$ - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 24, 1997

Silly plot makes Wishmaster' a flop

By Laura Flyer
Daily Arts Writer
Did Wes Craven, producer of the
"Nightmare on Elm Street" series and
the recent entertaining thriller,
"Scream,"lose his mind recently? I'm
dying to know,
because his latest
"horrific" endeav-W
or, "The AThe
Wishmaster," is V
filled with such
poor acting and an
unoriginal plot
that it seems impossible that he can
proudly attribute his name to the cred-
its.
The powerful forces of evil that
writhe between worlds are reborn and
arrive in the 20th century to haunt all
mankind.
Who represents these forces of
evil? Why, none other than a genie,
except he is not the typical Robin
Williams Aladdin. He is an evil genie

.E
:ti

who turns those desired three wishes
into nightmares. He is Nathaniel, or,
under his human mask, Djinn, one of
the many gods worshipped in ancient
Islam.
Good 'ole Nate didn't just appear
out of nowhere.
V I E W No no, the movie
gets just a little
Wishmaster tricky. There is an
emerald opal that
lies within an
At Showcase Islamic god, which
is shipped to a
wealthy statue collector.
However, the crane operator negli-
gently spills coffee on the controls,
causing the statue to crash to the
ground, also killing an innocent
bystander.
A workman finds this opal within
the ruin and seeks its appraisal
through an action house. The jewel-
er at the action house, Alex (Tammy
Lauren) examines the precious

stone, discovering peculiarities that
lie within its core. She gives it to her
best friend, Josh, at which point
Djinn is stirred from the opal and
released in a beastly form, killing
poor Josh, and stealing his face in
the process.
Alex is crushed, because Joshee-
poo had just recently told her that he
wanted to start dating her, and Alex
didn't want to take the chance of los-
ing their friendship.
Well, actually she does have bigger
things on her mind; literally, this
Djinn guy, a.k.a. Nathaniel (Andrew
Divoff), is giving her painful
headaches and, at times, tortures her
soul.
This is where the horror movie
accidentally turns into a comedy. In
the middle of her daily routines,
Alex's eyes will suddenly pop out,
and she screams at the top of her
lungs. Two seconds later, she acts as
though nothing happened.
Meanwhile, Nate is terrorizing the
town. He only has power if people ver-
bally state their wishes, which are con-
verted into evil ones.
Nathaniel, with his bulging eyes,
toothy smile and deep voice, jumps at
the opportunity of creating evil.

Admittedly, these instances are pretty
hysterical, in their sheer stupidity.
One time. for example, Nathaniel, in
a bribe to try to get a hold of Alex,
grants her boss' wish of a million
bucks.
The scene switches to the boss'
mother, who is signing her will. The
scene switches once again, and his
mother dies in a plane crash. Comedy at
its finest.
There is a significant amount of gore
and violence in the film, which just
makes "The Wishmaster" all the more
ridiculous.
Speaking of ridiculous, never has
there been such blatantly horrible act-
ing, and one can't even give these
actors the benefit of the doubt - say,
if they starred in a made-for-TV
movie.
The characters are also just plain
dumb. Nate terrorizes dozens of inno-
cent people before Alex has the brains
to figure it out: All she needs to do is
wish that the poor, innocent construc-
tion worker didn't drink coffee on the
job, which would prevent the chain of
events that produced Djinn in the first
place.
Let's hope that "Scream Two" is bet-
ter.

0
(Left) Alexandra (Tammy Lauren) is a
jeweler who gets more than she bar-
gains for when she examines an emer-
ald opal. (Below) In his spare time, the
evil Djinn tortures Alex by killing her
boyfriend, giving her headaches and
disturbing her soul. Unfortunate for
Djinn, audiences are more likely to
laugh than to cringe with horror at hI
evil schemes.

Happy Birthday,
William Faulkner!
Sept. 25, 1897 - July 6, 1962
The Special Collections Library is throwing a
100th birthday party for William Faulkner,
the man considered by many to be
America's greatest writer of prose fiction,
and you're invited to attend.
An exhibit entitled "William Faulkner: The First
Hundred Years" opens on September 25, Faulkner's
birthdate, and runs through November 22, 1997. The
exhibit's materials are drawn from the Irwin T. and
Shirley Holtzman William Faulkner Collection, one of
the most extensive collections on Faulkner in the
country. Included will be:


U U

C..

"
"
"
"
"

First editions;
Photos, drawings, and writings
documenting Faulkner's life;
Screenplays and posters;
Many later editions and translations;
& much more.

There will be a continuous showing of videos about
Faulkner's life and works during the following times:
" Thursday, September 25, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
"*Friday, September 26, 10a.m. to 5 p.m.
" Saturday, September 27, 10 a.m. to 12 noon

B
$1

Stop by the Special
Collections Library,
located on the 7th floor
of the Harlan Hatcher
Graduate Library, and
learn about one of the
greatest writers of modern
times. Admission is free.
For more information,
please call 764-9377.

l '7. y
Kk "? . ji
it f
.'fi'
!
. ,

at

U1

Fidelity Investments®
FIDELITY MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH CO.
CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO ATTEND A PRESENTATION DISCUSSING CAREER
Investment Management Opportunities:
Equity Research Associate
Friday, September 26, 11:30 a.m.
The Business School
Room B-1273 s

Vi

of

I

'I