'WABNOMWAM
Echolyn's Genesis
With all the grunge, metal and punk clogging the airwaves, the '90s have
been a tough time for progressive rockers like Echolyn. However, these
ambitious musicians are trying to turn the tide with their debut album "As
the World," which arrives in stores today. To celebrate its release, the
band is playing the Blind Pig tonight at 9:30 p.m., with Detroit rockers
Discipline providing support. Tickets are $5 in advance.
Page 5
Tuesday,
March 7,1995
'Hunted' plays the
By Michael Zilberman
Daily Arts Writer
"The Hunted" provides one of
those odd movie experiences where
you stumble upon the screenwriter's
credit at the end and, for a moment,
The Hunted
Directed by J Lawton
with Christopher Lambert
and John Lone
At Showcase
feel genuinely surprised. Films of
this sort, as all of us secretly sus-
pect, grow by themselves on the
back shelves of video stores. Their
plots don't require human assistance
to develop. They beget them
An example.
Paul Racine (Christophe
bert), a French-American bu
man, meets a mysterious
(Joan Chen) on the last day
trip to Japan. About 20 minu
their meeting, they're at he
making love in what seems
very large bucket. When
leaves, the woman is killed by
Paul returns just in time to
glimpse of the assassin's fac
the entire ninja cult (at leas
what they're called in the m
fact, ninjas are not a cult, an
were) is after him.
Luckily, Racine is prote
a modern-day samurai who{
of settling old scores with t
cipal bad guy. Bodies fly hit
yon, about a hundred bystan
done away with and son
babbles nonstop about huma
You get the idea.
The movie is a peculiar
back to the no-budget Golan
ninja flicks of the '70s and '
jaw-droppingly sexist, the h
suave businessman and the re
nese footage still look
Vancouver. The creators co
all of this to their advantage,
result would be extremely
taining in its very trashiness.
tunately, they thought the
making a serious psycho
thriller.
wrong game
iselves. The villain is haunted by the
image of his victim. The samurai is
r Lam- a borderline psycho who throws
isiness- pathetic hissy fits. The woman
woman (played by the talented Joan Chen
y of his who unfortunately became
tes into Hollywood's all-purpose sidekick
-r place - she's been cast as a Chinese, a
to be a Japanese, a Vietnamese, a Korean
Racine and an Eskimo) shows up in dream
y ninjas. sequences covered with blood like
catch a Carrie. And so forth.
e. Now Then, there's Christopher Lam-
st that's bert. I admit to liking the man: He
ovie; in was very effective in Besson's "Sub-
d never way" and I still have fond memories
of the original "Highlander," un-
cted by marred by two abysmal sequels. He
dreams does get miscast a lot (as hard as I
he prin- tried, I couldn't buy him as a chess
:her and master in "Knight Moves") and yes,
ders are he's not much of a thespian, but
mebody when you shut him up and make him
n spirit. grow stubble and wear a long gray
coat, he has a presence.
r throw- The flip side is that we rarely
-Globus connect with his characters; he al-
80s. It's ways lacks that little dumb some-
hero is a thing we could latch onto - a
-al Japa- catchphrase, an offbeat habit. When
ks like he is offered a potion that would
Auld use "take him to the world of spirits"
and the and quips something about a Grate-
enter- ful Dead concert, the joke falls flat
Unfor- not because it is worse than your
y were average wisecrack on "Mystery Sci-
logical ence Theater 3000," but because we
simply cannot imagine Lambert's
Are you threatening me? I'm the Great Cornhollo! You cannot nunt met
Joan Chen has bagged her prey.
King's story is shredded in 'Mangler'
By Prashant Tamaskar
Daily Arts Writer
Although Stephen King is one of
the most popular authors writing
today, most movie adaptations of
his stories have been flops. With the
exception of "The Shawshank Re-
demption" and possibly "The Shin-
ing," films based on his work have
not done justice to their creator. For
whatever reason, King's ideas are
more successful on paper than on
film. Unfortunately, "The Mangler,"
the latest story to be converted into
a movie, is so atrocious that Stephen
King may think twice about ever
selling another idea to Hollywood.
The movie begins with an acci-
dent at a giant laundry company,
somewhere in Maine. The indus-
trial ironing machine, affectionately
referred to as the mangler, first in-
jures a woman, then, apparently lik-
ing the taste of human blood, eats
another. However, the head of the
company, the evil Mr. Gartley (Rob-
ert Englund), who has nearly the
whole police department on his pay-
roll, refuses to shut down the ma-
chine. So it is up to Johnny (Ted
Levine), an investigating police of-
ficer, to save the day.
After several more deaths,
Johnny enlists the help of his
brother-in-law, an expert on spirits,
to exorcise the demons from the
ironing machine with a mind of its
own. The rest of the film concerns
itself with the epic battle between
the supernatural mangler and the
cop that just won't go away.
The first question to ask is: Who
could have ever thought that this
could have been a good movie? The
The Mangler
Directed by
Tobe Hooper
with Robert Englund
and Ted Levine
At Showcase
second question to ask is: Who was
responsible for the absolutely hor-
rible job of casting? By being in
this movie, the relatively unknown
cast is setting themselves up for
careers spent in complete anonym-
ity. Most of the actors appeared as
if they had never done anything
besides high school plays. And, the
one familiar performer, Robert
Englund, may have been the worst
actor in the whole movie. Com-
pared to his work in this film, his
"Nightmare on Elm Street" perfor-
mances were remarkable.
