Tuesday
March 28, 2006
arts.michigandaily.com
artspage@michigandaily.com
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What's the 'Big' 'Deal?'
I
Two new shows have captured
my interest, albeit for vastly
different reasons. HBO's latest
"Big Love" presents the viewer with
an entirely new take on an age-old
concept. NBC's tepid "Deal or No
Deal," conversely, epitomizes every-
thing that's wrong with television
during the show's 60-minute runtime.
Let's start with the good.
"Big Love" follows the life
of Utah businessman Bill
(Bill Paxton) and his fam-
ily - all three of them.
Bill is a polygamist, but
not in the conventional,
"20/20" expose sense. His
life seems just like anybody w
else's until he steps into the
domestic sphere and has to *ii* ~
deal with three times the
drama, all under one roof. AD
Once you get past the ROTTE
initial discomfort of Bill's
lifestyle, the show pulls you right into
its world. It's obvious that having three
wives is anything but a treat for the pro-
tagonist. The series' women fight not
only for his affections with one another,
but also create constant headaches for
Bill with money and responsibilities.
With "Big Love," HBO has found a suit-
able replacement for "Six Feet Under,"
another show with an offbeat take on
family drama.
Even so, I sometimes feel a little
dirty after watching. It's almost as if by
rooting for Paxton to hold onto his fam-
ily, it means you condone polygamy.
But while "Big Love" might seem like
a difficult concept to grasp for middle
America, at least it says something new
and pushes the viewer to ask difficult
questions. A show like "Deal or No
Deal" just continues to create the illusion
that we are all mindless drones. It only
asks the viewer to answer one question:
"Deal, or no deal?"
It may seem like a stretch to compare
a game show with a lavishly produced
drama, but bear with me.
"Deal or No Deal" is an update to the
classic game show "Let's Make a Deal"
Host Howie Mandel, looking incredibly
creepy with his shaved head, goatee and
earrings, offers contestants a chance at
winning up to $1 million. The contestant
chooses a briefcase and then must ran-
domly select from the 25 other briefcases
to discover how much money is inside
their own case.
That's it. No skill or strategy involved.
After every few cases, Howie receives
a call from "The Banker" an unidentified
silhouette who offers a sum of money to
the contestant to not continue the game
based on the odds of receiving a large
amount of cash from the
remaining cases.
Nothing happens worth
noting, yet the audience and
contestant seem to think they
are involved in a game of
wits. Even ABC's megahit
"Who Wants To Be A Mil-
lionaire?" offered a varying
degree of intelligence to play.
"Deal or No Deal"has no
redeemable qualities. In fact,
M its contestants are too stupid
BERG to understand basic odds and
Al
N
Courtesy of Universal
Aww, the little girl from "Taxi Driver" is all grown up.
consistently (and greedily)
cost themselves thousands of dollars. I
find myself hollering obscenities at the
screen. It's that frustrating.
Clearly, I've seen the show. I appar-
ently can't turn it off, either. And look-
ing at the ratings, I'm not the only one.
But I always feel unclean afterwards,
and rightfully so.
With "Big Love," I can justify my
feelings of uneasiness as the show is
incredibly well produced and intended
to push my buttons. I can reconcile
cheering for Bill in the same way that I
can't wait for Tony Soprano to reclaim
his position at the top of the family now
that he's out of his coma. "Deal or No
Deal" offers no such justification. It
plays off of greed and the excitement
generated by greed. Plus, Howie Mandel
is really freaky ... and annoying.
Two new shows that both induce
squeamish feelings in the pit of my
stomach, though for incredibly different
reasons. American audiences need to
challenge their viewing habits, not fall for
the lowest common denominator. "Big
Love," while difficult to swallow at first,
rewards the viewer. "Deal or No Deal"
offers as much mental stimulus as an epi-
sode of "Fear Factor." It's up to you. As
Mandel would say, "Deal, or no deal?"
- Talk Rottenberg out of his planned
three trophy wives at arotten@umich.edu.
'INSIDE'
ANGLE
WASHINGTON, OWEN AND FOSTER HELP LEE'S GENRE FILM SIZZLE
By Kristin MacDonald
Daily Arts Writer
A crew of bank robbers clad in dark painter's
jumpsuits command their 30-odd hostages to
undress and put on match-
ing garb. An elderly woman
shrinks back against the wall
in refusal. "Go ahead," she
stammers to the head thief as
he menaces her with a gun,
"make my day."
