FRIDAY, ANUARY 26, 2001 Globe trotters: by Deanna Symoski a&e editor Anybody looking for the Golden Globes to solidify the Oscar race was clearly disappointed Sunday night, as the Hollywood Foreign Press Asso ciation made sure that a variety of films were recognized. The 58th Annual Golden Globes was no more certain this year about its favorites than the Academy Awards are shaping up to be. Usually a pre cursor to Oscar success, the Globes made winners out of four different films, bestowing two awards on each. Islands are a popular theme right now. From the original 'survivor' theme show, Gilligan's Island, it has been a game that people are drawn to. They not only want to watch it, but submerse themselves in it. So it is no wonder that this past Christmas' runaway hit movie, Cast Away, was so popular. The movie, which stars Tom Hanks (and just about only Tom Hanks), stormed through theaters all across the country this holiday season; overtaking all other films released around the same time. This movie follows the hectic life of FedEx Executive Chuck Noland until on a plane trip to the far east, he finds himself about to crash into the ocean. The lone survivor of the plane crash and the storm filled sea, Chuck washes up on a deserted island to fend for himself. Adjusting to the fact that there is no one around to save him but himself, the audience watches as Chuck adapts to island life alone. With only a volleyball that washed up on shore in a FedEx box shortly after the crash, Chuck names the ball Wilson, and it becomes the only source for dialogue in the movie. Together Chuck and Wilson form a friendship and struggle to survive together. Tasks that in the past seemed normal, such as eating and going to the bathroom in modern facilities, are now something that Chuck can only wish for. And the threat of disease from cuts and scratches he Titans appropriate film for celebrating MLK by Erin McCarty assistant news editor Last week we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it seems an opportune time to turn the spotlight on a recent film which is a reminder of the struggles and triumphs of desegregation efforts in the not-so distant past. Remember the Titans, which chronicles the true story of a newly integrated high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971, is a powerful movie that demonstrates the strength to be found when unity triumphs over the stigmas of diversity. And since it is now playing at Cin ema 6 for a dollar, it's an affordable excursion for a college student on a shoestring budget. The bulk of the storyline takes place in the form of a flashback to 1971, Movies The Wedding Planner Sugar and Spice Jan. 26 • v, •. , :• ' Ridley Scott's Gladiator was hon ored with Best Motion Picture Drama, while Almost Famous nabbed the award for Best Musical or Comedy. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon picked up the honors in the best for eign-language category, while Traffic, snagged best screenplay. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were the dramatic best of the best for Cast away and Erin Brockovich, respec tively. Renee Zellweger topped the Best Actress, Musical or Comedy cat egory for Nurse Betty, though her name was called while she was in the bathroom, a la Christine Lahti. SURVIVING THE TEMPTATION by Katie Galley receives on the island are a constant reminder to him that he simply cannot live on the island forever. So when the side of a Port-o-John washes up on shore one day, Chuck starts to formulate a plan to leave the island rather than die there without anyone knowing that he was ever there With Wilson in tow, Chuck sets out to conquer the sea and make it back to civilization. And after months at sea, he makes it back. But the world he comes back to is not the world that he left four years earlier. Finding the woman that he loved and longed for on the island, Kelly, with a different man and a child, he can no longer count on what kept him alive on the island. Discovering that being stranded alone for four years was the worst and best thing that could have ever happened to him, we leave Chuck finding a new life for himself. when the death of a black student pre cipitated the integration of the city's two high schools. In an effort to ac commodate the incoming black ath letes, a new coach, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), is hired to head up the Titans, the high school football team. This news comes as an unpleas ant surprise to current head coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), who was in the running for the city's Hall of Fame because of the Titans' excellent track record. The movie begins and ends in a cemetery in 1981, guided by the nar ration of Yoast's fiery daughter Cheryl, who was nine years old (Hayden Pannetiere) in 1971. As new head coach, Boone must face many difficulties, the most har rowing of which is the task of con vincing the white and black teammates to cooperate. The first team member ' ll' , 1 1 ® .... n ..,, ~, .