14 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 21, 2004 ART S TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME DAILY ARTS RATES THE 10 BEST BASEBALL FILMS 'U'-based 'Crisis' improves on original By Joel Hoard and Todd Weiser Daily Arts Writers 1 Field of Dreams (1989): Phil Alden Robinson's epic film all comes down to the quintessential baseball moment: a father and son playing catch. It's the memory where love for the great American pas- time starts for most fans and - in this case - where Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) finds clo- sure with his father. 2 The Pride of the Yankees (1942): Even the most diehard of Yankee haters has a soft spot for the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig. Based on the life of the Yankees' Hall of Fame first baseman, "The Pride of the Yankees" traces Gehrig's life from his youth to the moment his life was cut tragically short at age 37. "Pride of the Yankees" pays tribute to one of Ameri- ca's greatest sports legends. 3 Major League (1989): Despite an essentially G- rated, Disney-ized remake of a sequel and a trilo- gy-ending demotion to the minors, "Major League" has kept its reputation in tact. David S. Ward's crystal ball look into the meteoric rise of the Cleveland Indi- ans baseball franchise into Detroit Tigers killers, this film is the best sports comedy of the last 20 years. 4 Eight Men Out (1988): John Sayles made his winding ensemble style more mainstream with his fast-talking attempt at a Baseball History 101: the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal. Always looking for a piece of Americana to put under his small-town microscope, Sayles here looks at 1920s America with Courtesy o Universal Attack of the corn people. baseball movie ... for-ev-ver. For-ev-ver. 7 Bang the Drum Slowly (1973): A young Robert DeNiro plays Bruce Pearson, a dim-witted catch- er, as he deals with a terminal illness with the help of the team's ace pitcher, Henry Wiggen (Michael Mori- arty). As Henry and the rest of the team try to help Bruce through his last season, it's impossible not to shed at least one tear. Q The Natural (1984): The non-baseball scenes may not play as well today as they did originally, but Barry Levinson flipped Bernard Malamud's book about lost dreams into an epic about sports mythmak- ing. When the lights go out and the sparks fly on Roy Hobbs's Knights, you wish it was your hometown team in the World Series. 9 61* (2001): Behind the camera, Billy Crystal's work of passion funnels all his childhood Yankee Stadium memories into a behind-the-scenes look at the 1961 Mickey Mantle-Roger Maris rivalry that never was. The way-too-digitally altered baseball scenes often flop (despite being played at Tiger Stadi- um). Impeccable casting and a detail-rich script make the off-the-field action work - no asterisk needed there. 1 f The Bad News Bears (1976): Essentially the 10 anti-"Sandlot," "The Bad News Bears" fol- lows a team of lovable losers and their crude, beer- swilling coach Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau). Before long, Buttermaker has all his kids drinking and swearing in the dugout, all the while turning them into a decent group of ballplayers. By Jared Newman Daily Arts Writer Chicago's baseball world as the subject. 5 Bull Durham (1988): Starring Kevin Costner as veteran minor league catcher Crash Davis, Tim Robbins as up-and-coming pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh and Susan Sarandon as baseball groupie Annie Savoy - the three parts of an amusing love triangle - "Bull Durham" captures the battle over the heart and mind of young Nuke with intelligence and humor. 6 The Sandlot (1993): With a cast of charac- ters featuring the likes of Hamilton "Ham" Porter, Michael "Squints" Palledorous and Alan "Yeah-Yeah" McClennan, "The Sandlot" encapsu- lates the game in its simplest state: played by neighborhood friends on a dirt lot behind a junk- yard. This classic will live on as the best kid's know their way around game design. Unlike the first installment, which was hindered by unchallenging, titive gameplay, "Shadows of "Jis full of ideas that keep For example, in one sit- must stealthily sneak f Michigan State gruntte to "Metal Gear Solidit her, players must move racter around the scree ront a number of invader i