ARTS

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 25,

, 2005 - 9



'Doomed'
film offers
up poor plot
By Blake Goble
For the Daily

Innovative 'Earlash' a
well-crafted experiment
By Russel McMillan
For the Daily
M sicRVWNN

Yoni Wolf, the genre-dodging maverick
and chief architect behind Elephant Eyelash,
doesn't need you to know who he is. You

As if Hollywood wasn't accused of stealing paper-
thin plots for throwaway sequels, prequels and TV
remakes, it seems that video games are now also fair
game for the cookie-cutter indus-__............_
try. "Super Mario Brothers," Doom
"Resident Evil" and other such
films have defined the genre, and aAt Shoas 1e6
now, the controversial classic a
kill-fest video game "Doom" is Universal
the basis of a live-action film. In
the spirit of the original game,
the film stays true to its gory vigor by blowing away
anything that so much as twitches.
There is supposedly a compelling story of good ver-
sus evil here. About to take a leave of absence, a group
of Marines receive a last-minute call from their com-
mander, Sarge, played by the occasionally engaging
former professional-wrestling star The Rock, better
known as Dwayne Johnson ("Be Cool"), a distress sig-
nal has been sent from a Mars research facility where
we learn, "all Hell is breaking loose." Adhering to the

might have heard his
half-sedated rapping
on Clouddead's Ten or
Hymie's Basement's
self-titled. His relative
obscurity is due mainly
to his insatiable appe-

Why?
Elephant Earlash
Anticon

Courtesy or universal
"What do you mean nobody respects my acting talent?"

original game's purpose, character development is an
afterthought, because shooting first and asking ques-
tions later is clearly much more fun.
The Marines encounter beings beyond compre-
hension - or so we must assume because they sel-
dom appear on screen for more than a shake of the
camera. Shady experimentation has apparently been
going down, but once the guns start blazing and the
creatures appear, there's little else to care about. Karl
Urban's ("The Bourne Supremacy") Reaper character
has some shred of an emotional arc, but other than this
detached attempt at humanity, all of the characters here
are vacuous to the point that it's difficult to care about
their danger. What made the game so involved was the
fact that it involved players, worried for their own lives,
trying to survive.
One of the points used to try and sell this film was

the fact that several minutes of it are shot in the first-
person shooter style, a video game staple made famous
by the game "Doom." But on film this results in a really
corny haunted-house experience, with ghoulish figures
popping out. Remember the kid with the spooky mask
purchased at Wal-Mart, scaring classmates by scream-
ing "boo?" Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Basically, this is a noisy, incoherent and just plain
lousy film. Released near Halloween to scare up audi-
ences, there's little to get tense about. We are essen-
tially left with a poor man's rendition of "Aliens" or
"Predator," mashing their components in an exercise
in violence, meaningless foul language and other
R-rated extremities with no depth or meaning. Try
"Good Night, and Good Luck," "Halloween" or even
the original game instead. There's plenty more thrills
to be found elsewhere.

tite for experimentation and resultant name-
shuffling. This anonymity could be seriously
threatened by his latest.
Elephant Eyelash is a fearless collage
of shimmering rock songs, poetic musings
and artfully crafted notes. After an edgy
opener, "Crushed Bones," Wolf softens his
delivery, puts away the turntable and sings
his way through the duration of an eclectic
rock album.
Wolf's voice is thin and nasal and his lyrics
are like the words you'll find carved into bath-
room stalls - shameless and raw - nothing
is off limits. Turntables, synthesizer, pedal
steel, pots and pans all make appearances on
Eyelash. This experimental instrumentation

reaches near-virtuosity on "Fall Saddles." A
violin announces the start and soon a horn
collective broods until an always-welcome
synthesizer punctuates the end.
Lyrics and music cooperate seamlessly
on "Light Leaves," "and if you do leave the
Earth / When the earth leaves you ... there's
no hip-hop hurray / Heaping heaven golden
bone gateway / There's no mound of clouds
to lounge on." They are surrounded by the
drums that bolster Wolf's vocals for a gloomy
but shiver-inducing ending.
Experimentation often leads an album
astray. On Eyelash, Why? finds a way to
keep on exploring without getting lost.

I I

Lii' Kim
raps brutal
slice of the
'Truth'
By Chris Gaerig
Daily Arts Writer

Remember when Eminem used to
release inspired records? It seems hard

to believe now, but
there was a time
not too long ago
when he had some-
thing to talk about:
his drug-addicted
mother, dysfunc-
tional marriage
and random beefs.

Lil' Kim
The Naked Truth
Atlantic

Shady fell off, but

Lil' Kim finally found her motivation
... and she's pissed.
Turns out being indicted for perjury
and prison time does something to a
woman - rumor has it Martha Stew-
art got "Thug Life" tattooed across
her shoulders and is releasing Straight
Outta We$tport on Def Jam Records.
On The Naked Truth Kim manages to
call out everyone who's done her wrong
in the past four years. No one's safe and
she takes no prisoners.
"Shut Up Bitch" is the album's aggres-
sive battle cry. Riding a Neptunes-esque
groove of handclaps and computerized
blips, Kim dispels all myths and criti-
cism. She deals with her financial situ-
ation, the notion that Notorious B.I.G.
wrote all of her songs and drug addic-
tion: "I heard she mad rich / I heard she
dead broke / I heard she snorting coke /
Shut up bitch."
"Spell Check" is another belligerent-
ly assailing track. Kim - who employs
GZA's style on his Hollywood freak out
"Fame" - flies through lines, randomly
spelling out words while boasting her
abilities and cutting up her enemies.
Kim even gives a shout out to U.G.K
while she slows her flows like the dirty
South's screwed and chopped lifestyle.
In today's world, you can't mention
the South without having T.I. spitting
some rhymes. "Get Yours" has a boom-
ing horn ensemble and brooding, heavy
bass lines. When the Urban Legend
finally picks up the mic, he drops a verse
of casual, standard cockiness.
Kim does hit a couple of potholes
along her trail of anger. "Quiet" is a
mess of imitations from the Game's
gravel chorus - obviously stolen from
50 Cent - to Kim's Eminem cadence
and production style. Also, the tired rap
skits are too frequent and too long to
keep anyone interested.
The Naked Truth might be Lil' Kim's
masterpiece. While, every genera-
tion has had it's muses - drugs, girls,
oppression - Kim opts for sheer rage.

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