-., .. , ...,.... i . d o k ti -- 4 .. t, ,:,. r 7 4 ,?,. ...?: ~* ~..,.M :A k e c„ „,,. ~ „t„,„,,:,,,,,„..t.„,„„,k, ...•....., ~,., .„.. ~:,4.0- ,-." , ' . - . ..,ix£4.. ' e Video * Dinosaur Hurricane: Special Edition The Golden Globes revolved around a variety of stars, but no Oscar definites yet Zellweger beat out the likes of Sandra Bullock for Miss Congeniatlitv and Juliette Binoche for Chocolat. George Clooney dethroned Golden Child, Jim Carrey for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy for the Coen Brothers' 0 Brother, Where Art Thou? Carrey was nominated for The Grinch, as were Robert DeNiro for Meet the Parents, Mel Gibson for What Women Want, and John Cusack for High Fidelity. Almost Famous star Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, won her first Golden Globe for Almost Famous in the Best Supporting Actress cat- AWAY While it may seem that this movie came in the wake of Survivor the television show, Cast Away was in production a full year before the hit series. And the timing of the release was strategically placed in between the final upsetting episode of Survivor where antagonist/naked guy Rich Hatch walked away a millionaire, and the tactfully placed Survivor 2, which will air immedi ately after the Superbowl. Surviving and strategy have been the themes that permeated the beginning of this new millennium. So it is no surprise either that the newest 'sur vival' show, Temptation Island, has been so widely received. But have the themes that are s( popular being taken to new extremes? Sure Temptation Island is all about survival of the fittest, but that doesn't necessarily put it in the same cate or as the others. to bridge the racial gap is Louis Lastik (Ethan Suplee), a gentle giant with a love for Motown music. The other teammates come around more slowly, forced to get to know one another by their relentless coach. Once star player Julius Campbell (Wood Harris) and Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) learn to work together, the others follow quickly, and by the end of football camp the team actually acts like one. The rest of the movie deals with the lack of understanding by the rest of the Alexandrians upon the return of the newly-integrated team and the teammates' struggle to remain united in the face of their still-racist town. The youths finally learn to see past their differences, but their parents are not prepared to accept the change. Winning becomes more important than ever because one game would Music * LeAnn Rimes • . ---- • wawa ...ram egory. Benecio Dcl Toro was awarded best supporting actor for Traffic. Television categories were a little more predictable. NBC's The West Wing was elected as Best Drama (who would have thought?), and HBO's Sex and the City won for best comedy. The show's flagship characters were also celebrated as Martin Sheen and Sarah Jessica Parker were both given honors. HI-30 was the most recog nized network, followed by NBC. Finally, legendary wise guy Al Pacino, was 'made' Sunday night with the Cecil B. DeMille award for life- tune achievement Forcing couples into situations where it is very easy to cheat on each other is not only hurting the couples, but the general viewing audience. Are these shows now teaching the younger generations that to make it to the top and get what you want that you have to be greedy and sneaky and think that nothing can last forever? They never had to deal with this on Gilligan. In the end, Gilligan was eventu ally cancelled, hut he's still around on TVLand and Nick at Nite. Years from now, will future generations he watching Temptation Island and Survivor on classic reruns and thinking that it is where they originally learned that greed and sex are the ultimate temptation? Hopefully the overriding theme in Cast Away can he the one that stands out in the end, that true love and basic human survival are the greatest tests of human character. cost Boone his leadership position. For Yoast, however, a winning season for the Titans under Boone would mean the loss of his nomination to the Hall of Fame. Because this is a true story, the struggles of its main characters are es pecially poignant and speak to us as we remember the dream of Martin Luther King. Life does not always pro vide the happiest of endings, and Re member the Titans is not without its tragedy, but the way in which the team stands together to rise above it ends the movie on a victorious note. This marvelous movie is a powerful re minder of how far we've come and how far we have yet to go before all people