14 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 21, 1998
'Players'
loses big
By Geordy Gantsoudes
Daily Arts Writer
Ever since his impressive debut in "Boyz N The
Hood," Ice Cube has made some questionable choic-
es in the roles he chooses to accept. "Friday," a hilar-
ious comedy co-starring Chris Tucker marked one of
his better choices.
So when he chose to team up with the same group
again for "The Players Club," one might have
thought this was a match made in heaven. But
because Cube wrote and directed "The Players
SonicNet rocks
World Wide Web
19
The
Players
Club
At Showcase
Club," he has no one to blame
but himself for the mess that is
his directorial debut.
The plot is a twisted hybrid
of "Showgirls" and
"Striptease." It tells the story of
a stripper with a heart of gold,
Diamond (LisaRaye). She
wants to go to a predominantly
black college, while her father
wants her to go to a "better
school." Rather than bow down
to her father, she decides to pay
her way through college. When
selling shoes does not pay the
bills, she takes some advice
Courtesy of New Line Cinema
Ice Cube chills as director of the drama "The Players Club."
words. A. J. Johnson (Little Man) plays the bouncer
at the club, and takes comical beatings the entire
film. Cube cast himself as one of the villains in the
film and does a fine job.
The cast, however, cannot make up for the poor
excuse for a script and the terrible performance by
LisaRaye. She follows in the footsteps of Demi
Moore and Elizabeth Berkley as being a bad actress
in a horrible stripper movie. The film may have been
salvageable if someone else had been cast in the lead.
There are other problems with the movie that do
not concern LisaRaye. The movie flows like a
Faulkner novel.
But stream of consciousness does not work well in
the movies. The movie just jumps from one scene to
another with very little continuity. There are some
really funny, laugh-out-loud scenes, but they are few
and far between.
Jamie Foxx thankfully comes to the movie's rescue
toward the end. He appears as Diamond's love inter-
est and club DJ, Blue. His ability to steal the spot-
light from everyone else on the screen - naked or
not - makes up some of the difference, but not
enough. His talent does not make up for LisaRaye's
lack thereof. No one could have saved the movie at
that point.
1 he movie spends so much time trying to set up
the story that all of the stories barely have enough
time to be wrapped up at the end. Too much was
crammed into the climax, but by that point, it didn't
really matter.
Unless you need an lee Cube fix, and "Friday" just
won't do it anymore, you may want to avoid this
stinker.
By Chris Cousino
Daily Arts Writer
On what concert dates will Beck
open for Dave Matthews Band?
Will Metallica ever record with
Madonna? Why does Johnny Quest
think Less Than Jake are sellouts?
How many ribs does Marilyn
Manson really have?
These intriguing questions and
many more can be answered on the
music extravaganza Web magazine
known as SonicNet. A combination
of music bios, pictures, sound bites,
chat rooms and much more grace
the links of this Web page. With a
barrage of music information,
sound and excitement, SonicNet
has some of the most jamming
music coverage on the Internet.
With brief news articles updated
daily, SonicNet provides crisp fea-
tures and funky album reviews,
covering a wide array of new popu-
lar and independent artists. It has
great information for both the avid
fan searching for the date concert
tickets go on sale or a listener who
just likes a song heard on the radio.
Along with the articles and reviews,
it provides solid, in-your-face inter-
views of music stars and perform-
ers.
Along with its extensive news
section, SonicNet's Music Guide
has a database of thousands of
bands and artists. The Guide con-
tains bios, album reviews, discogra-
phies and audio clips from the
albums. Searching the Guide is sim-
ple, browsing by topics such as
artists, concerts, labels and genres.
Just be ready to wait a little while
because it takes some time to jump
to other sections.
The user-friendly SonicNet links
to many other sections on the Web
directly from the Music Guide's
front page. The Guide is very help-
ful in attaining more information
that it doesn't have, linking to a
throng of quirky newsgroups, great
fan sites and way cool online stores.
A store known as the Music
Boulevard can be found in
SonicNet as well. The Boulevard
has a quick, easy search through its
tremendous catalogs of moderately
priced albums and merchandise.
Whether looking for that hard-to-
find Radiohead concert video or
that always wanted Guns 'N Roses
T-shirt, the Boulevard is bound to
have it.
After browsing through
Boulevard's quaint online store,
drop into the Station for a dose of
music culture and lore. In the
Station, a pulsating rain of live
music, sounds and videos floods the
computer screen. Also located here
are numerous chat rooms set up to
converse with other idiosyncratic
music lovers. Along with the News
and the Music
Station isa
SonicNet third major
section of
SonicNet that
brings a jolt-
http://www.sonic- ing multime-
net.com dia interactive
thrust to the
computer.
Attributes
for enhancing
the Internet
with such an
entertaining web page go to Michael
Goldberg, editor in chief of both
SonicNet Music News and Addicted
To Noise. His precise reporting and
comprehensive information make
for a beneficial search to learn more
about those favorite bands. The pop-
ularity of SonicNet has spawned
three other versions in Switzerland,
Australia and Japan, which all can
be accessed from the main one.
These others are very intriguing,
but none compare to the original
SonicNet. Whether it is interviews
with Pete Townsend, live chats with
the Cherry Poppin Daddies or those
must-have Debbie Gibson posters,
SonicNet puts on a great show and
rocks the World Wide Web.
from two customers and joins them as strippers.
The cast is rounded out with some of Cube's
costars from "Friday." Bernie Mac is his usual funny
self as the sleazy and ill-spoken Dollar Bill. He
shares with Don King the ability to make up words
like "perpitude" and to create new meanings for old
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SPEECH TO CELEBRATE YoHA
Tuesday, April 28, 1998
Hill Auditorium
2:00 PM
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Tickets Required
Distribution from the Michigan Union Ticket Office
Hours: 9 AM - 5 PM M-F " 9 AM - Noon Saturday
Students, faculty, and staff must request tickets in person at the Union box
office. Phone orders will be taken beginning April 25. (763-TKTS)
1 REUET
Author Seamus Deane
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®
Seniors only starting April 22
All students starting April 23
UM ID required - 1 Ticket per person
UM FACULTY/STAFF
Starting Friday, April 24
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