Thursday, September 5, 1991 Now Available... Affordable video rentals take the place of expensive theater visits B Crai : Cam . bell The Collegian In today's world, going to a theater to see a film is quite unaffordable to us poor and struggling college students. An alternative - wait a few months for your favorite flick to hit videotape. Here are a few worth your time and money. Fandango Long before Dances with Wolves and Robin Hood, Kevin Costner starred in this film. The setting is a Texas college in the mid 70's, and Costner is the leader of the Groovers. This gang-o-friends takes off on a stress-relieving, spontaneous vacation that all of us can only dream about. Judd Nelson costars in this film as one of the Groovers. This is a really great movie with a few references to war but an overall hilarious plot and very climactic moments. Evil Dead 2 As far as cult movies go, this film is a classic. Any movie whose hero chops off his own hand and replaces it with a chainsaw has my nomination for an Oscar. Evil Dead 2 starts where the first one ended. Our hero, Ash, is in the wrong haunted woods at the wrong time. After killing, beheading, and burying his possessed girlfriend things only go downhill. Soon his own limbs, the local yokels, and the corpse in the fruit cellar attack him. Attentive viewers will find a reference to Freddy Krueger in this classic. Manhunter Thomas Harris' fame is long overdue and the hit film The Silence of the Lambs is an excellent adaptation of the novel, but there is more. Years ago when Miami Vice was the rage and Michael Mann was the greatest director around, the film Manhunter came out. Adapted from the novel "Red Dragon," we first meet Dr. Lecter in this film. Although chilling in its plot and artsy in its look, this film never made it in the mass market and only now has begun to show video circulation. The hero in this film is easy to relate to and the killer is frightening. Once you find out how he chooses his victims, you may never feel safe again. Barfly Mickey Rourke stars in this movie and, as in his other films, he plays a character with a set of morals very different from society's norm. He doesn't have a job, doesn't have any money, and basically THE LOGAN WINTERGARDEN SERIES The Collegian spends his time hopping from bar to bar and getting into fist fights in between. Beneath the glamorous exterior, Rourke is a cultured person. He listens to classical music, struggles as a writer, and falls in love with Faye Dunaway (a fellow barfly). Rourke drinks his way through the soap opera world from one dive to the next until he is discovered, through his writings, by a rich babe. She offers to let him live with and mooch off of her for the rest of his life, as long as he continues writing. The dilemma now facing Rourke is how to write like a struggling author when he doesn't have to struggle. And which life does he even prefer? Let It Ride He gambles, drinks, smokes, cheats on his wife, and he's the star of the movie. He's Richard Dreyfuss as Trotter, a cabbie who picks up a tip on a horse race and decides to try his luck at the track instead of saving his marriage. Terri Garr costars in this flick. It's a simple movie that you probably won't like the first time you watch it, or the second for that matter, but the third time you watch it...you'll love it. BRING YOUR LUNCH TO THE PENN STATE- BEIIREND WINTERGARDEN AND ENJOY WORLD-CLASS CHAMBER MUSIC IN AN INFORMAL SETTING. Gray's Something Leather full of anecdotal tales b Paul Plisiewicz The Collegian Although a few of the scenes go down like a leatherburger from the local drive-in movie theater, Alasdair Gray's latest offering proves to be enjoyable. The novel details the lives of four Scottish women, providing glimpses of each of their lives from the formative schoolgirl years, through the innocence of adolescence and into maturity. Their lives are wrought with confusion and discontent concerning both social and personal issues. The story details the class struggle the women are subjected to, as well as their search for emotional and sexual fulfillment. Something Leather is a witty, satirical, and provocative novel. The novel opens with June - tired of the "conventional" apparel and attitudes - window shopping on the streets of Glasgow. She wants something new, yet her traditional upbringing holds her back. She locates a leather shop and steps in - just for a look. Enter Senga and Donalda, the proprietors of the shop, who deal not only in exotic lineaments, but also in exotic people. They offer their services and June is both a bit wary and intrigued. Gray halts the action and sends us back in time to WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 PENNSTATE THE CHICAGO iINDS i/ V Erie review some of the more influential moments of the women's lives. These flashbacks read more like a collage of anecdotal tales than one coherent story. The four women appear as peripheral characters indirectly involved in the action. The women, however, are affected most by what happens around them. These are the events which necessitate the leather shop - the present. Despite the panoramic view of the emotional, social, and economic worlds of the women. Gray maintains the clarity of his narrative. The author creates a wide variety of characters which provide for much of the novel's wit. From a bum who asks passers-by if they know about electricity to a chauvinistic boss and liberal school mistress, the minor characters populate a laughable and endearing landscape. They are the highlight of the novel, giving it a breath of reality. The final two chapters continue where the first left off. The women are mature and self-defined -- except June who is in the process. The final few scenes are the most provocative and, in some ways, disturbing. Gray ties the loose ends left by the previous chapters. Finally, the women achieve what it is they are after -- something new, something different, something leather. The Behrend College Page