So I Married an Axe Murderer

Infobox Film
name = So I Married an Axe Murderer


caption = Theatrical poster
director = Thomas Schlamme
producer = Robert N. Fried
Cary Woods
writer = Robbie Fox
starring = Mike Myers
Nancy Travis
Alan Arkin
Anthony LaPaglia
Amanda Plummer
Brenda Fricker
music = Bruce Broughton
cinematography = Julio Macat
editing = Colleen Halsey
Richard Halsey
distributor = TriStar Pictures
released = flagicon|USA July 30, 1993
runtime = 93 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget = $20,000,000
gross = flagicon|USA $11,585,483
amg_id = 1:45408
imdb_id = 0108174

"So I Married an Axe Murderer" is a 1993 American film starring Mike Myers and Nancy Travis. Myers plays Charlie McKenzie, a man afraid of commitment until he meets Harriet (Travis), who works at a butcher shop and may be a serial killer.

This was Myers' first film after achieving success in the "Wayne's World" franchise and was not well received by most mainstream critics or at the box office, grossing a total of USD $11 million in North America, well below its $20 million budget. It has since managed to earn somewhat of a cult following on video.Fact|date=September 2008

Plot

Charlie McKenzie (Myers) is a beat poet with Scottish roots and a fear of making a big commitment like marriage. He even proceeds to create outlandish reasons to break up his relationships ("She smelled like soup", "she was in the mafia" or "she stole my cat" are some of the memorable reasons). This all changes when Charlie meets Harriet (Travis), a butcher whose first date with Charlie has him assisting Harriet on a busy day at her store. This is significant to Charlie, as it allows him to temporarily work the same job as his Scottish father (also played by Myers). Eventually, Charlie continues to date and ultimately gets engaged to Harriet. However, upon learning from several sketchy, ambiguous sources (namely the tabloid rag, "The Weekly World News") that Harriet could indeed be a killer on the loose, famous for butchering her husbands on the night of their honeymoon, Charlie wonders if he has made a grave mistake.

Cast and characters

Production

The film was inspired by the experiences of producer Robert N. Fried, and writer Robbie Fox. The script was developed while Fried was an executive at Columbia Pictures. Fox was a popular, young comedy writer/director who had written and directed a short film for Chanticleer Film's Discovery Program that caught Fried's attention. Myers contributed extensively to the script, but his name was omitted from the final credits because of Writers Guild of America rules.

Casting

Rounding out the main cast are Anthony LaPaglia (Charlie's best friend, who works as a San Francisco police officer), Brenda Fricker (playing Charlie's mother, May), and Myers himself in a dual role also as the main character's Scottish father, Stuart. Myers' portrayal of the Scottish father was derived from a "Saturday Night Live" sketch, and would later reemerge in the animated character, "Shrek".

Mike Myers was not originally set to play his character's father. He simply read the part during early script-reads and rehearsals because an actor had not yet been cast, but the filmmakers enjoyed his interpretation, so they decided to have him play both parts. Myers based his performance on the mannerisms of his own father. This was the first film in which Mike Myers played multiple characters, a trend that would resurface several years later when he did Austin Powers.

The movie also features cameos by Charles Grodin, Phil Hartman, Michael Richards, Mike Hagarty, Debi Mazar, and Steven Wright. Alan Arkin appears uncredited as Tony's sensitive boss. In a related note, Arkin also played a San Francisco police official in "Freebie and the Bean".

Locations

Set in San Francisco, California, the film features many famous sights and neighborhoods of the Golden State metropolis, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts and Alcatraz. The restaurant where Myers and Travis double date with LaPaglia and Debi Mazar is the Fog City Diner. The butcher shop used for "Meats of the World" was Prudente Meats on Grant Ave in the North Beach Section of San Francisco. Prior to being Prudente Meats, it was known as Jacobi Meats, the oldest Kosher butcher in the city. Today, the building houses an art gallery. The final scenes are set at Dunsmuir House. The exterior shot for the cafe, Cafe Roads, where Myers recites his beat poetry is the bar [http://www.vesuvio.com/ Vesuvio] , at Columbus Avenue and Jack Kerouac Alley. The interiors of Cafe Roads was shot at two locations, the first at Cafe Picaro (3120 16th Street). But, after three weeks of shooting in that location (originally blocked out as one week) all of the footage was deemed unusable, and the cast and crew were later brought back to shoot these scenes over at the Rococo Showplace (165 10th Street) for two weeks.

