8 I The Behrend Beacon Babel, Queen vie for Oscar's Best Picture CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Babe/. The Queen and The Departed (shown above) are all nominated for "Best Picture of the Year.- By josh Lane student life editor ard season is in full swing and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed their nominations for the 2007 Academy Awards. There are some surprises, as there are every year. This year has two hig surprises, however. The movie Dreamgirls was not nominated for "Best Picture.'' even though it seemed like a "shoo-in'' before it was released in theaters. The movie was marketed to make it seem like it was made just to win an Oscar. The second surprise of this year is the sleeper hit Little Miss Sunshine. ft received a "Best Picture" nomination as well as Alan Arkin, and "Little Miss Sunshine" herself Abigail Breslin receiving Best Supporting Actor and Actress nominations. This year's "Best Picture" nominations span across many genres. From action to drama and from war to comedy, they are all included in the nomi nees. Here is a summary of this year's chosen five so you can decide which one you need to see before Feb. 25. Babel: Director. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Starring, Brad Pitt, and Cate Blanchett. This movie is about a series of events that unrav el when Susan. played by Cate Blanchett, gets shot while on vacation with her husband Richard, played by Brad Pitt. The movie has a lot of twists and turns and interlocking aspects. The Departed: Director, Martin Scorsese: Starring, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack DVD "Picks of the Week": The Departed By Josh Lane student life editor It's getting to that time of the year when every week, retailers promise to have a great DVD to add to your collection. Last week and this week have two of the best movies of the year: The Departed and The Prestige. The Departed was released last week, and if you don't already have it you are missing out on one of the best movies of the year. The Martin Scorsese flick has had nothing but great reviews and features a huge all-star cast. Jack Nicholson plays Irish gangster Frank Costello who controls Boston's mobster under world. Matt Damon plays a gangster that goes undercover as a federal agent working for Costello. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the exact opposite of Damon's character. He is a cop that goes undercover to infiltrate Costello's under world. It k a gritty movie full of violence and all the great stuff you want to see from Scorsese. The two disc special edition has some very cool features on it. including a very interesting documentary on the notorious James "Whitey" Bulger, a south The Cyber Café: lost in cyber space? By Faith Moisey and Theresa Di Buono staff writers If you have a class in the REDC, you may or may not have noticed that there is no wireless network available. If you head over to the cyber café where, presumably due to the obviousness of the name, you should be able to access the Internet: however, you cannot. This very issue has been puzzling the minds of Penn State Behrend students and staff alike. Why are we told we can access a wireless server when we can't? And why has no one said anything about it? Ron Hoffman, Manager of College Information Technology Services, the office that shares responsibility for supporting the technol ogy classrooms on campus, summed up the situ ation very concisely. He says, "In short, the wireless network that will cover all of the REDC, including the café, has been delayed because of a holdup last spring by the state in releasing funds for all the equip ment needed for the building, including the wire less network equipment. "The funds have now been released and it is our hope that the wireless network will be installed in the REDC over spring break. This would be the best case scenario. However, we can't make any promises because work on the r' J r Nicholson The Departed takes place in Boston and everyone puts on their best accent for this one. The story is about two moles: Damon is a mob gangster who infiltrates the Boston Police department, and DiCaprio is a police officer who goes undercover to infiltrate and befriend the head of Boston's Irish Mob. Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson. Letters From Iwo Jima: Director, Clint Eastwood; Starring, Ken Watanabe. Letters is the mirror version of the more widely seen Flags of our Fathers. It is done from the per spective of the Japanese soldiers trying to defend Iwo Jima. This version is the better one, and there is more action than its American counterpart and much better acting. Little Miss Sunshine: Director, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris: Starring, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin. Little Miss Sunshine follows a dysfunctional fam ily as they take a road trip across California to enter their youngest family member in a beauty pageant. The movie is hilarious and the best part is that it's already out on DVD. The Queen: Director, Stephen Frears; Starring, Helen Mirren. The Queen follows Queen Elizabeth II as she deals with the media backlash and the shock of the death of Princess Diana. It's not as boring as it sounds, I promise. The biggest thing to watch here is Mirren's "Best Actress" nominated role. Boston gangster that was the inspiration for Nicholson's character. Also, included on the spe cial edition is a documentary called "Scorsese on Scorsese," which is an audio autobiography of sorts with old film and pictures from Scorsese's childhood. Also included are behind the scenes footage and deleted scenes. The Prestige will be released on DVD this Tuesday, and it is a must-own. It stars Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johansson. The plot outline sounds absolutely ridiculous and it wasn't until I saw an early trailer that I became interested in the film. It is about two magicians, Bale and Jackman who start their careers together but then they ultimately end up separating and becoming each others' biggest rival. I know it sounds riveting so far. The truth is this movie gets gritty and sometimes violent. The best part about this movie is that it fires on all cylinders. The cinematography is excellent, the acting is superb and the set designs and costumes are impeccable. The movie has one of the best twists I've seen in a long time. These two movies are definitely great additions to any collection. system has yet to commence." So if you're looking to access wireless on cam pus, you're going to have to connect at one of the other spots for now. Wireless access can be found at the following locations: Bruno's Café, Reed Wintergarden, McGarvey Commons, Reed mailroom area, Hammermill food court and Hammermill 135 computer lab, Roche Hall, Nick lobby and Nick 156 computer lab, Science building lobby, Irvin Kochel center concourse and the John M. Lilley Library. The trouble with this lack of wireless Internet is more than obvious: the school is spending money on quantity rather than quality. The stu dents that are living on campus are unable to do things such as sit in the common area and do homework while accessing the Internet. This really should't be a issue either; it's nor mally a given that when you go to college, you can sit in your dorm's common area with friends and do homework, or do something as simple as put your laptop on your lap and sit on your bed. These are all things you take for granted when coming to college to live on campus. When a school has such a lack of technology, it's really a disappointment and makes you wonder where all your money is going. Students spend a good deal of money on their laptops and are unable to move them from the internet jack in their room. "Top Five Books I Recently Read" 5. "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis 4. "The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy" by Peter Huber and Mark Mills 3. "Global Crises, Global Solutions" by Bjorn Lomborg 2. "I'm Just Here For Food" by Alton Brown 1. "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway" by Ernest Hemingway "Top Five Movies I Last Rented" 5. Idiocracy 4. Star Wars V: Empire Strikes Back 3. Employee of the Month 2. Star Wars IV: A New Hope 1. Children of the Corn "Top Five CDs I Last Purchased" 5. Calexico's Garden Ruin 4. Joshua Radin's We Were Here 3. The Shins' Wincing the Night Away 2. Damien Rice's 0 1. Sufjan Stevens' Illinois - r - Tri id _EL by Chris Brown By Janet Niedenberger The by Chris LaFuria Friday, February 16, 2007 i lli • 41*n
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