The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 10, 1986-- Page 9

i

Makers, stars

of 'Canyon'

should be choked

By Geoffrey Riklin
There is no reason to believe
that any of the people who made
Choke Canyon are anything other
than mediocre or worse, but if they
bad exerted themselves to the
4jightest extent, they probably
i ould have made something less
readful.
You see, there's this idealistic
and gifted scientist (David) who
-'ants to help all mankind by
>&veloping a method to convert
=mund waves into energy. So all by
tis lonesome and with money he
bJbtains from who knows where, he
bilds a super-sophisticated labora -
,iry in a remote but uniquely lo -
bated place--when Halley's comet
masses over, the place on earth most
raffected by its gravitational pull
will be the land David the Scientist
has leased, a crucial part of the
project-- called Choke Canyon. But
a problem develops when the evil
-capitalist (fellow called Pilgrim)
vho profits mightily from nuclear
a Stevie Ra
(Continuedfrom Page 7
The band played a majority of
their new material, and by now
the keyboard player was a fixture
in the band. Vaughn's classics
just didn't sound the same with
Vynans' keyboard arrangements.
Towards the end of the show
Vaughn brought out an unknown
guitar player, whom he preceded
to jam with. The two also
played with Johnny Copeland,
"another Texas blues great who
had opened the show for them.
swDespite an impressive perfor-
mance that won a couple of
ovations, the show could have
been better. Double Trouble
returned the following February
to Royal Oak for a series of
shows with Jimmy Lee's band,
he Fabulous Thunderbirds. By
this time the new musical
arrangements worked much
dbetter, with Wynans coming in
to good effect on such songs as
"Love Struck Baby" and Tin Pan
Alley." These February shows
were quite good, and left one
wanting more.
f:
All hasl not been peachy for
Double Trouble, however. Some
potential fans are often turned off
by Vaughn's vocals. True, Stevie
Ray is no Mick Jagger of blues-
rock, but his voice does the trick
and it sounds as if he has actually
lived some of the blues he sings
about. This is especially apparent
on such tracks as "Texas Flood"
;or "Ain't Gone Give Up on
Love." Vaughn's constant tour -
ing also caused him problems
earlier this fall while in Europe,
when he had to be hospitalized
due to exhaustion. After a rest the
band has bounced back with a
new double live album, Live
;Alive, and another busy tour
schedule.
With Double Trouble touring
:behind the new live album, one
wonders what they might play.
:This time around, the new single,
;Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious,"

"is a good bet, along with most of
:his classic tunes. But after
-cxperimenting with Chicago
-blues, the R&B of "Super -
:ktitious," and playing at
 jazz/blues festivals around the
:country, one never knows what
yaughn might do on stage.
Can we
serve you?

energy finds out about our hero's
experiment: if the experiment
works and sound waves really can
be converted into energy, then Mr.
Pilgrim's company will be in a pic -
kle on account of nobody will want
nuclear energy anymore. So Pil -
grim, whose company has leased
the land to David, tries to buy Da -
vid out. David can't be bought. So
Pilgrim, like all evilrunningdog -
bourgeoiscapitalistpigs, results to
force; his thugs attack David and
his lab with trucks, machine guns,
and hand grenades. But do they de -
feat David? Of course not. Our hero
lives on not only to fight the das -
tardly enemy but to carry out his
experiment as well.
Just glancing at my notes I
count at least than 21 improba -
bilities or glaring errors in Choke
Canyon, and I must have missed at
least a few others. In addition to the
minor to middling to major flaws,
there are two massive ones. The
first is that, unless The New York
Times has been publishing a lot of
articles that have escaped my atten -

tion, major companies simply do
not go around shooting people.
They may cheat a bit, spy a little,
occasionally bribe someone, and
sometimes sell a dangerous product,
but they do not organize terrorist
attacks, especially not on American
soil. Decades ago corporations
would sometimes hire Pinkerton a -
gents and the like to beat up rebel -
lious employees, but that sort of
thing went out of style long ago. It
is easy to imagine what the net -
works and the news weeklies and
the courts would do in such a case.
The second is, would peaceful,
mild David suddenly turn into a
Rambo if attacked? Obviously not.
He would go to the media and a
sawyer and he would wind up with
all the research money he could
want.
With one exception, the acting
is depressing. Only Lance Henrik -
son manages to turn in a decent
performance. Stephen Collins, the
star, Janet Julian, the co-star, and
all the others are awful.
Chuck Bail directed this thing. I

hope I never see a Chuck Bail-
directed movie again. Bail manages
to have only prefabricated characters
in his project and evidences no
talent whatever. The only thing he
does display is his lack of common
sense.
If all the people who contributed
to this film had gotten together for
a week and used whatever

intelligence and talent they possess
to construct a decent plot, accept -
able characters, and passable dia -
logue, the result would probably
have been better. It is amazing that
they made a movie this bad. Also,
these people have a streak of chutz -
pah that they don't deserve. Choke
Canyon has in it an amazingly
blatant steal. In one seen David is

dragged along underneath one truck
and then another, and sabotages
both. Those who saw Raiders of
the Lost Ark will remember that
Indiana Jones did the same thing.
Chuck Bail and his cohorts are
unforgiveably lackadaisacal, incom -
petent, and shameless. What a dis -
grace.

Murray Perahia
Pianist
... one of the greatest artists before the public
today.. ." London Daily Telegraph
Program:
Beethoven: Sonata in E-flat, Op. 31, No. 3
Schumann: Sonata No. 2 in G minor
}f Chopin: Four Ballades
a j Ticket prices: $22, 21, 16, 12, 10

Sunday,

December 14 at 4:00 pm, Hill Aud.

7y Vaughn sett a

SPECIAL NOTICE:
$5.00 RUSH TICKETS sold Sat., Dec. 13 at Burton Memorial Tower
from 9:00 to noon. Limit of two per person; seating at the discretion of the
Musical Society. Availability limited to 200: Choral Union series concerts only.

Sure finals are approaching.
But the perfect way to relax
before the big grind would be to
join what is sure to be an
appreciative audience, and watch a

master of modern blues at one of
the best places to see any concert,
Hill Auditorium. Showtime is
set for 8:00 p.m., and The
Outlaws will be the opening act.

The University Musical Society, Burton Tower, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.
Office Hours: Weekdays 9-4:30, Saturday 9-12, Call (313) 764-2538.
The box office will be closed from noon on Dec. 24 to 9:00 am on Jan. 5.

VISA



WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO
CALL HOME BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS?
a) When another hour of cramming for the
stats exam isn't geing to help anyway.

b) When that Xmas CIub money is almost
gone, and you haven't even started buying
presents.

c)

When you just keep thinking about
unwinding after finals with the whole
family together again.

Okay, maybe exam time 'tisn't the season to be jolly. But a call
home might be just the thing to bring a little early holiday cheer.
And there's no more reliable way to call than using
AT&T. You can count on AT&T's high quality service
X11 dr~rr~r].

O OIL .tS

0

ally tar Vuu.
But there's no time like those weeks
before vacation to talk to your
parents. It's a time to make plans.
A time to talk about
gifts you're think-
ing of buying. A
time to reminisce Y
about other years
when the family
came together. And a
time to warn them that
bombing out in statistics is,
well, a probability.

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