m g' The Michigan Dily - Wednesday, Februar 26 1997 - f ,Screen Actors' Guild Awards prophecise upcoming Oscars The Screen Actors' Guild Awards were handed out in ;a. Hollywood on Saturday, honoring the best performances in film and television. Awarding acting and only acting, the SAG awards were somewhat less predictable than they have been in the past. Having only existed for three years, the film honll- "t ors have been prophetic of the four acting Oscars for all three years. So, turn to the SAG when you place your Oscar bets. Film Ensemble Cast: "The Birdcage" Lead Actress: Frances McDormand, "Fargo" Lead Actor: Geoffrey Rush, "Shine" Supporting Actress: Lauren Bacall, "The Mirror Has Two Faces" Supporting Actor: Cuba Gooding Jr., "Jerry Maguire" ShTelevision 4 Ensemble Cast, Drama: "ER" Lead Actress, Drama: Gillian Anderson, "The X-Files" Lead Actor, Drama: Dennis Franz, "NYPD Blue" Ensemble Cast, Comedy: "Seinfeld" Lead Actress, Comedy: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Seinfeld" Robin Willams, Hank Azarla and the cast of "The Lead Actor, Comedy: John Lithgow, "3rd Rock From The Sun" Brdcage" won best ensemble cast at the awards .-. Christina Ricci and her darn cat, D.C., try to find a restaurant that makes terrific cat soup. 'Cat' not much more than roadkill By Michael Zilberman Dapy Arts Writer .Lmagine "Silence Of The Lambs" recast by a disturbed Tinseltown exec so that Clarice Starling is now Christina Ricci and Hannibal Lecter is a cat. Luckily, the target audience of "That Darn Cat, a new _ _ _ Disney comedy, is too young to enter- R in such sordid T parisons. that Darn Cat'' directed by Bob" Spiers and allkgedly scripted by -r- hold on to your hats - Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the people behind "The People vs. Larry Flint," continues the tradition of Disney live-action come- dies being cheap, fast and interchange- -Sprinkled with bits of elbow-nudging "Ault" humor but conceived and exe- cuted with a kids'll-watch-anything mantra firmly in mind, these films usu- ally land in theaters early February, lesve by mid-February and quietly head for video stores by March. "That Darn Cat" appears to comply with all of the above, except its share of "adult" jokes is rather surprisingly high. The plot concerns Patti, a junior gh school outcast (played by Christina Ricci, the emerging princess of outcasts) whose cat, D.C., drags in a E 'h clue to a kidnapping case. The girl teams up with a jittery FBI agent (Doug E. Doug, seemingly out to shred any credibility the suits have recently gained with all the positive TV and film coverage), and the requi- site wackiness gets underway. The wackiness in this particular case consists primarily at Darn Cat of following the cat around town and bumping into peo- At Showcase ple and buildings. Now, here is where the promised modern and satiric edge kicks in, because everybody in the film except Patti is, to put it blunt- ly, a moron. While kids are giggling at old ladies losing their fake teeth, adults are expected to dig the casting: Look, it's Biff from "Back To The Future" making out with the fat girl from "A League of Their Own!" What comes across is a peculiar misanthropy on the part of the director, culminating in the extended chase that nearly levels the town. One of the film's other questionable directorial decisions was to keep the girl and the agent apart from each other in its second half: Without a dia- logue partner, Doug E. Doug is forced to relate his thought process to the audience by talking to himself, and sounding downright possessed. Christina Ricci, perfect in "Addams Family Values," here seems to be learning an important skill of phoning in her performances. The cat, it needs to be said, is extremely cute; but the movie, ignoring its own title, is inter- ested in him much less than in, well, smashing stuff. As is the case with an increasing number of kids' flicks, the last 20 min- utes of "That Darn Cat" are one long .demolition derby, staged with complete punk irreverence: A car smashes into a funeral procession, knocking the corpse out of the coffin! A monster truck drives through a gazebo with a female string quartet playing Haydn! Not one but TWO gas stations go up in smoke! And all we asked for was a cat movie. -:.q. r4, 4. Yr.4 4 3, . . 4 Get Do What You Are, the hottest career Ssearch guide anywhere. Don't just match skills i the , to job descriptions, match your personality. ; ,, ,* Do What You Are shows you how. It's fun. It's : A repiA upainless. And it could save you a lot of time : and frustration. Because while you may not " know it yet, there's nothing worse than finding yourself in the wrong job. r y> Personality type self-assessment * Top career choices for each different type Job search strategies + $n . _ Real-life examples and more In paperback4 at bookstores now Little, Brown and Company iiii 3iiiiiii 3...iit.. 33333i 333333ii 33i 33.i 33333Dil3i3iiiiiiii i3i33 333i3 iiiiiE3 ES 3i.....iiiiiiiii 3 Ricci talks to a random woman. Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Check out tomorrow s Daily for PEACE CORPS "THE TOUGHEST3OI YOU'LL EVER LOVE" Peace Corps Representatives will be on campus Information Session Thursday, February 27th at 7:00 pm International Center, Room 9 603 East Madison 647-2182 . 4 ~ _ . _ . -. =.. , , ' { + ., r 7 . s . ' ' t i ". i " A "4,, , " .. fY > $ . . a ._ , , ursN . FORMORE INFORMATION www.peacecorps.gov S KI WAii:Iel I. c I 1 4 Stay at Boyne between February 24 and March 14 (We bet your Spring Break is in there somewhere!) Boyne Mountain has lodging for just $40 (Per day, per person, dbl. occ.) .7- .6- .5- Registration begins ... 4 - March 13 + .. . 3- Spring Classes ,. . ..2- UIIIIcuUR Take advantage of smaller class sizes Take courses missed during the regular academic year Fulfill General Education requirements Concentrate on one or two courses that are particularly Affina. .w ai 3, w Take a lower or upper division course that is part of your major Accelerate your academic program Earn credit while returning home for a summer job ======= rWT FI