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.