Latest Grisham Novel Has The Brethren , the eleventh novel by John Grisham, is a campy attempt to liven up the usual lawyer/crime drama fare Grisham writes. The book has two plots that intertwine as the story develops. The First plot involves three for mer judges, known as the Brethren, who are all in federal P£NN D 0 T TOM RIDGE, GOVERNOR BUCKLEUP every time. EVERY TIME. Everywhere. a Campy Twist By Matthew McKeown prison for different reasons. They devise a plan to ensure their financial security dnce their prison terms are over. With the help of a pathetic crooked lawyer, the Brethren place an ad in a gay magazine stating they are a young man in his 20s look ing to correspond with older men. The idea is to find men who have money and a reason to hide their sexual orientation and blackmail them into giving the Brethren money. The plan, works and the Brethren, with the help of their lawyer, extort hundreds of thou sands of dollars from their vic tims and hide the money in an off-shore bank account. The other plot involves the director of the CIA who wants to rig the upcoming presidential election. He has carefully searched for a candidate who will show potential voters that there is a Buckie Because every crash close WHAT BO YOU HAVE to TO MOLD OR TO? home. Capital Times Editor need for a strong military defense. He selects Aaron Lake, a rela tively unknown U.S. representa tive with a clean past, to be that nominee. When the CIA director tells Lake that he can guarantee the election if Lake uses the defense issue as his selling point, Lake agrees and runs for president. The two plots become one when the Brethren learn that one of their pen pals is none other than Aaron Lake. Lake, using a pseudonym, has been writing to who he believes is Ricky, a helpless drug addict in a Florida rehab facility. The Brethren ultimately dis cover Lake’s identity and attempt to blackmail him. Their attempts are intercepted by the CIA, how ever, so that the CIA can protect their hand-picked candidate. The story culminates in a complicated plan that will ensure the Brethren will not be able to expose Lake’s sexual orientation. The CIA gets their president and the Brethren get a reduced prison sentence and a lot of money. For fans of Grisham novels, the plot is familiar territory. The protagonist gets himself caught up in some scheme that he has to get himself out of, often with clandestine government officials involved in some way. The Brethren offers a similar theme but Grisham injects a cer tain amount of campiness with his descriptions of the crooked judges and their inept lawyer. The lawyer is a drunk who often fights with his secretary. The judges speak among them selves in a slapstick manner. Grisham tried to change his now-familiar formula by writing The Brethren with a lighter feel to it. It works to a degree but it doesn’t make the reader believe the action. Would three judges actually blackmail men by placing an ad in a gay magazine? Probably not. And how is it possible that the CIA, an organization that can orchestrate foreign terrorism, not know that a man who they want to be president is gay? It’s a bit of a stretch but fortu nately, The Brethren is still an enjoyable read. I give it a B-. Scream 3 a Yawn Capital Times Staff Writer Yawn seems more like the bored on a Saturday afternoon, appropriate title for the third and Worse yet, the sensitivity final chapter of the Scream trilo- police seem to have gotten hold of the reels. Don’t be misled by the movie’s R-rating for horror vio lence. Unlike its predecessors, 3 is about as violent as Terms of Endearment. There is no visible slash in this slasher film. Keep your eyes open for the extra large poster of Creed in Sydney’s bedroom on the set of Stab 3. Such a terribly shameless plug! The website on the bottom of the poster is way too visible to be necessary. Better yet, I doubt Sydney was listening to Creed in 1996, the year the bedroom scene is sup posed to take place, considering their first album didn’t debut until the following year. There are a few redeeming qualities about this not-so-scary movie. A few great cameos by Carrie Fisher, Jason Mewes, and Kevin Smith are fairly amus ing. All three cameos, however, have a total screen time of about ten minutes. Don’t worry. Even though the revelation of the killer is not all that interesting, I won’t tell you who it is. But beware. Wes Craven’s last movie, Music of the Heart, has made him a sentimen tal sap. As these movies have gotten progressively worse, a sigh of relief oozes out of us who do not scream at the non-threatening guy in a black sheet. The cast and crew of Scream 3 were definitely counting on a returning audience who already knew the story of Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell). Scream 3 has little-to-no new plot at all. The entire movie is based around the making of Stab 3, the faux version of the faux Woodsboro murders. To quote Interview With a Vampire, “How avant-garde!” A film-within-a-film... but not really. Stab 3 never really gets made. Instead, you are left with a bunch of actors playing actors playing characters played by more actors * MOVIE REVIEW Scream 3 bl.iiimi) Nevu Campl>e!! and Courtney Cox Arquette ( ii'tith 1 : ( To put it bluntly, Scream 3 is a muddled mess of over- paid actors with absolutely noth- ing to do but look cute and of course, scream. Okay, so the movie isn’t sup posed to have a plot. They are making fun of the slasher film. The problem is that in all the valiant attempts to make the movie a “post-modern” com mentary, it ends up looking more like director Wes Craven was VCReviews E-mail your comments .to: dmklss@psu.edu. Cruel Intentions (1999; 1 hr. 37 min.) Rating: 9 This film includes “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as you’ve never seen her before. Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) is wickedly entertaining in this definitely should-see film. The only reason the movie didn’t score a “10” is because it ends just a little too neatly. Don’t miss this one, though. Species (1995; 1 hr. 48 min.) Rating: 3 Combine an unbelievable plot with uninteresting special effects and you’ve got this below-average thriller. Talen- FEATURES By Nicole Burkholder By Daniel Kane Capital Times Staff Writer ted actors - in a stupid movie. The Mummy (1999; 2 hrs. 5 min.) Rating: 9 The special effects alone make this movie well worth watching. The movie, rated PG-13, won’t thrill the hard core horror fan, but it will def initely stimulate the senses of the general audience. The Living Dead (1992; 1 hr. 32 min.) Rating: 1 Unquestionably the most mindless movie in recent histo ry. Homosexuality, sophistica tion and intelligence don’t mix during this pointless adventure. Devoid of plot and filled with stereotypes, this film earns the lowest rating I can give.
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