Friday, January 28, 2004 Reid, Slater fumble in unbelievable 'Alone' Christian Slater go, go, goes in" Alone in the Dark." By Chris Hewitt Knight Bidder Newspapers A woman I work with has an annual so-bad-it's-fun movie night, and I can't wait to tell her this year's stinker should be "Alone in the Dark." The unintentional hilarity begins with boob-flashing party girl Tara Reid, cast as a brilliant archaeologist. Reid (whose name should not he found in the same sen tence as the words "brilliant" or "archaeologist" or, for that matter. "actress") plays the sort of brilliant archae ologist who wears midriff-baring baby tees to her mu seum job and who doesn't know how to pronounce "New foundland." I'd like to see the producers spin off her char acter into her own adventure/archaeology series: "Indi ana Jones and the Te: - to of Dumb." Crossword ACROSS 1 Act your age! 7 Audit pro 10 Actor Lugosi 14 Water element 15 Civil War soldier, briefly 16 Fiery gemstone 17 Feel contrite 18 In single file 20 Language suffix 21 Opening night 23 Stallone movie 24 Birthright 26 Strike 27 Map dot 30 "The African Queen" star 32 Balloons up 34 "To be or to be... 35 Impetuous 39 SPasonal farm worker 41 New thing 43 Catch sight of 44 the ramparts..." 46 Hired temporarily 47 Very dull performance 50 Range 51 CSI site 54 Canines 56 Panama pal 58 Civvies 59 Cry of amazement 62 Sliver 64 Rwanda's neighbor 66 BPOE members 67 Traveler's stop 68 One in the red 69 Breather 70 UFO passengers 71 Accompany DOWN 1 Drill 2 Former partners 3 Surfeit of publicity 4 Ripen 5 Blood feud Go in (KRT) All rights res•rved 7 Toasted garnish Solutions 8 Five-sided figure 9 Writer Burrows 10 Beach or Beastie followers 11 Geological division 12 Hawaiian veranda 13 On one's toes 19 Dutch South African 22 Highchair apron 24 Robust 25 Croc's cousin 27 Some PC's 28 Error 29 Firm image 31 Deep furrow 33 Type of owl 42 Traces 55 Piano study 36 Palo . __, CA 45 Tax mailings 57 Main point 37 Tread 48 Very long time 59 Conscious of 38 Jekyll's alter 49 Library sec. 60 Bouquet ego 51 Surgical tool 61 Male red deer 40 Apartment 52 Plenty 63 Equal score 53 Rips off 65 "Lost" network - T‘ i . i r i - ~, _L. -------- 1 . rl , 4 \ , (,) The rest of this "28 Days Later"/"Alien" hybrid also worships at the temple of dumb. Christian Slater deserves props for not embarrassing himself as a "paranormal in vestigator" who announces, "1 hunt and track down the strange and the unusual." Wow! Not just the strange but also the unusual? And I bet he hunts and tracks down the odd and the weird and the unconventional, too. Slater also finds the hidden nuances in these three lines of dialogue: "Go, go!", "Go, go, go!" and, my favorite, "Go, go, go, go!" Slater isn't awful like Reid is, but all of the actors, in cluding Stephen Dorff as a brilliant something-or-other, lack the authority to be believable as people in positions of power. Watching them play dress-up is as convincing as it would be to watch a middle-school production of "On Golden Pond," which, come to think of it, still might not be as lw ,bly bad as "Alone in the Dark." Weekend Movie "Saw" Today & Saturday 10 p.m. Reed 117 Films attract shrugs "The Emperor's Journey," a documentary about penguin migration, was one film shown at Sundance this year By Allison Benedikt Chicago Tribune (KRT) PARK CITY, Utah - From the bustling hotel lobbies to the teeming shuttle buses and pre-screening holding pens, the consensus on this year's Sundance Film Festival is in: So far, This is not to say that the 21st incarnation of Robert Redford's independent baby hasn't had its moments - the big gest thus far being Craig Brewer's gritty urban drama "Hustle & Flow" - but the first half of the festival has been marked more by tame audience reactions and subdued wheeling and dealing than buzz, with films drawing more shrugs than love. Still, that Sundance magic hasn't entirely gone missing. Just as the population of this sleepy ski town skyrockets from 7,500 to 45,000 overnight, in one screening a star is born. In years past, anointed ones have included Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino and more recently Zach Braff. This year the name to know is Terrence Howard. Playing a Memphis pimp suffering a midlife crisis in "Hustle & Flow," Howard is the guy to spot on Park City's celeb-heavy Main Street. After an all-night bidding war, Para mount Pictures and sibling MTV Films scooped up his film for a cool $9 million (as part of a $l6 million, three-picture deal with producer John Singleton). And though some Mon day morning quarterbacks grumble that the studio overpaid, in a week that saw Ice Cube's "Are We There Yet?" and Samuel L. Jackson's "Coach Carter" top the box office, the hip-hop infused "Hustle & Flow" seems like a pretty good bet. But like so many films at this year's fest, "Hustle & Flow," featuring a hoodlum with a heart of gold, feels derivative - even with Howard's tour de force performance. There's something more than just vaguely familiar about Luc Jacquet's "The Emperor's Journey" ("La Marche de L'Empereur"). The Discovery Channelesque documentary of penguin migration was the second film sold here - Warner Independent Pictures teamed up with National Geographic Feature Films for the buy - perhaps because of the success of