~omothing about Mary?
Comedy Company presents "There's Something About
OVirgin Mary." If you haven't guessed, this original produc
take-off on the hit movie. U-Club, 8 p.m.
'World' marks
new addition
to Bond senes
By Erin Podolsky
Daily Arts Writer
There are precious few constants in this world, but we're
lucky for those that we have: The stock market will go up and
down and up, the seasons will change and every other
Thanksgiving, James Bond saunters back into theaters with
more of the same old, same old dressed in a sharp new tux with
a brand new girl on his arm. This year they're calling it "The
World Is Not Enough," which may or may not refer to Bond's
voracious appetite for love.
It's hard to review a movie from the Bond franchise because
they appear like clockwork and act like it, too. Sure, they usu-
ally shift writers and directors, sometimes even introducing a
Oew Agent 007. But the beginning, middle and end are always
the same: Bond fights some minor bad guy in the prologue
who turns out to be a minion of the bigger bad guy; Bond chas-
es after the bigger bad guy, bedding various women along the
way (for the record, Her Majesty's favorite spy bags three leggy
babes during "The World Is Not Enough"); Bond goes through
death-defying heroic after heroic in his effort to defeat said big
bad guy, which he does. And afterward he has his celebratory,
er, roll in the hay.
There's something to be said for the
Bond movies of old. Sean Connery -
and Roger Moore -- had a special way
World IS of making Bond more than just some
Not Enough guy with cool gadgets in a monkey suit.
With Connery, Bond took himself seri-
ously. There weren't just great villains,
At Briarwood. Quality but great villain sidekicks. There hasn't
16 and Showcase been a character to rival Jaws for
decades now. I miss him, the big galoot.
As.the James Bond of the '90s, Pierce
Brosnan does a serviceable job, but I
can't help feeling that his Bond sees his
work as a game. There's no urgency to-
him it's like he's too cool to be cool.
There's no doubt that he looks great in formalwear, but Bond is
a ere than just a slick haircut and a pocketful of puns.
Srnewhere along the way, the franchise has forgotten that.
But enough complaints about Mr. Bond. "The World Is Not
EnI;ugh." for all its formulae, is still entertaining. There are a
couple of chase scenes that surely have not been duplicated in
the past, and as much as I'm loathe to admit it, they're a lot of
fan. Much of"World" is fun, in fact, and Bond fanatics will not
o home disappointed. Sophie Marceau and Denise Richards
, e suitably wooden (read: terrible yet hot) as the women in
Wnd's life. Brosnan is debonair as ever.
"Which brings me to the villain of "World," Renard, played by
Rthbert "fooking coont" Carlyle ("Trainspotting," "The Full
54nty"). Renard is one of the most pathetic, uninteresting
Bt1d baddies to come along in quite a while. He looks like Dr.
Evil on Slim-Fast, with the lazy eye and the cancer victim hair-
cut and the strangely clipped, nasal speech. It doesn't help that
hers also after a nuclear warhead in the former Soviet Union, in
a location which I suspect is quite close to the Kreplachistan of
dargaret Cho ret
comedy to Detr<
By Jenni Glenn
Fine & Performing Arts Editor
With her current tour, comedian

Margaret Cho is finally returning to the
tional spotlight following a four-year
4mow as a result of the cancellation of her
television show. Cho brings her recent
success to Detroit this weekend with a
new brand of comedy for this unique
performer.'
Cho earned the opportunity to create
that show through her own individuality
as -a comedian. "The fact that I'm an
Asian-American woman in comedy is
unusual," she said. "Other than that, it's
j~e level of emotional truth I'm willing Margaret Cho enterta
o reveal."
She opens up on stage about every- "All-American Girl
thing from her attention as the first
relationship with Asian-American, whi
her boyfriend to against her. The final
her childhood on resent Cho's comedy,
Margaret San Francisco's watered-down version
Cho Haight Street, The series' cancella
State Theater known for its "It had a huge effect o
eclectic mix of am now, emotionally a
tomorrow at 7 p.m. people. Her most said. "The worst thing
famous routines did; it was a persona
feature Cho imi- failure. Only recently h
tating her Korean come out of that."
mother's attempts The tour constitutes
to understand her process for Cho. Whi
daughter's mod- contagious humor, wh
ern, American One That I Want" an
life." "A lot of it is generated from my the show also deals wi
experience,' she said. "I've always man- Cho's personal life.
aged to use the truth to really illuminate Even after the curre
,a life." ments in New York,


le £td gm 1&zt

Monday in Daily Arts:
Find out what film reviewers think about the return of
Buzz and Woody. Read Daily Arts Monday for a review of
'Toy Story 2."

