Thurman in a Cyrano de Bergerac arrangement, wooing a guy played by Ben Chaplin. The film received good reviews and audiences made it one of the biggest lead performances for Thurman of her career before Kill Bill. Cats & Dogs opened at #2 with $6.7 million and went on to earn $34.8 million.

Sunset Park
Rhea Perlman stars in this high school sports/social drama as the coach of a boys basketball team. Terrence Howard plays a student in one of his early film roles. Unlike the similar but more comedic football version with Wildcats in February, this was a more serious take. It also made significantly less at the box office. Sunset Park opened at #3 with $4.7 million and eventually brought in $10.1 million.

Mulholland Falls
Not to be confused with David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, this crime drama stars Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn as LAPD detectives in the 1950s. The film opened at #5 with $4.3 million and went on to earn $11.5 million.

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