ARTS The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 12, 2005 - 9A --I Courtesy of Sony "I just drank pee. How's it going with you?" 'Home Movies' finds new home on DVD Courtesy of Screen Gems "Your moth- er sucks cocks in hell!" Oh, wait, that was from a good movie. By Alexandra Jones Daily Arts Editor CONVOLUTED POSSESSION TALE GOES FOR EASY THRILLS By Christopher Lechner Daily Arts Writer "Based on a true story." So opens "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," a demonic-possession knock off in the tradition of "The Exorcist." But unlike ______________ that legendary horror classic, The Exorcism these five words are probably of Emily Rose scarier than the movie itself. In a time when Hollywood At the Showcase will slap this label on just and Quality 16 about any film to boost its Screen Gems reality-age appeal (regard- less of whether it's true or not), it's clear that "Rose" needed all the help it could get. The film opens during the trial of Catholic priest Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson, "Batman Begins") who is accused of killing Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter, "White Chicks"). Her story is told through a series of flashbacks, beginning when the 19-year-old college freshman is alone in her dorm room and believes a demonic spirit has possessed her. After contemporary Western medicine fails to help her "condition," her family seeks the help of Moore, their parish's priest. At the request of Emily herself, he performs on her an exorcism which fails. But then Emily, dies, and Moore is blamed. Assigned to defend him is the excep- tionally ambitious, but hard-drinking attorney Erin Bruner (Laura Linney, "Love Actual'"). This already flimsy material is stretched a bit too thin and the film has one too many sluggish digressions. But the acting ensemble, led by Academy Award-nominees Linney and Wilkin- son, does an admirable job with what little they had to go on. In particular, Linney's projection of a steely lawyer with a chip on her shoulder is smarter and more convincing than the film war- rants; her performance carries the movie. "Rose" never tries to convince us that demons exist or that Rose was actually possessed; instead, the film tiptoes around these issues, going for an aura of ambiguity that leaves it both disjointed and muddled. The subject of the film is honorable - it documents one of th' only possessions officially recognized by the Catholic Church in contemporary history - but since the movie makes no attempt to convince us of the validity of Rose's possession, it ends up as little more than a standard horror yarn we have seen time and time again. What's more, the film is grossly indecisive and uneven as it vacillates between courtroom drama and classic horror; it's a scattered, over- long, convoluted mess. The courtroom drama packs no real punch because the characters are never fully developed, and the horror isn't real- ly scary because of the restrictive PG-13 rat- ing. Instead, the film settles for shots of Emily running around her college campus and imag- ining that the face of every person she passes is somehow demonically distorted (the slip- shod FIX shots often make these scenes more comical than scary). If this summer's smash hit "Wedding Crashers" is any indication, it's often better to take a risk on the harsher rating than timidly avoid a studio's worst nightmare: an R- rated film. Instead of going for all-out thrills, "Rose" tries, rather unsuccessfully, to endow itself with genuine thematic significance as it attempts to discredit Western medicine and lawyers. The film does sometimes evoke an eerie sense of relevance, especially in the courtroom scenes, but this is lost as soon as it cuts to yet another flashback of Rose frantically running around and shrieking in the rain. These scenes will no doubt assuage the target audience (tweens look- ing for a cheap thrill), but until studios will permit a psychological horror movie without all the "Gotcha!"-type silliness, we'll be stuck with movies like "Emily Rose": soft horror with an identity crisis. Not every animated primetime series can be as lucky as "Family Guy." Well- written, hilarious shows like "Futurama" and "The Critic" - just about every primetime cartoon but "The Simp- .M sons" and "South Home Moves Park" - have met 3eaSO 2 untimely ends. 3-Disc Set High DVD sales Sony Music Video put "Family Guy" back on the' air, but some cartoons end up on store shelves, where they can be enjoyed at leisure by the fans who kept them going. "Home Movies" is one of these under- appreciated animated gems: This quirky cartoon-for-grownups, featuring eight- year-old Brendon (creator and writer Brendon Small) who makes short films with his friends Melissa (Melissa Galsky) and Jason (H. Jon Benjamin), was origi- nally picked up by UPN in 1999. Only six episodes aired in the show's first run, but Cartoon Network picked it up for Sunday night animation block Adult Swim in 2001. "Home Movies" lasted two more seasons - but ceased production in 2004. Season 2 features some of the series' most memorable episodes. In "Identify- ing a Body," Brendon accompanies his oft-hungover soccer coach-cum-mentor Coach McGuirk on a trip to the morgue; in "Hiatus," he falls for his first crush, a choreographer for the band Scib, which scores many of his films; and Brendon confronts his feelings about his father's new girlfriend in "Therapy" and "The Wedding." The films produced by Bren- don, Melissa and Jason are some of the show's best as well: "History" is based around a film starring Annie Oakley, Picasso and George Washington as an evil triumvirate bent on destroying the human race; the inaccuracies in the film reflect Brendon's failing grade in the class. The superb "Star Boy and the Captain of Outer Space" is the backdrop for Brendon's romance with his crush, Cynthia. The show's first season was animated in Squigglevision, the technique original- ly used in Comedy Central's "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist"; seasons two and three use Flash animation. Guest stars include many comedians who voiced characters on "Dr. Katz." One of the spe- cial features is a series of interviews with guest stars like comedians Andy Kindler, David Cross, Eugene Mirman ("You fucked up, Cartoon Network! You fucked up!"), Emo Phillips and Jonathan Katz. Cast members like Janine Ditullio (Paula, Brendon's mother), writer Bill Braudis (who also voiced Brendon's teacher, Mr. Lynch) and other sometime voices speak up as well. Also included are a segment by Small on how to play the "Home Movies" theme song, animatics of three episodes and commentaries and interviews with Small, Galsky and co-creator/co-writer Loren Bouchard. It's easy to see that the show's cre- ators and cast love "Home Movies," and the DVD treatment - easy availability,' interviews and special features for fans - is a fitting end to a project that should have lasted longer. Buddy comedy makes joke ofJackson, Levy Show: ****I Picture/Sound: **** Features: **** By Imran Syed Daily Arts Writer The asinine insistence of filmmak- ers to stick with tried-and-tired formu- las is becoming harder to comprehend. No one is asking you to completely overhaul the mov- iemaking process, guys, but it wouldn't kill you to throw in at least some cre- ativity once in a while. In this vein is The Man At the Showcase and Quality 16 New Line the buddy-action comedy "The Man," set in Detroit and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy ("American Wedding"). Though the film is good for a few (awkward) laughs, it provides very little in the way of substance. And no matter which way you spin it, this is a movie we have all seen before. Imagine this groundbreaking prem- ise: You're in a big city full of bad guys intent upon stealing confiscated guns from the police and putting them back on the streets. They're the Robin Hoods of the criminal underworld, if you will. A dirty cop helps them but then he gets shot. His partner, Derrick Vann (Jackson), comes under suspicion for the murder, so he decides to take the law into his own hands and catch DA LY ARTS. OUR DAD? TOTALLY OWNS A }D 'EALERSHIP. HE CNTOTALLY HOOK '. YUP. DUDE the bad guys. But there's a problem: He meets the unsuspecting average Joe, Andy Fidler (Levy), and adventure and hilarity supposedly ensue. Jackson's presence alone adds credibility to the film that it doesn't deserve, but his character is dry and held back by an impossibly childish script. Vann is built so by-the-book that audiences will swear that just saw Chris Tucker or Eddie Murphy in the same film a few years ago. His aloof- ness, introversion and lack of friends are traits borrowed from any one of the five to six films that resemble "The Man" right down to the usual worka- holic dad nonsense. The movie's villains are imbecilic to the extent that if real-world criminals were this stupid, we'd never have to worry about them at all. Why, for exam- ple, would you meet for an exchange on major-city intersections and not in one of the city's many abandoned areas? Why again would you come all the way from Britain to steal some handguns in Detroit? As Jackson's character puts it, the villains have all the intellect and cunning of male Spice Girls. In a film that has so many draw- backs, it's probably accidental that some insightful content found its way into the muddled screenplay. But where the movie could have gone for easy fish- out-of-water sight gags, it digs deeper. Levy's character, a middle-class den- tal-supply salesman from suburban Wisconsin, adds a level of apt social commentary. Though he is frightened by the harshness of the inner city, he never judges Jackson's character or his family and continuously remains faithful and kind to them. Those from the inner city who feel that rich subur- banites look down on them would be wise to note that the situation between the two is, in actuality, very much like the one in this film. The movie makes the wise observation that perhaps the divide between the inner city and the suburbs could be reconciled if each of the two sides simply took the time to understand the other. But even with its unexpected insights, "The Man" never really goes anywhere with them, leaving us little more than 83 minutes of two very talented actors dropping to the level of fart jokes and profanity-laced punch lines. The monu- mental waste of time and effort that results will make you scream out as the clean-cut Fidler character often does while trying to temper his language, "Oh fuc-rying out loud!" This is much better than the 50 Cent movie. Uh-huh. SPEND A SEMESTER OVERSEAS (and stay in the U.S.) Learn in the vibrant, multi-cultural community of Honolulu. Enjoy a university experience like no other. Be far away, but at home with the language and customs. It all adds up to a semester you'll never forget. .1