Slicin' Eyeballs ...
"The "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"
and "Un Chien Andalou" tonight
at the Michigan Theater, 7 p.m.
Free your mind, square.
michigandaily.com/arts
ORO- u 1aiI
ARTS
MONDAY
JANUARY 14, 2002
5A
Jack Black is only highlight of an
otherwise dismal 'Orange County'
By Jeff Dickerson
Daily Arts Editor
Tom Hanks and Sissy Spacek star in a film direct-
ed by Lawrence Kasdan. Actually, Colin Hanks
(son of Tom Hanks, "Joe Versus the Volcano") and
Schuyler Fisk (daughter of
Sissy Spacek, "Violets are
Blue") star in "Orange Coun-
ty," a film directed by Jake
Orange Kasdan (son of Lawrence
County Kasdan, director of "French
Grade: D- Kiss"). "Orange County" is
advertised as a comedy, but it
at Showcase and can be aptly described as a
Quality 16 Hollywood favor gone horri-
bly wrong.
Colin Hanks plays Shaun
Brumder, an aspiring writer
; stuck in the sun-laden beach-
fest that is Orange County,
Calif. (Los Angeles area for
you geography peons). The high school senior's
entire life is devoted to getting admitted to Stanford,
home to Marcus Skinner, his literary idol. With a
1520 on his SAT's, a 4.0 grade point average and
the dubious title of class president, Shaun seeming-
ly has the ideal transcript and a virtual guarantee on
his college admission. Keep in mind this is a Holly-
wood comedy; Enter the plot twist. Things go awry
when the school guidance counselor (Lily Tomlin)
sends the wrong transcript to the noted university,
resulting in a courteous rejection letter to Shaun's
home.
As Shaun sinks into a deep depression in his
backyard pool, his friends and family offer solutions
to his post-high school dilemma. The catastrophic
letter is a momentary roadblock, as his family and
4
friends devise a plan to meet with the dean of
admissions. From this point on, the film follows a
standard comedy formula note by note, blemishing
the audience with banality.
His girlfriend Ashley (Schuyler Fisk) is less ambi-
tious, planning to continue her education at Orange
County University (yeah that's right, it's fictional).
The redhead is infatuated with her boyfriend and
offers nothing but praise for his writing and ambi-
tions. Her other passion is for helpless (or hapless)
animals, driving her to rescue a stray dog caught in
traffic. How sweet ... not so fast. This is merely a
plot device to get a leg-humping dog on screen for a
few minutes. How clever.
Colin Hanks exhibits many of the same manner-
isms as his famous father. The physical attributes are
uncanny, reminding viewers of Tom Hanks in
"Splash," When listening to the young actor spout
his trite and meaningless dialogue, Colin sounds
remarkably similar to his Academy-Award winning
dad, minus the charm and confidence. Tom had to
make "The Volunteers" and "Bachelor Party" before
going on to "Philadelphia" Will the same be true of
Colin?
With a supporting cast filled with a plethora of leg-
endary comedians, "Orange County" haphazardly
wastes the talents of nearly all of the supplemental
actors. Catherine O'Hara and John Lithgow play
Shaun's divorced parents: O'Hara as a raging alco-
holic and Lithgow as a business-savvy non-family
man. Their troubled relationship and eventual re-con-
nection is foreseeable and offensively generic. "Sat-
urday Night Live" veteran Chevy Chase has a brief
cameo as the school principal, reminding the audi-
ence his career has plummeted to the level of Ronnie
James Dio. Ben Stiller provides another cameo, mak-
ing viewers wish they could be magically transported
to a screening of "The Royal Tenenbaums."
Courtesy of TNT
These three amigos make Dennis Miller look like a sheep.
'Mayhem' looks at
co ed tri phs
of 1d Cosell
Jables crying because he deserves better.
The saving grace of the film lies in the capable
hands of Jack Black. The zealous comedian steals
every scene he's in; unfortunately his appearances are
few and far between. The more attractive half of the
acoustic rock duo Tenacious D provides the only
laughter in the 90-minute timeframe with his perfect
delivery and awkward physical comedy. Black plays
Lance, Shaun's older, brother who still lives at home
and spends the majority of his day popping pills and
watching cartoons.