Friday
November 19, 1999

5


Burton creates fun, spooky
varcna'1-rHlo

rV l.01V11 V~,L Al V

Courtesy of MGM

Pierce Brosnan is Bond. James Bond.

By Erin Podoisky
Daily Arts Writer
On the eve of the 19th Century, some-
thing is slaughtering the people of Sleepy
Hollow. Nobody is absolutely certain
what it is, but they have their hunches. It
might even be the Blair Witch, but one
thing's for sure:
Shaky-cam gone
(although the
desaturated film is
Sleepy this close to black
Hollow and white), whiny
* * college kids
nowhere to be
At Briarwood, Quality found, the
16 and Showcase found, ntse
autumn -set
"Sleepy Hollow"
might not be all
that scary, but it
sure is a lot more
fun than a certain
summer project.
A headless horseman, or so the towns-
people of Sleepy Hollow tell imported
New York City constable Ichabod Crane
(Johnny Depp), is responsible for decap-
itating their fellow citizens and keeping
their noggins for his own nefarious
needs. A man of science in a line of work
where torture and superstition are the
procedural norms, Crane doubts, but
events unfold to such a point that even he
learns to believe in the impossible.
It's a simple tale as adapted from
Washington Irving's source novel by
writer Andrew Kevin Walker, who can
finally put the horrid "8mm" to bed. The
horseman kills, Crane tracks him, the
horseman kills again, Crane uncovers
the truth piece by piece. What makes the
film so eminently watchable, though, is
that it is not just a straight horror story:

"Austin Powers." Were the writers of "World" so hard up for a
bad guy that they actually stole from the shagadelic 1997 com-
edy? Or did they think that because Mike Myers borrowed so
liberally from the Bond franchise that it was time for a little
payback? It's not the cribbing that irks me. It's the fact that it
was done so blatantly and so poorly.
Luckily, "World" doesn't spend a lot of time on Renard, who
stays hidden in the shadows. I can only presume that he's off-
screen so much because he's hidden in his lair, watching the
two "Austin" movies over and over again to get pointers on his
technique. Most of the film is devoted to Bond's interactions
with Electra King (Marceau) and Dr. Christmas Jones
(Richards - yes, we're actually supposed to believe that the
cue card-reading vacuous vixen has gone through medical
school. I didn't know that they were now awarding diplomas to
telephone poles with big nubbies. Perhaps it was Evil medical
school...) both in and out of the bedroom. There's also a decent
subplot in which M (Judi Dench) actually gets to leave M16
headquarters and get out into the field, although her success
rate isn't exactly as high as her younger, male counterpart's.
There isn't much to say about the plot of "The World Is Not
Enough." If you've seen any Bond picture before, you'll know
what's going on the minute the lights go down. If you haven't,
you'll still know. The specifics this time out involve the afore-
mentioned warhead and a lengthy oil pipeline. The film runs a
bit on the chubby side at over two hours.
This Bond movie is, like so many others, ageless. James
Bond is a character caught out of time, preserved with the best
skin pare and fashion technology available in Hollywood. As
long as he keeps making money for his studio, they'll keep
bringing him back from the dead. Every once in a while I think
about how neat it would be to see a young James Bond movie.
Then I remember that the thing everybody loves about 007 is
that he has no past, no present, no future. He has only corrup-
tion to fight, women to sleep with and one-liners to deliver.
He's a smooth-talking and walking cardboard cut-out. He's a
constant. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with being pre-
dictable. Sometimes it's the best thing for everyone.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod Crane.
There are elements of love, and of com-
edy as well, here. Crane cuts a simulta-
neously dashingly humorous and callow
figure. It's clear from the start why he
has been exiled from the city, as the
film's prologue shows us - but the
frosty film, drenched with cold autumn
rain, treats Crane nothing if not warmly.
The city would be lucky to have such a
man. Sleepy Hollow is saved by his
methodical strangeness.
"Sleepy Hollow" is Tim Burton's
("Beetlejuice," "Batman," "Edward
Scissorhands") first film since 1996's
"Mars Attacks!" All the trademark
ingredients of a successful Burton film
are here: The grotesque metal instru-
ments and twisted psyches, the bloodless
skin and expressionistic sets, the blond,
princess-like female foil for the corpse-
like hero and, last but not least, Johnny
Depp as the male lead. It is a triumphant
mixture of fairytale and humor, sophisti-
cated enough for adults but not too scary
for children (although it has been unfor-

