Page 12 The Behrend Beacon Truth’ is a funny thing By Autumn Brown staff writer Hie truth can be a power* fill thing and for this particu lar game show the truth can not only set you free, but win you a lot of money. ‘To Tell the Truth” is a daily, half-hour game show based on the 1950 s show with the same tide. Three contestants claim to be the same person, with a unique story leaving a panel of ce lebrities to decipher the real from the fake. This half hour show features two rounds. For audience satis faction, a comedic twist is added, whose basis is on weeding out the truth. Host John O’Hurley reads a sworn affidavit, which informs the panelists and audience members about the life and unique ac tivities of the person each contestant claims to be. The panel asks questions one after another, in hopes to receive a clue in order to single out the real person from the imposters. At the end of the question period each panelist must select the person whom they feel fits the de scription based on the affidavit and their new-found evidence. Contestants range from a variety of people with wacky traditions to ones Spring Break has come and gone and now is the time to get back to spending countless hours in bed watching movies when you know you should be doing homework. Maybe this doesn’t apply to every one out there, but to Chris Flix, it’s my way of life. And now for this week’s movie reviews. A husband and wife, grieving over the fatal condition of their young son, decide that they should pur chase an artificial robotic boy. Their son is cryogenically frozen until a cure can be found. While this may seem like the plot to a cheesy Satur day afternoon Sci-Fi channel movie, it is actually the premise of Steven Spielberg’s “A. 1.,” and only a gifted director like Spielberg could make into a decent movie. Haley Joel Osment plays David, the first type of an android boy pro grammed with the capability to love. It’s an outrageous story on the sur face, but Spielberg weaves his magic to create an imaginative movie filled with plenty of eye candy. As David is not quite human and has more O’Hurley and judged by Brooke Bums, Meshach Tay lor and Kim Coles. with unusual professions. Entertain ment videos of housecats, bras for cows, skunk race coordinators, stunt women and highly decorated belly dancers are just a few of the types of contestants who appear on the show. Even though it looks and sounds easy to identify the real person from the im posters, contestants often stump the panel of celebrities. The celebrity panel includes Meshach Taylor, famous for his role on “Designing Women,” Kim is Flix’s Video Picks weekly entertainment guide current movie rentals emotion than a normal android, he embarks on a fascinating journey to Find out where he truly belongs. The movie follows David on his search, while intriguingly exploring the notions of life, love and science. Be prepared for a somewhat lengthy movie and I can recall one or two spots when it could have ended to shorten it up a tad. However, the whole movie was made quite enjoyable by the short lived character of the android gigolo, played by Jude Law. Overall, I wouldn’t consider this a movie of epic proportions, but I would recom mend that you see it, at least once. Chris Flix Grade: C+ 1 am not too knowledgeable in the world of runway models, but 1 would consider myself fairly clued-up on movies. When 1 see a movie at Tinseltown and start to think of a long list of better things 1 could have done with that $6.75,1 owe it to my read ers to tell them. “Zoolander,” starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, was one of those ingthe troth. Although this hit show has been on air for more than 30 years, on both networks and in syndication, the laughter that troth can bring never seems to cease. ‘To Tell the Thith” airs five days a week at different times throughout the day. TYrne in to see if the contestants are able to stump the panel of celebrities. After all, the truth is a funny thing. movies. There are those movies that are stupid-funny and those movies that are just so stupid that they lose the funniness. Now I will not lie; there were one or two parts of the movie that made me laugh out loud. However, I do not think those two or three laughs were worth $6.75. And now that this movie is on video, I do not even think they are worth the $3.50. Some movies are more enjoyable when they get reduced to a buck. This is one of them. ‘There’s Some thing About Mary” equals funny. “Zoolander” equals give me my money back. Chris Flix Grade: D- So movie-watchers, get out to your local video store and take my word for it. This is Chris Flix, your main movie man, and I