the French bird voyage pic "Winged Migration." Gorgeous cinematography, tongue-in-cheek voice-overs voiceovers and adorable baby penguins make up for whatever "Journey" lacks in originality. And its sex scene is more sensual than any you'll see in the fest's most feted documentary, "Inside Deep Throat." It is certainly remarkable that out of a crowded field of celebrity-driven projects, the films to sell first boast un knowns, penguins and dancers from South Central Los An- Club with Religion is a part of everyone's life, and until recently, there was not an organization on campus that re flected the Jewish com,munity. Last semester, Lauren Fehl, real ized that there was no Jewish orga nization on campus and was afraid that there was a negative stereotype towards Judaism because of the lack of knowledge on campus. Fehl de cided that the best way to overcome the stereotype was to start an orga nization on campus that made oth ers aware of the Jewish religion. "I was brought up within a mixed religion family. My mother being Jewish and my father Christian, I re call a lot of confusion as a child about religious differences. Recall ing my childhood confusion, it was then I decided I needed to start a club on campus," said Fehl. lions Gate Film The Jewish Association of Behrend began having recruitment meetings last semester when it was approved by SGA and has a full e board consisting of President Fehl, Vice President Matt Futterman, Treasurer Katrina Kibben, Secretary aquaints sttidert4 Jewish culture By Lori DeFabio student life editor geles. Directed by glam photographer David LaChapelle, "Rize" takes us inside the culture of krumping, a gyrating, frenetic form of street dance and self-expression. Lions Gate Films nabbed the documentary, assuring that soon enough your mom will be taking krump lessons. Less surprising is this year's slate of teen dramadies and coming-of-agers. There's Marcos Siega's "Pretty Persuasion," which stars Evan Rachel Wood as manipulative sophomore Kimberly, who uses sex to sabotage a slightly perverted En glish teacher (Ron Livingston). It's a wannabe "Heathers" if there every was one - contrived, overwritten, predictably over sexed and filled with unsympathetic characters, most nota bly Kimberly's anti-Semitic wack-job of a father, played with far too much abandon by James Woods. Mike Mills' "Thumbsucker" is a more satisfying, albeit scattershot, look at teen angst. Set to the tunes of the Poly phonic Spree and Elliott Smith (who had committed to do ing the entire soundtrack before passing away in 2003), "Thumbsucker" follows high-schooler Justin (newcomer Lou Pucci) through sexual awakening, Adderall highs and thumbsucking shame and features a resonant performance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Justin's dad, a former football star with a paralyzing Peter Pan complex. But despite quite a few stellar scenes, "Thumbsucker" is incomplete, with a hazy relationship between Justin and his mom (Tilda Swinton) and an unnecessary thread involving Keanu Reeves as a New Age orthodontist. Leading the pack is Noah Baumbach's beautifully written and heartfelt "The Squid and the Whale." I hesitate to even bunch this film in with "Persuasion" and "Thumbsucker" because it is so much more than a coming-of-age story, but as it handles that element in such a far superior way, it seems an apt comparison. Writer/director Baumbach may be best known for his re cent collaboration with Wes Anderson on "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," but even with Anderson producing "Squid," the film is a far cry from that director's stylized world. It is the most emotionally honest movie that I've seen at the fest yet, a wonderfully perceptive character study re volving around the dissolving marriage of a has-been writer (Jeff Daniels), his newly published and estranged wife (Laura Linney) and their two sons, the elder in awe of his father's intellectual pretension (Jesse Eisenberg) and the younger in awe of his tennis pro and pubescent goings-on (Billy Baldwin plays the pro; Kevin Kline's spawn Owen the foul-mouthed kid). Baumbach set the film in 1986 Brooklyn because "that's when I went through my own parents' divorce" and admits to bringing as much "real stuff" from his life as possible into the film, even dressing Daniels in his father's clothes. The Behrend Beacon 17 Lauren Beauseigneur and xS *IA* advised by Mary Coanerty. - lik.2 JAB is not only for people of t, Jewish religion. There are c , ' ' about 15 active members in tat and many of them are not Jew* including Kibben. :;,;:,,„ "I decided to join this chth iiet' cause it works to support acts ,t that I think would be very bihikii; cial for Behrend to expetiooo**:, an e-board member I can WV ISO* these events," said Ii ibtat JAB is planning for the current some; having Sara from thf Philadelphia" speak talk about what it is ish woman and an challenges she faced religion to get whet., JAB also plans on _ Jewish community with HtdnettitA remembrance activities and icipaiki, with Hillels from other schooli tcvi put on programs for Passover, JAB meets every other Moeda') 6 p.m. in Reed 112 and is anyone would like to attend. litts more Information, contact AO 01 141'233 Opsti.edn.
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