ng turn-based RPG * reason to procrastin rio -fighting. If f the invade-s reach week. Both games wn- their 4estinadn, the mission has loaded at crisiswolverin failed'It's refreshing to have ways to The main link between newest lose-the game other than through the installment and "Ins :ctio death of all team members, and it's a Green" is Johnny sign that the developers were con- Foreshadow, the scious about gameplay. mysterious robot Crisis The fighting engine is improved, whose mug can Wolverine 2: adding ruch-needed balance that be seen on the Shadows of wa pot seen in the previous install- many flyers that 'Sthe Past meniome characters are definitely Theth Assciait The Associatin suited for fighting, while others are of Michigan PC TheAssocweak 'td reliant on how their spells Game M aker s Michigan Game can a st the others.A time element have posted Makers has a been addedfforcing the around campus. player to act quickly in rder to min- Once on the side of good, Foreshad- imize damage. The o y problem ow now orients himself with the arises :fm oyerkil treading evils of Michigan State, who yet through ney territor invokes a again seem;to be plotting to invade numbr unecessary es. Sub- Ann Arbor. stituting these fights fo more cli- Little mention as made of the mactic battles would hav imade the events of "Insurrection Green'-at game less repetitive. least Initially. The plot is actually The only real disappoin tnt with split between the modem-day adven- "Shadows of the Past" s'in the tures of antiheroes Alex and Neil humor department, wh h was and flashbacks to the epic battles of pushed to the backgroundi ifavor of Engineer Jhn Lazar and his crew, tighter gameplay. The cam us gags who apparently defended Ann Arbor are fewer and further betw en, and from yet another attack in the 1970s. the interaction between the pharac- The latter group scattered a number ters is simply not as entertaining as of blue books around campus, leav- in the original. Still, it's enjyayble ing behind valuable information for enough to make players want t6 talk Alex, Neil and their gang. The split to the various people that wallyte works quite well, allowing the two streets. In the end, "Crisis Wolverine to develop the plot while the group 2: Shadows of the Past" is focised provides most of the action. more heavily on creating a fors Though the game looks and plays Super Nintendo-style RPG.s ju t like a dated Super Nintendo role- ' t but for playing game, the developers su ely very different reasons. Annual Hopwood awards given out at Rackham By Melissa Runstrom Daily Books Editor In Rackham Auditorium, 25 students were awarded $120,500 in prize money during the Hopwood Graduate and Undergraduate Awards Ceremony yes- terday. The winners were chosen based on writing submitted to the Hopwood program in February. The entries were judged at the local level before qualified work was sent on to national judges. The first Hopwoods were given out during the 1930-31 school year, and since then more than $2 million has been awarded. Previous winners include Arthur Miller, Frank O'Hara and Nancy Willard. One of this year's recipients of the Hopwood Undergraduate Poetry Award was RC freshman Mariama Locking- ton, who said that she was surprised to win. She only entered after her poetry instructor, Ken Mikolowski, suggested it. "I've been writing poetry for a long time; it is a big part of my life. I'm real- ly excited." Commenting about her future, she said, "I hope to continue to write from the heart about topics that are close to me, and continue to look at the world through open eyes and not limit myself." The Hopwood program also hosts 19 other writing and fellowship contests. Through these contests an additional $22,975 was bestowed this year to 14 undergraduate and graduate students, including some Hopwood winners. Hopwood director and English Prof. Nicholas Delbanco handed out the hon- ors, and novelist Mary Gordon ("See- ing Through Places") gave a lecture titled "Flannery O'Conner's Kiss." Gordon spoke about her own experi- ences as they relate to the letters of the famed author. UQPWOOlOAAU INR Drama anWd s(Tee- u Daid Smy Biani Lobel Shor~t fcto " anelRivas aad r oran Gob , uSepen A. " Cayn Tomewr Oamwski a Daniel Ria r Travis Holn Utr wrs ... m'a2e E Oten xGbicLn " IreneIHhn aMram t Li t- .