*Illustrated [http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/SoIMarriedAnAxeMurderer/ location guide]

Soundtrack

Infobox Album
Name = So I Married an Axe Murderer (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Type = Soundtrack
Artist = Various artists


Released = July 27, 1993
Recorded =
Genre = Soundtrack
Length = 39:14
Label = Columbia Records
Producer =
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|2.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fnfixqegldse~T1 link]
Last album =
This album =
Next album =

Track listing

# Boo Radleys - "There She Goes" 2:18
# Toad the Wet Sprocket - "Brother" 4:04
# Soul Asylum - "The Break" 2:46
# Chris Whitley - "Starve To Death" 3:14
# Big Audio Dynamite II - "Rush" 3:55
# Mike Myers - "This Poem Sucks" 2:04
# Ned's Atomic Dustbin - "Saturday Night" 3:08
# The Darling Buds - "Long Day In The Universe" 4:08
# The Spin Doctors - "Two Princes" 4:15
# Suede - "My Insatiable One" 2:57
# Sun-60 - "Maybe Baby" 3:43
# The La's - "There She Goes" 2:42

Other music in the film

# The Bay City Rollers - "Saturday Night"
# Ron Gonnelia - "A Touch of Gaelic"
# Nancy Travis - "Only You"

Reaction

"So I Married an Axe Murderer" was not well-received at the box office. It was released on July 30, 1993 and grossed a total of USD $3.4 million in 1,349 theaters on its opening weekend. It made a total of $11.5 million in North America, well below its $20 million budget. [cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = "So I Married An Axe Murderer"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Box Office Mojo
date =
url = http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=soimarriedanaxemurderer.htm
accessdate = 2007-09-26 ]

The film was not well received by critics and currently holds a 52% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert, in his review for the "Chicago Sun-Times", criticized the film for being "a mediocre movie with a good one trapped inside, wildly signaling to be set free". [cite news
last = Ebert
first = Roger
coauthors =
title = "So I Married An Axe Murderer"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Chicago Sun-Times
date = July 30, 1993
url = http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19930730/REVIEWS/307300302/1023
accessdate = 2007-09-26 ] "Rolling Stone" magazine's review felt that "Juggling mirth, romance and murder requires a deft touch - think of Hitchcock's "Trouble with Harry". "Axe" is a blunt instrument". [cite news
last = Travers
first = Peter
coauthors =
title = "So I Married An Axe Murderer"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Rolling Stone
date = August 19, 1993
url = http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5948929/review/5948930/so_i_married_an_axe_murderer
accessdate = 2007-09-26 ] "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "C-" and said, "In some perverse way, "So I Married an Axe Murderer" seems to be asking us to laugh at how not-funny it is". [cite news
last = Gleiberman
first = Owen
coauthors =
title = "So I Married An Axe Murderer"
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Entertainment Weekly
date = August 13, 1993
url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,307643,00.html
accessdate = 2008-05-05 ] However, Janet Maslin's review in the "New York Times" said that it came as "a welcome surprise that "So I Married an Axe Murderer", which might have been nothing more than a by-the-numbers star vehicle, surrounds Mr. Myers with amusing cameos and gives him a chance to do more than just coast." [cite news
last = Maslin
first = Janet
coauthors =
title = Yes, Boy Meets Girl, But This Time the Girl Wields Sharp Objects
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = New York Times
date = July 30, 1993
url = http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F0CE7D61E39F933A05754C0A965958260&oref=login
accessdate = 2007-09-26 ]

DVD

The DVD was released on June 1, 1999. The artwork for the DVD featured an altered image. Early releases of the poster had Harriet holding an axe behind her back, mirroring Myers holding flowers behind his back. For whatever reason, the axe was then removed, creating a noticeable amount of empty space behind Harriet on both posters and the DVD cover, thus ruining the gag.Fact|date=May 2008

A "Deluxe Edition" DVD and Blu-ray edition was released on June 17, 2008 but with no special features. [cite web|title=ASIN: B00177YA1A |publisher=Amazon.com |url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00177YA1A/ |accessdate=2008-05-30 ]

References

External links

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* [http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/SoIMarriedAnAxeMurderer/ locations where the film was shot]