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
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- ~,
_L. -------- 1
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(,)
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.