Inside Man
At the Showcase
and Quality 16
Universal
Spike Lee's "Inside Man" may boast all the trap-
pings of a grade-A heist flick, but it doesn't forget
to smile. The elderly woman's nervous Clint East-
wood imitation is just one among several cheeky
references that end up lending the film's simple
"let's-rob-a-bank" plot some plausibility. Detec-
tive Frazier (the unflappable Denzel Washington)
throws up his hands in exasperation at the robbers'
request for a plane. Frazier knows, as the audience
does, that such a demand never works. "Haven't you
seen 'Dog Day Afternoon?' " he asks.
But "Inside Man" doesn't break the cliche - it
has fun with it. A clever thief (the magnetic Clive
Owen, "Closer") still plans a bank robbery with
every detail mapped to perfection. A perceptive,
upwardly mobile detective (Washington) still fol-
lows all the while, always just one step behind. And
while, like so many heist movies, "Inside Man"
splits its screen time between cop and robber, few
real-life bank robberies boast such well matched
(or compulsively watchable) leading men.
It's a pity Owen spends at least a third of the
film swathed in his thief's sunglasses, face mask
and dark jumpsuit. This is the man who should
have been Bond. The opening draws almost
exclusively on the power of Owen's piercing
eyes, point blank upon the audience. In calm,
precise monotone, Owen's Dalton Russell lays
the movie's bait with a teasingly vague outline
- hook, line and sinker, you're in and you want
answers. Eventually, however, that first shot
proves disappointingly deceptive: "Inside Man"
is not Owen's movie. The film belongs in the
capable hands of Washington's detective.
The most surprising thing about "Inside Man"
may be its director. Lee ("Malcolm X") isn't
known for unapologetically commercial mov-
ies, and perhaps his success here stems from the
unexpected touches of a filmmaker not bored
with the most basic genre - even the opening
credits unfold over a warmly festive Bollywood
background, rather than the everyday pulsing
techno of throwaway thrillers.
It's possible to see in the script what might
have initially attracted him - a Manhattan
location and abundance of racially discursive
subplots are no strangers to what is, after all, a
Spike Lee joint. But the racial tensions, in keep-
ing with the film's larger sense of humor, end up
as banter instead of drama. Take, for example,
one Sikh bank hostage who balks at an NYPD
officer who calls him an Arab. Just when his
rant against airport security's "random" checks
begins to wear shrill, Detective Frazier steps in
with a warm smile and observes, "Yeah, but I bet
you can get a cab." The Sikh man merely shrugs
his assent: It's "one of the perks," he says.
Another telling exchange comes between Dalton
Russell and one of his hostages, a little boy with a
handheld video game. The thief casually examines
the game, a "Grand Theft Auto"-style street sce-
nario in which a thug protagonist earns points by
killing rivals and selling crack. The little boy shrugs
off the violence with a quote from 50 Cent - "get
rich or die tryin' " - and with that guts-for-glory
mentality, gives Dalton "mad props" for robbing a
bank. Dalton shakes his head. Ultimately, "Inside
Man" has little patience for motivators like violence
or vengeance. In mixing around a highly familiar
scenario, the fun of "Inside Man" is in its wit.
Ghostface slays with
riveting 'Fishscale'
'Goblet of Fire' moody, intense on DVD
By Anthony Baber
Daily Arts Writer
In hip hop, there's always the trope
of the cookie-cutter gangster rapper.
The main image
of such a figure is
"Look, I sell drugs
and shoot people, I
have no other per-
sonal opinions,"
but can't a rap-
per take a deeper,
Ghostface
Killah
Flshscale
Def Jam
more animated
approach to the gangster fagade?
An artist such as Ghostface Killah
- better known for flamboyant robes
and wearing hood ornaments on his
wrist - avoids clich6s and contin-
ues to deliver harder than his peers,
especially with his latest, Fishscale.
Since 2004's The Pretty Toney
Album, which didn't get the attention
many expected, Ghostface hasn't
seen much press, except as a featured
character in the video game "Def
Jam Fight for New York."
With Fishscale, Ghost re-estab-
lishes himself as the essential New
York gangster/drug dealer/lover. The
title, derived from the angle of cut-
ting cocaine, further emphasizes the
hard image he portrays with every
verse of grimy street narrative.
