ftakhtomEwu 'Buffalo' stampedes into A2 The anticipated film version of David Mamet's play "American Buffalo" hits the big screen at the Michigan Theater this week. The acclaimed movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz as two hustlers who betray their cohort during a heist. It is at the Michigan for a limited time - through Friday, and tonight's screening is at 9:30. As always, student tickets are just $5. Monday November 11, 1996 iDA Intelligence heldhostage ietor on Howard's long- ,;xawaited thriller, 'Ransom,' falters By Joshua Rich Daily Arts Editor In "Ransom," Mel Gibson takes an unbelievable turn as airline tycoon Tom Mullen, who lives a picture-per- fect life until some maniacal creep swipes his beloved son from Central Park. With the same virile audacity he used to tackle the bad guys in "Mad Max" or "Lethal Weapon," Gibson calls the kidnap- _ pers' bluff, offer- ing the demand- RE ed $2 million ransom as a N bounty on P THEIR heads. At Br That's when s Mar should faintly echo real life) and "Ransom"'s implied themes never bear any fruit. Rather, they get tangled r; in a web of implausibility and exploitation - of both our wits and our intelligence. The-movie is a waste- land of fine actors, clever cinematog- raphy, a few remarkable action sequences and a plot that, were it injected with more sense and fresh- ness, would cer- tainly flower into VIEW a viable, believ- able thriller. Ransom " R a n s o m" ** fuses artifioial rwood and Showcase excitement .and feeble dramatic attempts that ulti- mately fail to add up to a worthwhile film. There is nothing entertaining about watching parents Gibson -and Rene Russo tear their hair out waiting for the return of their abducted son. Nor is it fun to see young Sean Mulle (Brawley Nolte) bound, blindfolde dehydrated, terrified and repeatedly told he's going to be killed as he begs for his mommy, Now that's a rip-roaring good timel Adding to "Ransom"'s dearth-of yuks and charm is the absence of-the brilliant chemistry Gibson and Russo previously developed in "Lethal Weapon 3." And that's too bad. While See RANSOM, Page 11 the problems arise. Because no matter how strenu- ously it aspires to be, "Ransom" is not a thriller. Nor is it a comedy, nor is it an action flick, nor is it a deep drama. The film's major sin is that it only poses as all of the above. It fails, after an unnecessarily lengthy running time, to honestly address some pertinent con- cerns. Do Gibson and wife Rene Russo love each other or even care that their son is gone? Why doesn't Gary Sinise's psycho-villain just kill Gibson's kid? And would we really behave as reck- lessly as Gibson if we were in his shoes? Unfortunately, the answer is never what we expect (given that the film Mel Gibson goes on TV to make a desperate plea for the return of his son In "Ransom." Eric Bogosian wakes up, muses on society By Gabriel Greene For the Daily Eric Bogosian is backstage, calmly packing up his props after Saturday night's show. He has spent the past 75 minutes tearing an already hoarse voice to shreds. He looks tired and almost ... mortal. He asks with a cracking but composed voice: "Did the hoarse- ness take away from the show?" Hardly. In "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee," Bogosian wouldn't let RE anything stand in the way of his message, which is that there is Ei no message. "I have no more Mi empathy left," he states at the beginning of the show. "I have no ideas to propound ... I want to make you numb." Most of the respectable crowd in the Michigan Theater was well on its way to numbness by the time the intro- Nductory monologue was through. In it, Bogosian rails against civilization in America in 1996. "It's anarchy barely being held together.... (It's) the retarded leading ,the blind." Bogosian takes a short detour and becomes Forrest Gump: "Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.' Back now to him- self: "I know what I'm gonna get - fucked!" Bogosian has a perfectly drawn map of his inner demons in his head, and he hits all the destinations with I no stops at rest areas along the way. He can be anyone; he can be the people you work with, people you live with. And as much as you may want to deny it, he can be you. The next stop is Jesus. Bogosian plays him like a befuddled college kid, bummed out by his dad's punish- ment. "This is what God does to his own kid!" Bogosian screams. "I sincerely doubt that (God cares about you)." A brief interlude arrived when an unimpressed audience member ("You're no Dennis Miller, I'll tell you that!"). E y E W Bogosian makes a U-turn and V, E ~suddenly he's a yuppie stranded at Ac Bogosian an airport, glibly flashing his ichiganTheater American Express Gold Card and clinging desperately to his cellu- Nov. 9, 1996 lar phone. The peak of his day is when he spots "Klaus" Van Damme coming out of a bathroom, even though he can't remember a single movie he's been in. The characters come fast and furious, but Bogosian pin-balls from presence to presence with astounding energy and ease, stalking the stage like a caged lion. Now he's a spiritual guru, revealing the secret to change your life - namely, knowing that "you are nothing.' Next up is a holdover from "Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead," Red, the drug-dealer who lives with two dogs ("Harley" and "Davidson"), his girlfriend Rainbow ("She's a stripper so she thinks she's better than other people"), and a wonderful phi- losophy: "There's nothing wrong with making money, as long as you don't waste it," Red says as he cuts a long line of cocaine for his customer. Bogosian hangs a sharp left for a brief trip as a clue- less actor auditioning for a movie. Suddenly, Bogosian is playing an artist named Eric Bogosian. He giddily envisions the Mt. Olympus of fame that he so earnestly wants to ascend, where Kevin Costner and Oliver Stone play volleyball, while Michael Bolton and Kenny G jam nearby. "(There's) a ladder from the lowliest beggar in Calcutta all the way up to Quentin Tarantino," he says. "When I make it, we'll sit around and talk about me." Finally, Bogosian concludes with another revisited monologue from "Pounding Nails," the unrelentingly hysterical "Blow Me," ending with Bogosian on the floor, covering his ears. Bogosian constantly keeps the audience on the ropes; Saturday's crowd was at once laughing at his perfect- down-to-the-molecule personas, yet shocked when he got too real. Ahead of time, some were astutely warned that the performance "is not recommended for younger or more serious sensitive audience members." Bogosian won't ever think of backing down, though; when he gives you characters, he gives you everything inside of them. Far beyond bad and good, Bogosian gives you silly, sadistic, petty and pathetic. And brutal honesty. Even when hampered by hoarse- ness, this steaming show packs all the wallop of a dou- ble espresso, waking you up to what's out there. Eric Bogoslan performed at the Michigan Theater on Saturday. f real music, scheduled for (tuesday) available at 2:oIl.n. release dates subject to change without notice, sorry. Vv F ~ereleased miusic from some top ars.. a#, dates couictnge (rco mpankstend to da t a 11.26 ____mL fv ee B. is.ro V0 l ia n~w44:.A* .,D.A4 AAngls bX Se I RECYCLE THE DAILY "7" Dialogue of Violence- Cinema in WWII's Pacific Theater FilmNideo 455 Asian Studies 490 Winter 1997 This course will explore the relationship of WWII's Pacific Theater to moving image media in two movements. First, a comparative history of Hollywood and Japanese film- making during the war explores issues of race, national- ity, propaganda, and violence. The second half of the course continues to analyze these problems by turning to post-1945 attempts to remember, critique, and com- memorate (or forget) WWII in media as disparate as television, video art, and the internet. Dialogue of Violence will screen propaganda by Frank Capra, Kurosawa Akira, John Ford, Bruce Conner, Imamura Shohei and others to ask questions like:, " What's Fordian about John Ford's contribution to the war effort: Sex Hygiene? " Do nations have their own, distinct languages of vio- lence? Not everyone can get into our outfit. But if you've got what it takes to become a United States Marine Officer, you could get