Jeanine Noce, A & E Editor behrcolls@aol.com at the b i views ,;„, 4,<<.t 00 fti7t e<4, • fal • 'From Hell' is good, after all my L :pp in "From Hell." by Jacob Boring staff writer "From IMF is the latest film release to come from the acclaimed directors the Hughes Brothers ("Dead Presidents." "Menace II Society"). The film stars Johnny Depp ("Sleepy Hollow." "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"). and Heather Graham ("Bow finger." "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me"). "From Hell - is about the serial killer Jack the Ripper. In 1888, in a 'Monsters, Inc.' - enormously funny by Daniel Stasiewski stall write! Hov. close to pci lection can an ani mated lilnt acct.' Well. "Monsteis Inc. - can ans\ker that question. Pi \ar and Disne •s [icy, est collaboration ,2oes be\ iid most ood produc tions this \ ear. hoth technically and dramatically. With boundless imagination, - Monsters. Inc. - does for closet mon sters what "Toy Story - did for toys. \nd it does that \\ Ink. surpassing e - cry other computer-animated film ever made. "Monster, Inc. - is Monstropolis' power plant. The entire city's energy is both distributed and harnessed at the plant. But where do they get the energy? From the screams of scared children, of course. The job isn't easy since children are assumed toxic to monsters. One brave scarer is James P. Sullivan (otherwise known as Sully). Even with his life on the line. he does everything in his power to keep the screams coming during Montropolis' energy shortage. With the help of his fellow worker Mike Wazowski, Sully is on the verge of breaking the all-time scaring record. Close on his heels, however, is the slimy Randall Boggs. The two are snout-and-snout everyday, but Sully always comes out screaming. Sully's success even impresses the CEO of "Monsters, Inc.," Henry J. Watemoose, who is worried the power shortage will end his reign at the top of the company. One night after the plant is closed, Sully finds a closet door still sitting on the Scaring Floor. He checks to see if there is a monster inside, and in the process, lets a child into the monster world. When Sully tries to get the child back inside, Randall ap pears with a cartful of empty scream cells (the bottles that harness screams), and Sully is forced to flee. Soon Sull discovers that Randall few-week time period, Jack the Ripper committed five brutal murders, slaying and stealing organs from London prostitutes. The murders would make Jack the Ripper one of the most infamous serial killers of all time. Now in 2001, through the magic of cinematography, the story/ legend of Jack the Ripper is captured in a way which fully demonstrates the vulgarity and gruesomeness of the crimes committed. Depp plays Inspector Fred Abberline, who has strange psychic powers, which in connection to his powers of perception make him a great detective. Heather Graham plays Mary Kelly, a British prostitute, who happens to fall in love with Abberline and who must also rely on him for protection. Not to give any clues away as to which character is Jack the Ripper, it is best simply to say that the actor who plays the part has been in more films than either Depp or Graham. After the first 25 minutes of the film I thought it sucked, but after a was up to more than just scaring and finds himself trying to save the child, instead of frightening it. Right from the 50s sitcom open ing credits, I could tell "Monsters, Inc. - was a different film, even for Pi xar. The basic concept of every Pi xar film is to take a believable hu man circumstance and put it into a fantasy world. The colorful and ar tistic characters are directed toward children, while the humanity of a toy's story or a bug's life is perfect for the adult audience. Monsters, Inc." has all that and more. Every joke is a superior combina tion of the subtle and in your face. Pixar has mastered this Mel Brooks esque humor and made it its own. The humor isn't what sells this film, though. The relationships and consequential disagreements are so improved in "Monsters, Inc." these monsters seem more human than most of the human characters in other motion pictures. This resilience can be found in each of the film's characters. Sully is one of the most well-developed characters in the history of animated film. In the beginning, Sully's life is all about scaring. He lives for it. If he had a compulsive obsession with actually being at work, I would call him workaholic. When this child en ters his life, it all changes. His con cern for work turns into paternal pro tection issues. These issues arise within the dark clash between Sully and Randall. The battle between the two com peting monsters is attributable to a proletarian working place. Advance ment doesn't seem like it happens often, but Randall sees the power shortage as a key to his moving ahead. When Randall's plot to make it to the top is exposed, we see just how far he has to go in order to ad vance at "Monsters, Inc." For any parent concerned with their child being scared of monsters, airs a Friday, November 16, 2001 while longer it picked up. I cannot say the film is the greatest (that is to say I don't