8 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 9, 1998 Forgettable 'Killers' could be replaced j 'Beyond' 0 By Matthew Barrett Daily Arts Writer A killer with a conscience. It's not exactly the most original idea to come out of Hollywood in the last few years, but the makers of "The Replacement Killers" had a twist for the common story, Chow Yun-Fat, someone most American moviegoers have x never heard of before. He is a legend in his homeland of The Hong Kong and bearer of Replacement one of the world's coolest Killers names. Yun-Fat bursts into the movie amidst flashing strobe At Bnarwood & Showcase lights and blaring techno music, calmly making his way through a packed dance club. Once he reaches his %i destination, a bullet is slammed on the table and then Yun-Fat proceeds to annihilate every bad guy in the club. The fact that he is vastly outnumbered by an enormous amount is irrelevant. An opening sequence that impressive could make you forget about Bruce and Arnold pretty fast. But it doesn't take long to realize that these action scenes are all that "The Replacement Killers" has to offer. Each time a similar sequence is viewed, its effectiveness goes down and it becomes harder and harder to take the movie seri- ously. How many times can Chow Yun-Fat go into a room and take out 20 bad guys with just Mira Sorvino at his side? Yun-Fat plays John Lee, an assassin who has a change of heart in the middle of an assignment. As he fights back tears, Lee realizes that no matter what the consequences may be, he cannot kill a police officer. The reason? The officer was playing ball with his son and Lee can not break up a fami- ly when he feels such strong love for his own. The refusal to carry out the job puts Lee on his employer's bad side and sets the plot in motion. During Lee's attempt to flee the country, he meets up with Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino), an expert on forged documents. Covered in a ridicu- lous number of tat- toos, Sorvino is never feature directorial debut of Antoine Fuqua, though he has directed music videos such as "Gangsta's Paradise." He makes good use of lighting through- out the film, especially at the beginning and in Meg's apartment/office. By presenting whole rooms in a green or red tint, the seediness of Meg's existence is portrayed to the audience. Fuqua also mixes some good shots and camera angles in throughout the action. One such shot involves Meg pointing a gun at a character below her. The camera angle is taken from the point of view of the target, which makes the audience feel like they are part of the action. Although the action shots are han- dled fairly well, they get very repetitive by the end of the movie. One facet that really hurts the movie is the convincing in her role, whether she's wielding a pistol or being the sassy "street smart" girl. Meg makes a few attempts at humor throughout the film, but most of them fall short of being funny. "The Replacement Killers" marks the screenplay and evo- lution of the story. Screenwriter Ken Sanzel tries to mix humor and action, and the result is a movie that never seems to know where it wants to go. If the movie is sup- courtesy of Columbia Pictures Asian film star Chow Yun-Fat should have sought a replacement for his latest mediocre venture. posed to be about the redemption of a man, then it would have been nice to have a better idea of what is going through Lee's head. The main attraction here is the movie's action, so if you go expecting to see a lot of shoot-outs and explosions you won't be disappointed. The picture also serves as an introduction of Chow Yun-Fat to the mainstream American movie going public. He clearly has the screen presence to be a star here, but he needs a better story and direction. Ultimately, "The Replacement Killers" is a mediocre movie with a great beginning and a few interesting sequences along the way. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Mira Sorvino packs heat in "Killers." I B j, S{ Insights and Opportunities: Women in Science and Engineering *Workshops *Tours -Speakers *Discussion Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ann Marie Sastry Saturday, February 21, 1998 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Registration forms are available at Center for the Education of Women 330 E. Liberty Women in Science and Engineering Office 1240 Lurie Engineering Center and via email at: fcalhoun@umich.edu Lunch provided for participants For more information please call 998-7225 Sponsored by: College of Engineering Women in Science and Engineering Program Women in Engineering Office Alfred P Sloan Foundation National Science Foundation Women in Engineering Office Committee on Institutional Cooperation proves b elievable By Deveron Q. Sanders Duly Arts Writer Fact or fiction: Dick Clark is the exec- utive producer of an entertaining show, hosted by Starship Enterprise Commander Riker (Jonathon Frakes). Oddly enough, that statement is actually true. Years ago, "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" came across the airwaves, unnerving us with eerie historical facts and events. Today, Clark's "Beyond Belief: Fact Fiction" continues - with an added twis - where Ripley's left off. Now in its se- ond season, the show presents severat, unusual or unex- plainable stories.> about events in people's lives. "Beyond Belief" Beyond then takes the Belief "Believe It Or** Not" theme from Fo Ripley and asks Fridays at 8 p. the viewer to determine whether or not each story is fact or fiction. At the end of theshow, Frakes reveals the "truth" behind each story. The hour-long season premiere on Jan. 23 spotlighted five cases of th impossible. In general, the skits we captivating and the dramatizations were well-written, but the presentations of some of the skits were cheesy at best. To heighten suspense, the less-than-talented actors sometimes relied on stupid sight gags that cheapened, rather than added to, the suspense, it only cheapened it. But this could actually work to their advan- tage since it serves as the comic relief. The director put in details any charact had no way of knowing, like a picture o a person's dead father on the control panel of a plane that mysteriously takes off by itself. These red herrings are inter-. esting, but sometimes over the top. In one of the better stories, a woman finds herself home alone in a neighbor- hood experiencing a series of break-ins. Her only protection is an old revolver that her husband leaves for her. In the middle of the night, she awakens to noise from downstairs. She attempts call 911, but the phone never rings, so she grabs the gum and goes burglar-hunt- ing. As she reaches the steps, she sees a shape and pulls the trigger repeatedly, but the gun doesn't fire. The shape turns on the lights and reaches for the woman ... and it turns out to be her son returning home from col- lege. So shocked to see her son, the woman drops the gun down the ste and it fires once. Amazed? Well I can say that I was really surprised. But wait. - there's more! Upon reaching the bot tom of the stairs, the gun goes off again, just in time to strike the true robber, who had just entered the house. At that point, I threw down my remote control in com- plete disgust. Not that I didn't believe whatjust transpired, but I had a hard time swallowing the way that the director showed the shooting. Can you figure out which stories w4 based on real events and which were fab- Heated? Since the show concludes with Frakes revealing the truth, there's no need to trouble yourself with the ques- tion. The gun story and one other tale were based on actual events, but three others were complete fabrications. "Beyond Belief" could catch on and become a strong series, mainly because of the intriguing "keep the audienc guessing" gimmick. While this conceI may not win any awards for originality or acting, the show will keep viewers enter- tained week in and week out - and that's something you can believe. SPONSORED BY MOJO CLTHING -d a - HnI Hurry in. It's Bonus Time at the Clinique counter. ...................... ..,~h<. ............