are "judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." DVD* Dinosaur Dinosaur: Collectors What Lies Beneath IF Sic' Em IDO ~/ by Deanna Symoski Friend! Out of jokes and out of time, Friends could be the next casualty of television combat This may very well be the most difficult editorial I've had to write, but I think it's important to talk about. It may bring some of you to tears, for others your universe will be shattered. I'm sorry, but here it is: Friends isn't funny anymore. I know, it hurts me to say it just as much as it hurts you to read. But I'm afraid it's true, and here's why. Last week I watched Friends for the first time in about a month (that right there tells me that the show is no longer a priority for me) and I realized something terribly disturbing. Monica and Chandler are boring, Ross is becoming more of a moron than Joey, Phoebe has nothing going on in her life, and Rachel is just plain pathetic. In short, the novelty of aimlessness has worn off, and Friends has nothing left to say. Like Seitydd before it, the weekly analysis of relationships, work and the related minutiae of life has run its course, especially now that the cast is older. When Friends started, and they were all young and without direction, the ebb and flow of relationships was entertaining. The constant search for the right job was eerily familiar to most GenXers, but the glue that gave hope to a happy ending was the stability of their friendship. That was the whole basis of the show. Whether they were fired, dumped or trapped in leather pants, it would still be okay because Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Ross and Chandler got by with a little help from their friends. But now that the cast is pushing 30 on the show (in reality, I think they have all passed that landmark), the ending is here, and the painful task of extracting minutiae is, at this point, sad. Last week, Chandler couldn't sleep, Ross and Joey got stranded on the roof, Phoebe couldn't get her fire alarm to stop beeping, and Rachel dragged her fresh-from-the-cradle boyfriend to work so she could prove him wrong during an argument. What used to be extremely entertaining now has become at once dull and frustrating The significance of the problem is twofold. Obviously the characters can't stay the same forever. At some point Joey is going to have to like the idea of marriage just a little more than he likes jam. And that's a good thing, because at their age, it is time to put a little meaning in their lives. The stability ()leach other would seem like more of a rut, an excuse not to better themselves or allow other people to better them. But at the same time, we don't want them to change because that means they might grow away from each other, and then the whole point of the show is lost. At first I liked Monica and Chandler together, but now I feel bad for Joey. I miss their friendship, for one because it was a lot funnier to watch Joey do lunges in all of Chandler's clothing than it is to listen to Chandler and Monica babble on about nothing. There was spunk in all the ,riends' uncertainty. There were arguments and memories and a closeness they don't seem to have now that they have nothing left to fight about, reminisce about or even say. And maybe that's just how life goes. You get older and the career falls into place and the relationship actually works out and you become content within that life that doesn't have so much drama. But I refuse to think that sacrificing your friends is the price you pay for it. Now that I am where the cast was when they started, the end has a few more implications for me. Or maybe it isn't me at all. Maybe Friends really has simply run out of steam. flow can you keep people in each other's lives without eventually putting them together'? Now there are teasers about Joey and Phoebe, the last pair to get together. The show is obviously trying to reestablish some of that zing that the Ross" Rachel era had and the Monica/Chandler era has sucked dry. But doing this just to do it isn't going to please anyone. Ross always loved Rachel, it was only a matter of time. And even Monica and Chandler were always the closer ones if you look back at some of the old episodes. But Joey and Phoebe'? Just because they're both floofy, doesn't make it right. Perhaps there just isn't an ending suitable for this show. It would be hard to please everyone, and in the attempt, is likely to please no one, or few, as it is doing now. Maybe the best idea is one that they have already alluded to—Phoebe on the Central Perk couch telling Joey how all their lives will pan out. Granted her version is full of backstabbing and death, but somehow it seems better than a show about nothing. Fire
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