predict it to win any major awards) but some of the images captured truly express cinematography as an art form. The story is interesting enough, even going so deep as to capture an understanding of the politics of England at the time and fully expressing the motives behind the murders of Jack the Ripper. The imagery is truly spectacular, though as dark as the story itself. The acting is also excellent. I did find that some of the imagery seemed unnecessary for the story, though. It seemed that some of the imagery was simply there to add darkness or gore to the film, in spite of what seems to possibly he a slight overuse of camera techniques and captured dreamlike images. The film is rated R for strong violence and gore, language, sexuality, and drug content. -*- out of 4 you're looking at the wrong feature of the film. Watching the child squeal in terror from the Randall's torturous contraption caused the only crying in cidence from a toddler. This dark con- filet almost goes 14)O far for a family From an adult perspective, though, I wouldn't ask for a single change. And then there's Mike. Billy Crystal is inside this character like I've never seen in an animated film. The slap stick highlights and minor relationship insights provided by Mike are only amplified by the comedic genius that supplies his voice. It's impossible not to laugh at the little green sidekick. The technical advancements are al most overshadowed by the drama and humor of the rest of the film, but they are just too gorgeous to ignore. The backgrounds look like they are out of a live action film, but they didn't steal the landscapes, like Disney's "Dino saur." Every detail from a pipe on a wall to a slime trail (not forgetting this is a movie about monsters) is immacu late. The characters are even more scrupulously articulated than the scen ery. From the slightest changes in Mike's skin tone to Sully's fur blow ing in the wind, a more detailed ani mated film has never been created. When I first saw Sully, I thought he was a Jim Henson creation. As for the children, Pixar has come a long way from the baby in "Tin Toy." The visual aspects alone put this computer animated feature above all its prede- cessors Rarely is a film as entertaining and insightful as "Monsters, Inc." Forget about "Shrek" because "Monsters, Inc." is the only must-see animated film this year. If you don't see this movie, it would be a monstrous mis take. -*- out of 4 The Hughes Brothers have made another film about a poor, lower class society, although "From Hell" does not take place in Los Angeles' Watts, but the east side of London's poverty stricken Whitechapel district. The ter ritory was not foreign to the brothers but the story was, and it is quite obvious, because this film becomes an un bearable, messy story. Consequently, "From Hell" should go back to where it came from. "From Hell" traces hack in history to 1888 London, in order to capture the feel, reign, and terror one of the most infamous serial killers of all time, Jack the Ripper, who was thought to be an educated man becuase of the way he gruesomely killed at least five prostitutes. This film is modeled from Alan Moore's 500-page graphic novel (also titled "From Hell"), that is based more on theories than on facts about Jack the Ripper's horrific killing spree at the end of 1888. For example, in the film and graphic novel "From Hell," the demented killer is caught and brought to justice. Actually, the killer was never found, and historians can only make assumptions about who the murderer really was. Since the killer is apprehended in this film, of course, a young and handsome inspector must be hired to do an outstanding job. In comes Inspector Fred Abberline (Johnny Depp), the drug-induced soothsayer who is hired by the London police in order to prevent Jack the Ripper from continuing his killing escapade through London. To catch the murderer, Abberline must smoke as much opium as possible in order to predict who, what, where, and when the murders will take place. Well, that is how the inspec tor solves the unsolved crime of the century, and it works in this absurd, somewhat-factual film. Of course, this is just a Hollywood film made for enter tainment purposes, and should be a fun movie that will leave you with high body counts, lots of blood, some sex 'Monsters, Inc.' - definitely ugly The worst thing about "Monsters, Inc. - was how hard it was to buy tick ets and the fact that little kids were everywhere causing a ruckus. In the city of Monstropolis. "Mon sters, Inc." is the leading power pro vider, getting its energy from the screams of little children that are scared from the monsters that come out of their closet. James P. Sullivan, also known as Sully, and his best friend and scaring assistant Mike are the top scaring team at Monsters, Inc. Humans are the only thing which monsters believe to be bad, evil, and toxic. When a little girl accidentally follows Sully back into his world, Monstropolis is thrown into chaos and anything can happen. "Monsters, Inc." is your near-cliche of computer animated family movies. This one was done by Pixar, which is a division of Disney, and came from