"Orange County" is utter tripe. Abound with sex
jokes, drug humor and a plot so predictable a kinder-
garten student with attention deficit disordercould
follow, the film falls into the same chasm that nearly
all teen -comedies do these days, becoming an amal-
gam of mindless "entertainment" and low-brow
humor. Jack Black is the unly reason the film can
legitimize a passing grade. Other than his glorious
presence, the movie is nothing short of a Cleveland
steamer.
By Melissa Gollob
Daily Arts Writer
"Monday Night Football" is an
American institution which began
just over 25 years ago. This first
primetime sports series saved ABC
and created a new genre in televi-
sion. For the first
Monday
Night
Mayhem
TNT
Tonight at 9
From Fire' to 'Lying Awake,' the best
'releases of the past year in literature
time, fans tuned
in to be enter-
tained by the
sportscasters
just as much as
the athletes.
Howard Cosell,
Don Meredith
and Frank Gif-
ford made
"Monday Night
Football" great.
Tonight, TNT
brings the story
of "Monday
Night Football"
to life in "Mon-
day Night May-
hem," as it
By Neal Pais
Daily Books Editor
The last several months have certainly seen enough
tumult "and draia to overshadow the achievemients of
some of the year's brightest authors. There has been
an understandable displacement of literary interest; A
dearth in interest, though, has not prevented authors
and publishers from releasing fine work..
But alas, a new year is upon us. We hope that the
present conflicts of our time may have a resolution
close at hand and can only we make a return to our
normalcy. And so, this humble book editor entreats
you to invest some of your leisure time in good litera-
ture. "Read for pleasure?" you exclaim. "But I have
not the time!" Well, that's just poppycock. Make the
time. A good book is perhaps one of the greatest sim-
ple pleasures one can hope to enjoy. So go ahead and
keep enjoying your debaucherous weekend nights,
but I also would recommend freeing up some time
forone of these'grns:
"True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter
Carey - The story of Australia's most celebrated
cowboy. Yup, that's right - the land down under
once did have its share of pistol-toting, bronco-tam-
ing heroes. This Booker Prize-winning masterpiece
attempts to break through the myths surrounding Ned
Kelly and his cohorts. What emerges from this "True
History" is a beautiful account of the enigmatic per-
sonality and exciting exploits of one of Australia's
most legendary men.
"Glue" by Irvine Welsh - Irvine Welsh is
perhaps Generation X's most brilliant documenter. In
his latest look at drugs, modern life and more drugs,
Welsh captures the story of four Scottish lads and
their coming of age within the Edinburgh projects.
No different from his prior works, the language is
coarse and the situations are explicit, but this novel
emerges as a truly remarkable glimpse into rave cul-
ture, addiction and urban sex and dating. A damn fine
book.
"Half A Life" by V.S. Naipaul - This year,
India's biggest literary juggernaut released his latest
contribution to the world of literature. And in this
case, I do not use the term literature lightly. This dude
is one of this century's greatest living writers.
Although Trinidadian by birth, Naipaul weaves here
yet another story about the effects of British colonial-
ism on the Indian psyche. "Half A Life" recounts the
sad life experiences of a rootless middle-aged Indian
man. The language is beautiful and the style is
superb.
"The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen
Hawking -In 1988, eminent astrophysicist Stephen
Hawking penned "A Brief History of Time" in order
to appease the curiosities of the masses. The ground-
breaking work proved to be accessible to the less than
absolutely brilliant. Now with his "Universe in a Nut-
shell," further conceptualizes with pictures (yay! It
has drawings!!) and entertaining abstractness some of
chronicles the successes and fail-
ures of this groundbreaking pro-
gram.
"Monday Night Mayhem" focuses
on the injustices done to Howard
Cosell during his career. Cosell was
born with a gift in vocabulary and
used it to catapult himself into tele-
vision. With his controversial
friendship with Muhammad Ali, he
championed black athletes and their
accomplishments. For all of his
good deeds, his most famous work
came in the booth of "Monday
Night Football."