Am JL,JFAL%J V V
tunately assigned an R rating).
Burton and Depp create a Crane la i
with psychological baggage, shown in
several hauntingly surreal dream flash-
backs - the horrors that Ichabod fears
in his daily investigations at Sleepy
Hollow don't necessarily pale in com-
parison to his internal troubles, but they
certainly give each other a run for their
money. Depp, all cheekbones and eyes.
plays legendary coward Crane as a ter-
ror-stricken man constantly trying to
sublimate the fear that threatens to over-
power him, his lively eyes darting about
here in fear, there in curiosity.
His salvation, and the town's, too, lies
in the hands of the girl who swiftly
becomes his beloved. Kind-hearted
Katrina Van Patten (Christina Ricci,
glowing and bosomy) so clearly warms
Crane's wounded blood-pumper, while
the horseman (Christopher Walken, in
finely snarling form as a snaggletoothed,
homicidal lunatic) strikes bone-chilling
fear in our own hearts.
Spooky in all the right places and
grin-inducing in the rest, "Sleepy
Hollow" is a perfect rainy day movie. As
he has done so many times in the past,
Burton has manufactured a world that
seems completely natural. The rules are
different each time, but the result is the
same: An overpowering feeling that
although all is not right, all is well, or
soon will be. Things are right for this
particular world, even if they're wrong
for ours. That's where the fun and the
fear reside, where the mad genius of his
vision stems from. The characters could
belong in our world, but there they are,
stuck in his, at times like rats in a maze.
Watching them find the cheese is the
best entertainment out there.

Directed by R d
Nov. 18 - 20 at 8pm - Nov. 21 at ;pm
--Mendelssd Theatfe
Individuals who come attired informaliorip
dress wilreceive complimentay chocolates and
alcohol-free champagne!
Tickets $18 and $14. Students $7 w/D
--; League Ticket Office 734-764-9450
UM School of Music Department of Theatre and Drama I


turms

michigandaily.
corn

I I

® ® I S 01 I

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Friday, December 3

8 p.m. - Millennium Theatre in Southfield

Courtesy of Carol Rosegg
ains tomorrow.
" received a lot of
sitcom starring an
ch Cho felt worked
product didn't rep-
but rather a more
of her act.
ation hit Cho hard.
on me and where I
nd creatively,"she
that could happen
i and professional
have I been able to
part of the coping
ile she retains her
ich made "I'm the
off-Broadway hit,
th deeper issues in
nt show's achieve-
its sold-out status
d her past touring
ds the devotion of
country hard to
eople come to see
this is about con-
he said. "It's really
ing I've attained."
nue her comeback

The Grammy-Award winning vocal ensemble will inspire, encourage and
enchant with an uplifting blend of blues, jazz, gospel that celebrates life,
relates history and praises the spirit of goodwill. Tickets $35. Advance
ticket sales only. Sign language interpreted.

A benefit for Y YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit
Sponsored by:

j;;i r~en/

m.~o

.=
AMW=OAFE

For tickets call 313-259- 9922

Discussing controversial issues in her
routine is nothing new for Cho. She
unabashedly proclaims herself a "fag
hag;' and she also addresses the issue of
racism in her act. During a World AIDS,
Day performance last year, Cho did an
imitation of a man who accosted her.
while she was walking her dog due to

around the country an
success, Cho still fin
audiences around the
believe. "The same p
me all the time, andt
necting with them," sh
remarkable, the follow
Cho intends to conti

SUNDAY. NO

IV. 21 - 7 p.m. Michigan Union U-Club


i