12 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, June 24, 1996
Plot holes doi
By Ted Watts
Daily Arts Writer
Don't believe the ad campaign;
"Fled" is not a terribly done cyber-film
full of quick cuts and futuristic
imagery. It is, in fact, an averagely done
action/buddy flick.
Convicts Dodge (Stephen
Baldwin) and Piper (Laurence
Fishburne) are on a work gang in
I D
Dodge, Piper and Cora discuss Cora's driving habits in 'Fled.'
't stop action in 'Fled'
Georgia when all hell breaks loose panicked as in the beginning. Piper
and they have to run for their lives. does have a terrible action-hero line
Did I mention they're shackled to near the end (remember his name and
each other? Dodge, it seems, has been see if you can figure it out), but it's an
committing computer fraud on some isolated incident. Baldwin is a bit flat,
very large companies. In fact, the but Fishburne is skilled enough to
company from which Dodge stole improve both characters with the
$25 million and a disk of accounting interplay between them. Still, I don't
information is a Cuban mob front. So think anyone's going to be winning an
guess who's chasing Dodge besides Oscar here.
law enforcement? The movie uses a large number o
The movie keeps rolling along, Georgia-specific things to draw atten-
constantly telling us that Dodge and tion to the fact the movie takes place in
Piper are two really nice guys, and Georgia. A couple of cops have Georgia
while they have been a bit naughty, accents, and we get to see Georgia
they should really be free, not like places like the Georgia Dome and
those terrible mobsters or ethically Stone Mountain. Do you understand?
questionable federal marshals. They It's trying to convince us it's Georgia.
enlist the aid of Cora (Salma Hayek), And I do see Georgia! I do! I do! Please
a character who is shockingly calm, stop hitting me!
when they car- "Fled" moves
jack her and REVIEW along quickly
make her take enough that yo
them back to her ( Fled don't notice most
Oh .#~' Directed by Kevir troks,
apartment. Oh With Laurence Fishbune and of the plot holes,
well, at least it Stephen Baldwin and so it's pretty
avoids the cliche Arie d i toafve e e entertaining .
of having the Enough unexpected
hostage be extremely frightened things happen to keep it interesting,
before suddenly realizing how good and there's enough humor in it to
her kidnappers are. They also hook up keep it from appearing too serious.
with Dodge's stripper girlfriend, his And besides, you just gotta have
best friend and RuPaul's car, none of some respect for a film that is rip*
which are treated very well by ping off "The Fugitive" left and
Dodge's pursuers. right, but mentions it during the
Fishburne and Baldwin's perfor- most blatant example. Now that is a
mances improve as the movie goes on, show of some big, greasy postmod-
and their characters aren't quite as ern guts.
Dodge and Piper, fists clenched, duke it out.
SAMIAM
Continued from Page 11
After the release of "Billy," major
labels began to take notice, and eventu-
ally, Samiam signed with Atlantic
Records. The band didn't mind signing
with a major, Brogan said in a phone
interview with The Michigan Daily,
because "all's (Samiam) wanna do is
keep playin'." Atlantic released
"Clumsy" in 1994, which was a very
different Samiam album. The album
still featured the group's trademark
sound, but there was more melody, and
more of an attempt by Beebout to actu-
ally sing his lyrics.
Brogan said, "We've done the fast
thing, you know ... and to me a lot of
things start losing melody after, it's
kinda hard to tell what's going on when
you play songs really, really fast." Not
to say that Samiam has softened up at
all: "Clumsy" still rocked even harder
than the group's three previous albums.
Now, in the midst of a shakedown at
Atlantic, Samiam is hitting the road
again to keep sane. The band's fifth
album, "You're Freaking Me Out, is all
mixed and recorded, yet won't be out
until January. Brogan said the band
isn't frustrated yet. "Right now, all's
we're doing is just working on getting
out this new record, which is all done,"
Brogan said, "and just work on better
distribution and radio ..."
Samiam's live show is power-
packed, exciting and a lot of fun. The
group has toured with millions of
bands, including Bad Religion, Gree
Day and Sense Field. The band is doing
small clubs right now and will join the
Warped Tour in the South for a few
dates in August. Samiam will be play-
ing some new songs, along with old
classics like "Don't Break Me" and
"Sky Flying By."
What's kept Samiam in this game
for eight years without very much
recognition? Love for the music and
good sense of humor. Brogan sa
Samiam's philosophy from the begin-
ning has always been, "Just try to do the
best you can and see where it goes."
Hopefully, "You're Freaking Me Out"
and the new tour will take this awesome
band farther than it's ever been.