the same guys who produced "Toy Story." Technically, "Monsters" is a step above in the animation depart ment compared to "Toy Story" and pretty much any other Pixar film. "Monsters" required nearly 2.5 mil lion rendemarks, or computing power, compared to the 1.1 million used on "Toy Story 2." The biggest difference is the individuality of every single hair on the bodies of the biggest, hairiest monsters. If you like these movies, don't worry. "Monsters, Inc." is only the second movie of the five picture deal between the two studios. Literally, 'From Hell' by Alec Styborski staff writer by Ben Herwatic staff writes A true story, especially a historical story about distraught and deprived people, should not he altered and tampered with to become a stylized slasher film that every kid wishes to see because of the "Scream" trilogy. The film ends up focusing on the slasher film genre far too much, which is really too bad, because the film never develops a psycho logical aspect like many other great serial killer films such as "Silence of the Lambs", "M". "Seven." or even "The Cell." If there is one redeeming quality about this film, it has to be the nightmarish atmosphere, in which Jack the Ripper's shadow crawls and floats throughout the fog-filled allies. as he stalks his prey. The atmosphere is also supported a ghastly skyline that bleeds a deep red to perfectly portray London's petrified populace as instable and hysterical, which is a remarkable metaphor to depict Jack the Ripper's infliction of torment and distress upon the civilians of Lon don. The sky is a hideous, bloody mess, hut at the same time, it seems to become a beautiful painting that comes alive with exuberant color. The photography is a work of art by the brilliant cinematographer Peter Deming Omni cally, the cinematographer of "Scream 2" and "Scream .11 and adds a lot to the overall production value of the film. If you want to see a slasher film that will entertain your eyes and not your mind, go see this movie. On the other hand, if you want a to see a film with substance and accu racy, do not go out of your way to view this film. In the end, the film's interpretation and translation lead this film to where it came from, and even the picturesque cinema tography cannot be its savior. `Monsters, Inc." has its share of stars and if you are like me and believe that Steve Buscemi makes any movie worth watching, then prepa viewi and Je lend Good Crys main Now autom cal ho rib b e c a u GaLirtat 'Monsters, Inc.' is now in all theaters across the U.S is in it. In fact, this is his best acting since his role in "The Big Lebowski" in 1997. He plays the part of a big scary monster well. The Academy Award-winning producer John Lasseter and Grammy Award-win ning composer Randy Newman lend their talents as well. The well-made, G-rated family flick is a good all-around movie, but the year's earlier computer animated film "Shrek" was superior by far. "Shrek" was geared towards a vari ety of audiences including children 'Spanish Nights' Music of passion, romance and all things Spanish will delight you as the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra and maestro Hugh Keelan take the stage to present "Spanish Nights," Satur day at the Warner Theatre. This music of French and Spanish com posers suggests the intensity of fla menco dance, with its driving rhythms and blinding speed. Gui tars, swirling bright colored dresses, the clicking of castanets and the smothering smokiness of the Moorish culture are gathered in these fascinating musical images. Back by popular demand is inter nationally acclaimed pianist Santiago Rodriguez. An native of Cuba, Rodriguez first performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic at the age of 10. Last season he bril The Behrend Beacon I. .. .... and drugs. Unfortunately, the film succeeds in all of the previous key essentials to a Hollywood movie, and that is why this film fails miserably. * out of 4 and adults, while making reference to and spoofing many things which small children wouldn't understand. "Mon sters, Inc." is geared towards is a lot more satisfying than making them cry. If you have two hours to spare, don't mind little kids everywhere and can find a non-sold out theater near you, "Monsters, Inc." might be worth your while if you don't have anything else to do. Out of 4 liantly performed Rachmaninovs "Second Piano Concerto" with the Erie Philharmonic and is now return ing to present Manuel de Falla's "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" for piano and orchestra. Also on the pro gram is Turina's "The Bullfighter's Prayer," Maurice Ravel's "Alborado del Gracioso" ("The Jester's Morn ing Song"), Franz Liszt's "Rhapsodic Espagnole" for piano and orchestra, and Claude Debussy's "Iberia," his dreamland setting of the dramatic Spanish peninsula. The performance begins at 8 p.m. at the Warner Theatre. Ticket prices start at $22. Group, student and se nior discounts are available. Call (814) 455-1375 or visit the Erie Phil harmonic Orchestra Box Office at 1006 State St. Page 9a , oung, hut heart and e lewm ildren laugh
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