However, to their credit, the ac-
tors were restricted by a script that
may have been more inferior than
their talents. The dialogue was
choppy, awkward and crude. Sadly,
most sixth-graders could have writ-
ten a more convincing script. Mak-
ing its weaknesses more apparent
was the movie's reliance on blood
and guts as a device. The director
was not shy about showing the fin-
ished product of the mangler's work.
Just as sometimes it is hard to
say why exactly a movie is great, it
is difficult to document exactly why
this movie is so bad. The script,
acting and directing are obvious rea-
sons, but there is something more to
it. It is such a poor film that it is
offensive. A fair number of viewers
walked out of the theater in total
disgust less than halfway through it.
It really says something when people
who paid seven dollars don't even
care to find out what happens in the
end.
It is disgraceful that a film such
as "The Mangler" was even allowed
to be released to the public. The
only good that may ever come out of
this movie is if producers stopped
making such terrible Stephen King
adaptations because of it.
character at the concert. Or, for that
matter, bickering with his wife, or
getting promoted on the job, or at-
tending a high school reunion.
For the screenwriters among us,
"The Hunted" is a convenient pocket
encyclopedia of structural mistakes.
It has two sequences intended as
climactic scenes, and both occur
too early in the film. Also, every-
body knows that the Big Love Scene
MULTIMEDIA
Madden 95
EA Sports
Sega Genesis
You can be sure of one thing in this
world of uncertainties: John Madden
would neverletyou down like the Charg-
ers. He has worked with William
Robinson, game programmer
extraordinaire, to produce the best foot-
ball game to ever grace the Sega Gen-
esis game system. "Madden 95" takes
you to a new level of football realism.
The only drawback is the potential for
lunacy. Once you getthe strategy down,
all the minor details from spins and
straight arms to hitting the right holes
will keep you busy and ensure addic-
tion for a long time to come.
The best part about "Madden 95" is
that, like virtually all EA sports games,
you can always get better. Once you
figure out that if you high step and get
hit, you're likely to fumble the ball, you
may still be in the dark about whether to
throw a bullet or a lob on a post pattern.
The constant learning process drasti-
cally reduces the boredom factor that
was present in dinosaur games such as
the classic Intellivision football. With
144 offensive and 66 defensive (plus
six audibles), the myriad of possibili-
ties is endless. Addsto that the other,
adjustable features such as weather,
play-call mode (you can bluff) and pass-
catch mode (automatic or manual), and
you might never play the same game
twice. The most useful feature is the
ability to shutoff Maddenisms. He only
says a couple of phrases like "Now
that's big-time football," which makes
repetitions less bearable.
When you start out, you may need to
use the All-Madden team against Tampa
should immediately precede the Big
Fight Scene in the last third of the
movie. Don't play with the law.
The action center of the film -
a drawn-out fight on a bullet train
- is vaguely spectacular. Still, af-
ter a minute, I found myself staring
at the train's interior design and
getting irritated about the corpses
obscuring the view. I never com-
plain about gratuitous gore in the
movies - heck, I thought "Natu 4l
Born Killers" could use some more
- but the slaughter of innocent pas-
sengers in "The Hunted" is a mas-
terpiece of unnecessary violence.
And it's boring. "The Hunted" ends
up looking like a cleverly conceived
antiviolence message movie: It is
worth watching if only to find that a
series of decapitations can put you
to sleep.
Bay to keep the game competitive, but
ifyouknow and love the game, it should
only take a couple of tries to get the
hang of it. Sticking with one team and
learning about their play is recopy-
mended. Team strengths and weak-
nesses correlate with the teams' pre-
season outlooks. However, the matches
are not always realistic. When the game
was set for self-play between San Di-
ego and San Francisco, San Diego shut
out the Niners, 10-0. Don't worry,
though, because when you play the
computer it's bound to beat you, 50-0.
- Gianluca Montalti
TT7
IRA
1995 PROUDLY PRESENTS
h 10 and11 at 8 PM
March 12 at 2 PM
nter for the Performing Arts
ale at the League Ticket Office
gular, $6 Student with ID
-0450 for more information
f
.
306
DANCEWEAR SALE
THE MORE YOU SPEND, THE MORE YOU SAVE!
SPEND $1 - $50 20% OFF
$50 - $100 25% OFF
S* $ 100 & UP 30% OFF
(IN STOCK ONLY)
(EXCLUDES SALE ITEMS AND
PREVIOUS PURCHASES)
SALE ENDS
SUN. MARCH 12
--,
Marc
M
Power Cei
Tickets on s
$8 Re
Call 764
it
1"
mmmmw
LET YOUR VOICE BE
HEARD!
MAKE SURE TO COMPLETE YOUR
"BEST OF ANN ARBOR '95"
BALLOT.
RETURN YOUR BALLOT TO THE DAILY
AT 420 MAYNARD BY MARCH 31.
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