will catch you next week. *Chris used to be a manager at a movie theatre in Virginia and is currently an employee at Giant Eagle's Iggle Video. AUTO 4 Friday ; March 15, 2002 Coles from “Living Single,” and former “Baywatch” lifeguard Brook Burns! These three people and one guest celebrity try to de cipher who is telling the troth from who is lying. Just because a contestant may not be the person they are claiming to be doesn’t mean that they will go home empty handed. Each wrong guess a panelist makes means the contestants earns $l,OOO, which the three split evenly among themselves. Unlike the old 'To Tell the Truth,” audience members now have a chance to partici pate in thfe festivities of the show. At the end of each round the audience is electronically polled for who it thinks is tell- ‘4O Days 40 Nights’ - longer than you think by Daniel J. Stasiewski staff writer Other than the Lenten promise of celibacy, “40 Days and 40 Nights” has little to do with anything religious. In fact, the church would probably ban the movie, if given the choice. Still, the vulgar jokes making up most of the film don’t prevent “40 Days and 40 Nights” from becoming a tender and romantic love story. After a devastating breakup. Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett) is tor tured by the thought of each woman he sleeps with not being his ex-girlfriend. His roommate Ryan (Paul Costanzo) considers Matt’s promiscuous habits to be the solu- tion, but they just don’t help with his fixation. After an intimate con versation with his brother, whom happens to be a priest in training, Matt decides to give up sex and “all things sex like” for Lent. Nibbling, biting, touching, and masturbation are all no-nos Matt’s pact is put to the ultimate test when he meets Erica (Shannyn Sossamon) in a laundromat. The two build a relationship without sex, and Matt finally starts to forget about his ex. When Erica finds out Matt’s self-inflicted dry spell has become worldwide Internet wager conceived by Matt’s dot.com coworkers, she leaves him out in the cold. The only way Matt can get Erica back is to fin ish the deal. “40 Days and 40 Nights” may look like just another raunchy teen com edy. True, the writers have an incred ibly juvenile ability to make every thing (even an omelet) sexual, but the blatantly crude humor is almost nec essary in this film. Whether relying on Matt’s erection or countless boob and masturbation jokes, the film’s ex tremely funny moments only make the romantic ones a little warmer. Now, every moment in the film is not outstanding. The use of Viagra was obvious pandering to the normal teen romp audience. When a moment does stand out it usually does in a big way. Comedic scenes, like the faked male orgasm or a dinner discussion of Matt’s parent's sex life, are side splitting and unforgettable. In con Shannyn Sossamon (Erica) is the girl of Matt’s dreams and he’s hoping she will hold on while he tries to hold out. trast, the “immaculate orgasm” scene is sexy and passionate. It could eas ily become as memorable as “Ghost’s” pottery wheel affair. Like I said before, every scene in this movie is not outstanding. Most, however; don’t disappoint. The film’s trouble comes from Costanzo’s room mate character. He doesn’t do any thing other characters in the film don't do. His argument against the idea of celibacy is similar to Matt’s brother, his discovery of Matt’s ex’s engage ment is already made by time he di vulges it, and his humor is recycled from the dot.com workforce's antics. Both unnecessary and unfunny, the roommate character is nothing more than a bad joke. Excluding the roommate’s flop of an existence, the supporting cast is al Jeanine Noce, A & E Editor behrco!ls @ aol.com ways funny and at times hilarious. The biggest casting attribute, how ever, is the pairing of the film's two up-and-coming stars. Hartnett inten sifies his teen idol status with his hi larious, but charming performance. His costar Sossamon also wins over the audience as the dazzling and lov- able Erica. In only her second film, Sossamon is well on her way to be coming a leading lady of tomorrow. Together, the pair has the stunning chemistry needed to pull off a steamy scene like the immaculate orgasm. It takes a lot to get me to laugh out loud in a movie theatre, and “40 Days and 40 Nights” has it. Beyond the humor, the film also succeeds in tell ing one of the most endearing love stories in years. Tasteless when it wants to be, but tactful when it needs to be, “40 Days and 40 Nights” is the perfect film for the hopeless roman tic who just happens to be a little de mented. ~k k k; out of 4
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