The movie begins as the National
Football League searches for a net-
work to broadcast their Monday
night games. ABC picks up the
show and puts together a team that
breaks all the rules of sports com-
mentary. Two staples in the booth
are Cosell (John Turturro, "O
Brother, Where Art Thou?") and
Don Meredith (Brad Beyer, "The
General's Daughter"). The third
member of the team rotates
throughout the movie and finally
settles on Frank Gifford (Kevin
Anderson, "Sleeping with the
Enemy"). ABC decides to make the
broadcast about entertainment
instead of just the game itself. They
revolutionize the way sports are
broadcast on television by using the
maximum number of cameras and
angles. These three beloved person-
alities constantly fight and bicker as
they achieve unprecedented success.
The sorest point for Cosell is the
repeat attacks from Meredith that he
never played the game and could
never know as much about football
as former players.. This three-men-
in-a-booth system switches periodi-
cally, but the program never suffers
low ratings until Cosell leaves. As
the years slip by, the changing tastes
of network executives and viewers
finally force Cosell out of the booth.
The movie moves more like a doc-
umentary because all the characters
are real individuals. The producers
help identify who each actor istby
scrolling their name across the
screen when each new person
arrives in the narrative. This is help-
ful for those not familiar with the
story and the famous personalities
involved. Even though the plot con-
centrates on "Monday Night Foot-
ball," knowledge about football is
not required to enjoy the movie. The
actual games are not important atall
because the series is about the enter-
tainment. and not the competition on
the field.
Turturro portraying Cosell brings
the most beloved and hated sports-
caster t' life in an unforgettable per-
formance. He recreates his unique
voice and mannerisms that will
make the audience forget they are
not watching the actual Cosell per-
form. Cosell's conflicting emotions
of loyalty and frustration come
across the screen well as Turturro
adds the right blend of drama to the
role.
"Monday Night Mayhem" stays
true to the people involved, and
none of the performances are too
over the top. The portrayal of Don
Meredith makes him seem too stu-
pid to have won an Emmy award for
the program. On the other hand,
Patti LuPone's ("Life Goes On")
subtle depiction of Cosell's wife
Emmy brings her supportive nature
to the forefront as her husband
struggles with his place on the show.
This dramatic behind-the-scenes
look at the evolution of "Monday
Night Football" shows how one man
made and kept the revolutionary
show on top of its game for 15
years. "Monday Night Mayhem"
deals with issues that will provoke
new ideas about the way sports are
viewed on television.
Courtesy VofWWNoron& Co.
"Fire" by Sebastian Junger - In this collec-
tion of true accounts, Junger, most notable for his
"The Perfect Storm" explores instances in which
humans come to confront danger. Written with the
style of a practiced journalist, "Fire" contains a high-
ly diverse plethora of recent news stories in which
different sets of ordinary people face nature's fury,
war and hitting very close to home, international ter-
rorism. It is at times very moving, and stands as a
very well-conceived piece of literature.
* "Lying Awake" by Mark Salzman - Alter-
nately informative and spiritual, Mark Salzman's
"Lying Awake" describes the cloistered life of a high-
ly unusual character an epileptic Carmelite sister.
All the more interesting is the nunnery's location
within downtown Los Angeles. Salzman's work soft-
ly probes some of the scientific foundations of mental
disorders while capturing the meaning of faith in its
most religious sense.
P o- r V B
Courtesy of Vintage Books
the most complex theories1
Trust me, it's sweet.
in quantum mechanics.
Bill and Ted's not-so
excellent new DVD
By Andy Taylor-Fabe
Daily Film Editor
The explosion of DVD releases in the
past few years has led to the creation of
c
super-sized, special
Bill and Ted's
Excellent
Adventure
DVD
edition double disc
sets that include
documentaries,
interviews, delet-
ed scenes and
countless other
extras to satisfy
the cinema-geek.
through life, doing little and thinking
less. Their one passion is their band
"Wyld Stallyons." When they are told
that they are in danger of failing history
"most heinously" if they don't ace their
final oral presentation, they begin to
despair. Just when they are at their low-
est, a man named Rufus (George Carlin)
from the 26th century comes to bail
them out.
It turns out that Bill and Ted become
musical gods and eventually save the
world, but if they fail history and Ted is
Law Library
Web Assistant Needed
0 Edit, scan, and create
documents; limited amount
of web design
OIP Summer Study Abroad Fair
Thursday, January 17, 2002
Michigan Union Pendleton Rm
3 to 5 pm
Bill and Ted are both clueless, but they
have that same likable charm that all
idiot duos have.
This movie spawned an entire Ian-