Ghostface Killah stands out as
probably the strongest solo artist
to break away from Staten Island's
Wu Tang Clan and probably the
best thing to come from Staten Isle
since your grandparents. He contin-
ues to find different ways to incite
drug deals and spousal abuse with a
style that drips New York, but is still
uniquely his own. Not only is he a
well established rapper, but he has
enough alternate personas to give all
of G-Unit personality.
The production is astounding; gun-
shots scattered throughout the album
will make you duck for cover. He
shops around for his producers, rhym-
ing over beats from newer creators
like Lewis Parker and Xtreme as well
as legendary music engineers like Pete
Rock and the late J Dilla. Ghost even
takes his own turn at producing on
"Can Can," and provides an interest-
ing dialogue from his girlfriend. How
many girlfriends will call you a "stu-
pid-ass-punk-faggot mark trick?"
Still, "The Champ" wins the award
for best use of audio clips from
"Rocky III," with Mr. T's intimidat-
ing dialogue giving Ghost an even
more threatening presence. His hard-
core persona counts for every part of
his body: "Even my hand got taken
to jail for writing murder / My wrist
couldn't take it and bailed / Left my
fingers for dead," he says.
As a fully captivating album, each
track supplies listeners with Ghost's
true storytelling abilities: memories
of a strict mother, weighing kilos of
Peruvian white and just sitting at the
barbershop getting a haircut. For the
first single, Ghost chooses his col-
laboration with hot, newly big-sell-
ing Def Jam artist Ne-Yo. Already
selling more than 300,000 records,
Ne-Yo seems like he'd be the perfect
person to help boost Ghost's sales.
For the song, Ghost combines his
hardcore gangster attitude with his
loving mentality.
No Ghostface Killah album would
be complete without Ghost's trade-
mark singing voice. This time, he puts
it down on "Jelly Fish," where he sings
"she must be a beautiful lady, and a
very exciting girl." Though rather off-
key, it's more touching than every 50
Cent vocal ever laid to wax.
Ghostface is like a fine wine get-
ting better with age. In an industry
where homogeny is king, Ghostface
can take pride in Fishscale.
12-year-old Daniel
duced as Harry Pot-
ter, having snagged
perhaps the most
coveted book-to-
screen role of his
generation. Five
years later, Rad-
cliffe and co-stars
Keeping with the theme set by the third
film, "Goblet" is dark and intense. The
small-scale story of Harry and his friends'+
everyday school affairs takes a backseat
to pulse-pounding action and some of
the most complex visual effects ever pro-+
duced. The shots of the Quidditch World1
Cup stadium are especially jaw-dropping,
making even the imperial senate in "Star
Wars" seem comparatively cozy.
The most anticipated scene in the series+
so far, the rebirth of Lord Voldemort,
eclipses even the wildest expectations. As
the mangled, serpentine Dark Lord (Ralph
Fiennes, "Schindler's List") assumes
human form, the audience lies astonished.
The duel that ensues with Harry is a cli-
Harry Potter
and the
Goblet of Fire
Warner Bros.
Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, deep in
the grip of adolescence, have grown con-
siderably in appearance and skill.
In the fourth and by far most compel-
ling installment of the boy wizard's com-
ing of age, he faces dangers far greater
than ever before. Dreams tell him that
Dark Lord Voldemort is growing ever-
more powerful. That, coupled with the
illustrious Triwizard Tournament -
into which Harry's name is mysteriously
entered - keeps him as troubled as ever.
Whether training, waltzing or running
for his life, this turns out to be Harry's
most trying year yet.
Film: ****
Special Features: ****
max of a caliber rarely seen.
The special features included on the
disc are superb, chock-full of interviews,
interactive games and, of course, deleted
scenes. As an added bonus, many of the
deleted scenes are actually relevant to
the plot; given the length of the book,
much relevant footage had to be cut. The
film is extraordinary, but in the end, it's
just another chapter in Harry's life - it
doesn't begin or end here.
Voldemort has risen again and the
stage is set for an electrifying fifth
installment.
school's
fo r S U M M Ed
600 courses. 7,000 students. Unlimited possibilities.
If you are energetic, have excellent communication
skills, and like to have fun, you would fit right in
the Classified Department.
Stop
at 4201
by The Michigan Daily
Maynard to pick up an application
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