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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